ZAGREB, July 24 (Hina) - Croatia's Premier Ivica Racan on Tuesday held a meeting with prefects of seven Croatian counties bordering with Slovenia to discuss Croatian-Slovenian agreements on border and cross-border traffic and
cooperation. "It is in the Croatian national interest to solve all open issues with Slovenia through bilateral cooperation. The alternative to agreement is arbitration, which would probably, according to some strong indicators, be more unfavourable for Croatia than the (recently reached) Agreement," Racan said at the meeting, according to a statement released by the government's public relations office. Racan stressed that both sides had needed to make some compromise to reach an agreement, like this one, and added that the border agreement in no way brought into question the right to ownership over the land. As a result of initialling the border deal, the agreement on cross-
ZAGREB, July 24 (Hina) - Croatia's Premier Ivica Racan on Tuesday
held a meeting with prefects of seven Croatian counties bordering
with Slovenia to discuss Croatian-Slovenian agreements on border
and cross-border traffic and cooperation.
"It is in the Croatian national interest to solve all open issues
with Slovenia through bilateral cooperation. The alternative to
agreement is arbitration, which would probably, according to some
strong indicators, be more unfavourable for Croatia than the
(recently reached) Agreement," Racan said at the meeting,
according to a statement released by the government's public
relations office.
Racan stressed that both sides had needed to make some compromise to
reach an agreement, like this one, and added that the border
agreement in no way brought into question the right to ownership
over the land.
As a result of initialling the border deal, the agreement on cross-
border traffic and cooperation will immediately be ratified, and
this will facilitate the resolution of vitally important issues for
250,000 residents in the Croatian area along the frontier.
Therefore, Croatia will have the soft border with the European
Union as soon as Slovenia enters it, the statement read.
Most prefects welcomed the reached agreement and expressed
satisfaction with the acceptable compromise.
Present at the meeting were prefects of Zagreb, Stjepan Kozic, of
Krapina Zagorje, Vlasta Hubicki, of Karlovac, Vlado Jelkovec, of
Varazdin, Zvonimir Sabati, of Promorje-Gorski-Kotar, Zlatko
Komadina, of Istria, Ivan Jakovcic and of Medjimurje, Branko
Levacic.
(hina) sb ms