Croatia considering every option, including abandoning border arbitration

Croatia will notify the European Union on Thursday about allegations that Slovenia has violated the independence and impartiality of border arbitration and is considering every option, including to walk out of the arbitration, Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said

Croatia will today send a letter to the European Commission which in a way mediated the arbitration agreement and the arbitration itself to notify it about the situation, she told reporters after a government session.

Asked what was the point of notifying the Commission which yesterday distanced itself by saying the proceedings were not within the EU's remit, Pusic recalled that the Commission helped with the arbitration agreement.

We are notifying the Commission because it helped so that a solution to the border dispute be found through an arbitration agreement and because Croatia and Slovenia are EU member states, she said. "But we will deal with our problem ourselves."

She reiterated that the impartiality and independence of the adjudicators was a fundamental value of the arbitration tribunal and that Zagreb will examine all the allegations and facts and consider every option.

"After establishing the facts and evaluating the situation, we will make decisions, including the possibility of walking out of (the arbitration process) if it is evaluated that (the process) is indeed this compromised."

Asked to comment on Slovenian media, which are trying to portray this as an espionage scandal, Pusic said this was "especially surprising... I expected the first definite claim to say that this is not true, because that's what this is about, whether it is true or not."

Yesterday, after a Croatian newspaper published transcripts of talks between Slovenia's representative on the arbitral tribunal, Jernej Sekolec, and Slovenian Foreign Ministry employee Simona Drenik, which revealed lobbying with other adjudicators, Pusic said any lobbying was forbidden and that the independence and impartiality of the arbiters was the foundation of the tribunal.

Asked by reporters about possible deadlines, Pusic said today that decisions could not be "rushed" because the matter was serious and a case which Croatia had approached "very seriously and conscientiously."

"We have established a very worrying situation regarding the regularity of the arbitration process," she said, adding that this latest development had nothing to do with the arbitration agreement.

Asked to comment on Slovenian experts' assessments, Pusic dismissed any responsibility on Croatia's part. "I found out about the whole thing yesterday from the newspapers and I still cannot confirm that it is one hundred percent true. The fact is that this was hidden from the public," she said, stressing that it was necessary to react with a "cool head."

(Text and photo: Hina)

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