LJUBLJANA, May 28 (Hina) - The financial committee of countries-successors to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) on Wednesday discussed bad debts and doubtful claims at its meeting in Ljubljana.
LJUBLJANA, May 28 (Hina) - The financial committee of countries-
successors to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(SFRY) on Wednesday discussed bad debts and doubtful claims at its
meeting in Ljubljana. #L#
The committee mulled over the occurrence of an unfavourable balance
in trade with the former Czechoslovakia and models for charging
debts of Iraq.
The issue which attracted most interest (at the meeting) and caused
a split is a problem about accounts of eight Yugoslav mixed banks
abroad at which there are only US$56 million instead of the assessed
$645 million, said the head of the Slovenian delegation, France
Arhar, after the committee's six-hour meeting behind the closed
doors.
The said $645 million is the sum which should be divided among all
countries-successors in line with a key, defined by the 2001
framework agreement of the successors-countries signed in Vienna.
Croatia's representative in the committee, Zdravko Rogic, said his
country would not ratify the agreement until it was established
what had happened with the funds. For this purpose, Zagreb decided
to initiate a civil action against LHB bank Frankfurt in Germany.
The bank, owned by Nova Ljubljanska bank (NLB), has refused to give
data on what happened with deposits of the National Bank of
Yugoslavia, placed in the LHB bank Frankfurt, during sanctions
imposed on the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia while Slobodan
Milosevic was in power. On the other hand, Adria bank in Vienna,
with the approval of the Austrian monetary authorities, has
released data on similar deposits which show that the Adria bank
used deposits of the Yugoslav central bank to write off debts of
some Serbian banks.
Croatian official Rogic explained that the intention of the civil
action in Germany was to establish the facts and see what served as a
legal basis for mixed banks to write off debts of Serbian banks and
who could order it, while banks of other countries-successors had
to pay off their debts in regular procedure.
Slovenia's Arhar proposed the establishment of an expert group with
the task to address the issue how a long-standing surplus in the
trade with the then Czechoslovakia turned into an adverse balance
in the transitional period of the disintegration of the ex-SFRY.
The next meeting of the financial committee will be hosted in
Belgrade in a month's time.
(hina) ms