NEWS

Croatia Summit in Dubrovnik also successful for Slovenia

At the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, Jadranka Kosor, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, attended a two-day international conference in Dubrovnik – the Croatia Summit. The conference was primarily dedicated to a dialogue on the integration process of the South East Europe into Euro-Atlantic structures. The conference placed special emphasis on economic governance, global security, transatlantic relations, and the challenges and strains that the countries of South East Europe are exposed to due to the global economic crisis. 

   

The fifth Croatia Summit in Dubrovnik was opened by Croatian Prime Minister Kosor who, in her opening words, mainly spoke about the dynamics of EU enlargement, stressing that Croatia was aware of its responsibilities towards other countries in the region and that cooperation remained the main strategic priority of Croatia. Speakers at the opening panel, besides Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor, also included Croatian President Ivo Josipović, Prime Ministers Francois Fillon of France, Donald Tusk of Poland, Boyko Borisov of Bulgaria and Sali Berisha of Albania. The common thread of opening speeches was the importance of Southeast European countries’ accession to the European Union.

  

In his address, Slovenian Prime Minister Pahor warned that there was a danger that the EU enlargement process towards South East Europe may come to a halt after Croatia’s accession to the EU, “everybody talks in favour of the enlargement, but we have to be realistic," he added and continued that the EU enlargement towards the Western Balkans was not often on the agenda in Brussels. He stressed that the underlying reasons might be in a number of outstanding bilateral issues among countries in the South East Europe and that the EU maybe would like to first see more mutual cooperation between countries in the region. The Slovenian Prime Minister called on Brussels to put the issue of the EU enlargement towards the Western Balkans on the agenda and discuss the entire region in order to establish how the enlargement process could be continued. Prime Minister Pahor drew particular attention to the importance of mutual trust among the leaders in the region and to the significance of mutual cooperation in regional initiatives, highlighting the Brdo Process which started on 20 March 2010 at Brdo pri Kranju in Slovenia and continued a few days ago with the conference of regional transport ministers in Zagreb.

  

At the close of his address, Prime Minister Pahor pointed to the recent incidents in the north of Kosovo and expressed concerns that they would mark the start of new instability in the region. According to him, political action was necessary to avoid the question of security rising throughout the region "we want to do and will do our utmost to make dialogue prevail, even if sometimes this is very difficult. We must think about the future and not dwell on the past, we have to work together for our future and the future of our children,” he added and once again called on Brussels to “look more often to” the Western Balkans. 

  

After the opening session of the conference, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, met with his French counterpart Francois Fillon. The two stated that everything was ready for the signing an agreement on strategic cooperation between the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of France. They agreed that an official or private visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Slovenia would be the best opportunity to sign the strategic agreement; the visit is foreseen by the end of the year.

  

On the margins of his visit in Dubrovnik, Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor had a separate bilateral meeting with Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor. They agreed they would meet again on 31 July 2010 in Bohinj to further discuss the only major outstanding issue between the two countries – the issue of Croatian savers with the former Ljubljanska banka.

   

In his statement after the meeting, Prime Minister Pahor said: “Account taken of details which are essential for the solution of this issue, it has been agreed that we hold last consultations with our co-workers before the Bohinj meeting on 31st July in Slovenia when we meet again to discuss this and maybe some other issues.”

  

Pahor recalled that 31st July 2010 would be the first anniversary of their get-acquainted meeting with the Croatian Prime Minister Kosor held in Trakošćan castle, adding that Slovenia is still receiving international praise for the arbitration agreement and that it is necessary to benefit from this "prestige" that Ljubljana enjoys in the foreign policy. Mr Pahor expressed satisfaction that the Croatian authorities understand the problems faced by people living in the disputed territories between the two countries. He also highlighted the issues of Joško Joras, which are best known to the public, but are not the only ones. “We have agreed with Prime Minister Kosor that the authorities in Ljubljana and Zagreb do everything in their power to enable these people to live, until the final decision of the arbitration tribunal, the quality of life unburdened by the solution of this issue. This also applies to Mr. Joras and I hope that this issue will be solved and that the solution will be to his satisfaction,” added the Prime Minister.

 

At the end of his address, the Slovenian Prime Minister announced that he was in agreement with Prime Minister Kosor that foreign ministers Samuel Žbogar and Gordan Jandroković would hold an unofficial meeting before the Bohinj meeting and determine the time, contents and the way of exchanging diplomatic notes on the ratification of the arbitration agreement, which would enable to continue the tasks for the beginning of the work of the arbitration tribunal.

  

On Saturday, the second day of the Croatia Summit in Dubrovnik, the Slovenian Prime Minister Pahor also met with the international community's High Representative for Bosnia, Valentin Inzko, with Prime Ministers Hashim Thaci of Kosovo, Sali Berisha of Albania and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia Antonio Milošeski. The aforementioned bilateral meetings focused mainly on current events in the region and on the role of Slovenia in the South East Europe.