The funds will be distributed according to a previously determined succession model, under which Croatia will receive 23 per cent.
It was agreed that 2.7 tonnes of the gold from the French central bank would be deposited with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) if the Basel-based bank agrees, after which the BIS would distribute the funds to the accounts of the successor states, the Croatian representative on the committee, Zdravko Rogic, said.
The remaining 5.7 tonnes of gold, deposited with the Swiss commercial bank Credite Suisse, will be distributed after each successor state gives the bank approval through its embassy for the payment of the assigned sum, he added.
Today's agreement operationalised an agreement on the division of monetary gold reached in Zagreb a year ago.
Despite expectations, the committee failed to reach an agreement on the distribution of deposits of the former Yugoslav federation with commercial banks. According to official documents dated 25 April 2005, $221 million is deposited in 38 banks in 14 countries.
A resolution on the distribution of these funds was not adopted because of objections from Serbia and Montenegro, which linked their distribution to the recognition of liabilities of a number of companies from throughout the former Yugoslavia which did business via the Military Service.
The other successor states disagreed, so the resolution will be discussed at the next meeting, due to take place in Ljubljana towards the end of June.
Also under discussion was liquidation of the Anglo-Yugoslav Bank, in which $35 million of the former National Bank of Yugoslavia had been deposited. Three months after the signing of the agreement, only $3 million was left in the account.
Rogic said that the successor states would now have to report their claims to that bank, and that Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia had already filed claims for a total of $35 million.
At the meeting in Zagreb last June, the committee adopted a resolution requesting that the Standing Joint Committee account for the disappearance of more than US$580 million from the accounts of the former Yugoslav National Bank, where only $50 million remained.