The agreement to have the dyke reinforced by Croatian and Slovene companies is in line with the Brijuni Declaration and the findings of the Badinter commission, which concluded that borders between states established in the area of the former Yugoslavia were borders of the former Yugoslav republics, which Croatia fully supports, the minister told reporters.
"Preparations are under way and arrangements are being made by the two countries, and concrete works on raising the dyke are expected to start very soon," Grabar-Kitarovic said.
The minister explained the chronology of the latest border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia. The dyke on the River Mura was built in 1947 or 1948 and it no longer meets flooding regime conditions, which proved true last year when the area was hit by floods.
The two countries had been negotiating the reconstruction of the dyke for quite some time, and in 1999 they agreed to repair it together, but the Slovene side did not abide by the agreement. In June this year Slovenia announced that it would repair the dyke on its own, but Croatia did not allow repair works in its territory and decided to reinforce the dyke on its own, informing the Slovene side about its steps in notes.
"It was the threat of floods that made Croatia start repairing the part of the dyke which is in its territory, because we could not allow the situation from last year to happen again, when the Mura spilt over its banks," she explained.
The repair works are being carried out in the area where data on municipal borders correspond in both Croatian and Slovene cadastral books, which definitely determines the position of the border, the minister said. A bridge over the Mura linking Sveti Martin and Hotiza and a local border crossing were built in the area.
Slovenia confirmed in an exchange of notes in early 2005 that the border crossing is in Croatian territory, the minister added.
Due to lack of such an agreement, the border between Croatia and Slovenia has not been identified yet, but in cases of undisputed cadastral borders of a municipality, such borders were borders between the former Yugoslav republics, which the Badinter commission took as borders between the new countries.
"What Slovenia is now trying to contest - Joras's house or the issue of hamlets, this in the former federation was indisputably Croatian territory, as it was also on 25 June 1991, when the new border was established, and it cannot be changed just like that," the minister said.
Following the start of preparations for repair works on the dyke, Slovene police raided the site and stopped the works, the minister said, adding that this was a bad move, but that the two countries had agreed on a European approach to repairing the embankment.
"It was agreed that 3,000 metres of the dyke from Kota to Hotiza on the Croatian side would be repaired together, with a Croatian company heading the project, and some 2,600 metres of the dyke on the Slovene side from Benisa to Petisovci would also be repaired together, but with a Slovene company heading the project," the minister said.