The foreign ministers of Croatia and Slovenia, Pusic and Erjavec, say they have found solution to LB issue

The foreign ministers of Croatia and Slovenia, Vesna Pusic and Karl Erjavec, announced on Wednesday evening that they had found a solution to the Ljubljanska Banka (LB) issue, but noted they could not present it to the public until it was approved by the governments in Zagreb and Ljubljana.
 

The solution we have reached has several different sub-models, the two ministers told the press after a six-hour-long meeting in the Slovenian town of Otocec ob Krki where they had considered possibilities for solving the issue of Croatian clients' savings deposits with subsidiaries of the now-defunct Ljubljanska Banka in Croatia.
Pusic and Erjavec said they would present their solution to their respective governments and if they accepted it they would meet again in Zagreb on February 19.
"Our job is to find a solution that is politically viable and acceptable to both parties. We have come to such solution," the Croatian minister said adding that the solution also stipulated the ratification of Croatia's Treaty of Accession to the European Union in the Slovenian parliament so that Slovenia would not be the last EU member to ratify that document.


The Slovenian minister said that "there is a visible solution" to the LB problem which would pave the way to the ratification of the Croatia-EU treaty in the Slovenian national assembly.

"We, the two ministers, have the solution acceptable to both sides. I think that Slovenia will attain its goals by that solution," he stressed.
During today's talks the two ministers were joined by the financial experts appointed by their respective governments, Croatian Zdravko Rogic and Slovenian France Arhar whom Pusic and Erjavec congratulated for "well done job".


This was the fifth meeting of the two experts after they had taken stock of the LB dispute and the bank's debt to Croatian clients regarding the savings they had transferred from LB subsidiaries in Croatia to Croatian banks in the early 1990s and who were later compensated by the Croatian state.

According to the Croatian National Bank (HNB), the transferred savings totalled some 545 million German marks, and the Croatian government provided Zagrebacka Banka and Privredna Banka Zagreb with power of attorney for lawsuits against the LB for the coverage of that sum.
Addressing the press, Minister Pusic today stopped short of specifying whether Zagreb would withdraw the power of attorney in those lawsuits, while Slovenia insists on the withdrawal of such legal actions.


"There are different sub-models and possibilities with regard to that matter. If the governments accept the ideas we have formulated today, we will go on with such proposals, but I cannot say anything more," she told the news conference.

Erjavec said that the technical aspects of the dispute had been resolved and it only remained to deal with the political aspect. He believes it will be also solved, which will enable the Slovenian parliament to ratify the Croatia-EU treaty.
"It is Slovenia's interest to see Croatia enter the EU," he said.
(Hina)

 

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