Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar said on Saturday the Slovenian Constitutional Court's decision to unblock claims which Croatian depositors had filed at local courts in Slovenia did not change anything in Ljubljana's position on the issue of old foreign exchange deposits.
"Those issues should be settled before the Bank for InternationalSettlements in Basel and the Constitutional Court's decision, of which I havebeen informed via the media, doesn't change that fact," Zbogar told theSTA news agency.
The Constitutional Court decided to repeal part of the law on succession tothe former Yugoslavia under which depositors' lawsuits against LjubljanskaBanka could not be resumed, as their outcome could allegedly prejudge amultilateral solution that should be reached by the successor states.
Ljubljana reiterates that this is a succession issue regulated by SupplementC to the succession agreement that the successors to the former Yugoslavia signedin Vienna in 2001, and not a legal dispute between the bank and its depositors.
Zbogar also commented on Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's statementthat she was hopeful to meet Slovenian PM Borut Pahor soon for talks on alloutstanding issues, including Ljubljanska Banka's debt to its formerdepositors. Zbogar said that as far as he knew, no such meeting had beenagreed.
