At the joint press conference they held after their two-hour-long talks, the two ministers said that they would again meet in Slovenia on 6 February when the Croatian expert Zdravko Rogic and Slovenian expert France Arhar, appointed by their respective governments to address this issue, are also expected to join them.

Pusic and Erjavec stressed that it would be possible during February to find a solution for the Ljubljanska Banka, which would be acceptable for both governments.

The European Union has been mounting pressure on the two countries to expedite efforts to find a mutually acceptable solution for the bank issue and to have the ratification completed in Slovenia's parliament in time for Croatia to join the EU bloc on 1 July, as planned.

A few days ago, Pusic said that the two neighbours were close to reaching a solution.

Before leaving Ljubljana for Brussels, Erjavec also said that he was optimistic about the Ljubljanska Banka issue. He also announced that he would inform his Croatian counterpart that not much time had been left for the ratification given the political situation in Slovenia after some junior partners started leaving the ruling coalition.

Slovenia's officials have stated that ratifying the Croatia-EU treaty is conditional on Croatia's readiness to withdraw power of attorney for the lawsuits against Ljubljanska Banka before Croatian courts.

Croatia's representatives have said, in the meantime, that Zagreb is willing to withdraw its power of attorney in the event that alternative models are found for the solution of the savings which Croatians had kept in Ljubljanska bank's subsidiaries and later transferred to Croatian banks in the early 1990s.