SILENT WAR BETWEEN CROATIA AND SLOVENIA CONTINUES: Slovenians threat to destroy Croatian summer season

Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karl Erjavec said that Slovenia could sabotage Croatian tourist season if Croatia refuses the decision on Piran bay. 

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Hosting on the talk show of Slovenian television Siti, on the question what will happen if the decision of arbitration court about the border with Croatia arrives before the tourist season and, Erjavec said: That will certainly harm Croatia. I think about those who will go from Austria and Germany through Slovenia to Croatia. If that question remains open, and arbitration decision is not implemented, there will be difficulties and i already said that it is a matter that won't be solved easily".  

As reported by the Rijeka "Novi list", Erjaves "obviously thought of a plan to sabotage the trip to German and Austrian tourists through Slovenia on their way to Croatia." This scandalous and non diplomatic announcement of Slovenian minister, writes the Rijena papers, announces near escalation of Slovenia-Croatia dispute over the fate of the arbitration and the decision of the arbitration tribunal, which is expected this year.

Slovenian politics expected that there was a chance to change decision with the change of government in Zagreb to give up on arbitration and to return Croatia to the procedure, but those expectations failed when new government in Zagreb made it clear that arbitration procedure is dead for Croatia.   

Croatia offered to Slovenia another try of bilateral settlement, which was not accepted by Ljubljana, which was expected, reminding that arbitration is the only way to solve the dispute between two states because they couldn't solve it for the last 25 years in bilateral agreements. New situation forced Slovenian diplomacy to change the strategy in effort to save to save the compromised arbitration procedure, writes the papers and adds that the strategy now leads to lobbying with the European Union member states in order for Union to make decisive pressure on Croatia. 

Foto: Wikimedia/BiHVolim

Erjavec, namely, considers that Union should act in order for Croatia to change its attitude, similar to what happened in the case when Zagreb pulled some strings with the Chapters opening of Serbia with European Union.

- I expect something similar to happen when arbitration verdict is about to be applied - said Erjavec. Novi list writes that Croatian minister of tourism Gari Kapeli did not want to comment on the statement of Slovenian chief of diplomacy.

Erjavec discovered that the government in Ljubljana instructed its state bodies to prepare to implement the arbitrage verdict and to exercise sovereign rights in places where the verdict state they belong to Slovenia.  

- That could, easily, bring to new "close encounters" and incidents between Slovenian and Croatian police on the disputed sea area in Piran bay, considering that Croatia won't accent the arbitrage decision - writes Novi list.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Agencies)