LJUBLJANA/BERLIN, June 19 (Hina) - Slovene Premier Anton Rop said in Berlin on Wednesday that Slovenia would support Croatia's admission to the European Union, however, he made the support conditional on "the successful completion of
the process of succession to the former Yugoslavia".
LJUBLJANA/BERLIN, June 19 (Hina) - Slovene Premier Anton Rop said
in Berlin on Wednesday that Slovenia would support Croatia's
admission to the European Union, however, he made the support
conditional on "the successful completion of the process of
succession to the former Yugoslavia". #L#
Rop met German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, with whom he discussed
the European Union and the so-called Western Balkans, and held a
lecture on relations between Slovenia and the EU at the German
society for foreign affairs.
Today's "Delo" paper quoted Rop as saying Slovenia would support
Croatia on its way to the EU "if the process of succession to the
former Yugoslavia is successfully completed".
The Croatian government recently announced a lawsuit against the
Frankfurt-based LHB, a bank with mixed ownership structure, whose
majority owner is Nova Ljubljanska Bank. LHB is being sued because
it refused to provide data on foreign currency deposits at the
former National Bank of Yugoslavia at the time the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia was under an embargo during the regime of Slobodan
Milosevic.
At a recent meeting of former Yugoslav countries on succession in
Ljubljana, Croatian representatives made the ratification of the
Vienna agreement on succession conditional on tracking 589 million
US dollars of joint assets from former Yugoslav banks abroad.
The official stand of Slovenia and Nova Ljubljanska Bank is that
there were no illegal transactions during the blockade and that LHB
operated in line with German legislation, as well as that Croatia
should ratify the framework succession agreement as it is the last
successor-state which has not done it.
(hina) rml