NEWS
Prime Minister Pahor: "The Arbitration Agreement provides conditions for Slovenia to achieve a fair border delimitation and access to the open sea"
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, today attended the 16th regular session of the National Assembly. At the beginning of the session he explained the Draft Act Ratifying the Arbitration Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Government of the Republic of Croatia. Prime Minister Pahor said: "For the first time in 18 years we are facing the moment when the Slovenian National Assembly might ratify – which the Croatian National Assembly already did – the Agreement defining the method of resolving the border issue, thus eliminating one of the most neuralgic foreign policy and domestic issues that has, practically ever since the countries gained their independence, burdened Slovenia’s and Croatia’s domestic policies. "
(Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA)
Prime Minister Pahor went on to explain that the ratification of the Agreement offers Slovenia an opportunity to make a way out of an extremely complicated situation by resolving two problems at the same time: "This is to determine a fair way of delimiting the border between the two countries and to enable our eastern neighbour to proceed on its EU integration path, which is also our strategic, economic and political interest."
Prime Minister Pahor highlighted the meeting in Trakoščan on 31 July 2009, where he first met with the Croatian Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor. This meeting was followed by a number of extremely demanding, more or less public discussions and exchanges of views and positions that took place at the ministerial and personal level as well as at the level of mediation by EU Member States. This process then finally led to the signing of the Arbitration Agreement in Stockholm on 4 November 2009. The Slovenian Prime Minister noted that if and insofar as the Slovenes consider that the issue of border delimitation should be resolved in a peaceful and equitable manner, they should also bear in mind that we have now, for the first time in 18 years, an instrument at our disposal to achieve this goal. We are so close to the solution that we can complete this process relatively quickly and in a way predictable and acceptable for both countries. "We will get a delimitation of the land border insofar as it has not yet been determined, while considering 25 June as the agreed cut-off date, as well as the delimitation of the missing sea border constituting the basis for Slovenia’s access to international waters."
The Slovenian Prime Minister also expressed his hope that everyone in Slovenia understands that we now have an instrument to resolve an extremely complex problem; if we do not take advantage of it, we may be faced with a bad alternative involving strained relations, mistrust and a certain degree of unrest in this part of Europe. "It is our common wish to have the border issues resolved, to maintain good relations with our neighbouring countries and to consolidate a positive image of Slovenia in the international community. And with this Agreement we are on the right track. " In his address, Prime Minister Pahor expressed his thanks to everyone who supported him in this difficult process: the responsible minister and his assistants, the Slovenian Government, the EU Presidency and the Government of the United States, who all, through their support, greatly contributed to the resolution of this complex bilateral problem.
By signing the Arbitration Agreement, Slovenia and Croatia have agreed to set up an Arbitration Tribunal consisting of five members. The task of the Tribunal will be to give a final ruling on the borderline between the two states, the ruling being binding for both parties. The Slovenian Government also submitted the Agreement to the Constitutional Court for constitutional review. On 23 Mach this year the Court ruled that the Agreement complied with the Constitution and the Basic Constitutional Charter, which provided the conditions for the continuation of the ratification process. Last week, the Arbitration Agreement was supported by the Committee on Foreign Policy and today it was ratified by the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia with 48 deputies voting in favour of the Agreement. Following the ratification of the Arbitration Agreement by the National Assembly, Prime Minister Pahor made a statement to the press.
After the adoption of the Draft Act Ratifying the Arbitration Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Government of the Republic of Croatia the Prime Minister took questions from parliamentary deputies.