VIENNA, May 25 (Hina) - The five successors to the former Yugoslav federation initialled a succession agreement in Vienna on Friday, the international community's High Representative in Bosnia and the international mediator in the
negotiations said.
VIENNA, May 25 (Hina) - The five successors to the former Yugoslav
federation initialled a succession agreement in Vienna on Friday,
the international community's High Representative in Bosnia and
the international mediator in the negotiations said.#L#
Besides a political legal framework for the succession project, the
agreement contains seven annexes referring to the division of
movable and non-movable property at home, property abroad, money,
archive material, pensions earned in federal institutions, other
rights and interests, and acquired rights.
High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch said today was a historic
day. The initialling of the agreement required compromising and
cooperation and it stands as a very important contribution to
regional stability, he said.
Petritsch, who is on the Peace Implementation Council, was in
charge of the succession on behalf of the international community.
Congratulating the successors, international mediator Arthur
Watts said the division of ex-Yugoslavia's property had been an
enormous task which, unsurprisingly, took long.
He asserted this was the first agreement to be jointly reached by
all the successor states.
The agreement might be signed in three weeks, Watts said. It will
then have to be ratified by the five parliaments.
Old foreign currency savings, an issue disputed until the very end,
will be further negotiated, most probably in the Basel-based Bank
for International Settlements, said Watts.
Archive material which is directly necessary for administrative
functioning will be turned over to the successors. The states have
yet to agree if the rest will remain in Belgrade as common cultural
heritage available to the successors at any moment, or if it will be
divided.
As for diplomatic premises, every successor will get one building
for the present. Croatia got the embassy building in Paris. In the
future, when their value has been established, Bosnia will get 15
percent, Croatia 23.5, Macedonia eight, Slovenia 14 and Yugoslavia
39.5 percent, as has been agreed.
Upon agreeing on the division of property in Basel, the five
successors will divide about $1 billion of the former federation's
foreign reserves, with 15.5 percent going to Bosnia, 23 to Croatia,
7.5 to Macedonia, 16 to Slovenia, and 38 percent to Yugoslavia.
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