Zagreb, July 25 (Hina) - During the initialling of a draft border agreement between Croatia and Slovenia, the Croatian government assumed the resolution of open issues with its neighbours is of strategic importance for Croatia, Prime
Minister Ivica Racan said on Wednesday.
Zagreb, July 25 (Hina) - During the initialling of a draft border
agreement between Croatia and Slovenia, the Croatian government
assumed the resolution of open issues with its neighbours is of
strategic importance for Croatia, Prime Minister Ivica Racan said
on Wednesday.#L#
"The unsolved situation on borders is a potential crisis issue and,
as such, it is unsustainable" Racan said at a news conference which
focused on the recently initialled border treaty between Zagreb and
Ljubljana.
Racan added Croatia's path towards the European Union went through
Slovenia and that tourists arrived in Croatia via that country.
He said 99 percent of the land frontier was settled while the former
authorities were in power, and his cabinet's task was to reach an
agreement on the remaining one percent of the border on land and on
the border on the sea.
"On the sea Croatia has lost something in terms of status, but it has
lost nothing in terms of contents," the PM explained, adding
Croatia ceded a part of its territorial sea to an international
corridor, while Ljubljana asked for its own territorial corridor.
The Premier said this international corridor had already coincided
with a corridor envisaged in a memorandum on free navigation signed
by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia last year.
He stressed the agreement finally solved the demarcation of the
boundary-line between the territorial waters of Croatia and
Slovenia.
Asked by reporters to explain the political reasons for such a
demarcation, under which the Slovene port of Kopar became a
permanent rival to the biggest Croatian seaport of Rijeka, Racan
said he did not think this would be a hindrance for Rijeka and added
he expected these two harbours would cooperate.
He resolutely dismissed the possibility that this precedent be used
for the settlement of the issue of Prevlaka, the southernmost
Croatian peninsula bordering on Montenegro, saying that for
Croatia "Prevlaka is a security rather than territorial issue."
The border commissions of Croatia and Slovenia used two criteria
for the demarcation: the first was the application of cadastral
books and documents and the other were constitutional decisions
referring to the proclamation of independence when the boundary
lines between the then republics in the Socialist Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia were taken as valid frontiers between the newly-
established independent countries.
Pointing to the importance of good-neighbourly relations and
cooperation with Slovenia, Racan announced the ratification of a
bilateral agreement on the jointly-owned nuclear power plant
'Krsko', and expressed hope that cooperation would make it possible
for Croatia to have better road connections with Western Europe via
Slovenia.
As a result of the deal the two countries have recently made, a
treaty on local border traffic and cooperation will soon be
ratified. This will facilitate the resolution of vitally important
issues for 250,000 residents on the each side of the Croatian-
Slovene frontier.
An additional 27 crossings will be set up for local border traffic,
which alongside existing ones between the two countries will make a
total of 60, Racan said.
According to the PM, Croatia will have a soft border with the
European Union as soon as Slovenia enters it. The soft border will
only be to the benefit of Croatia's citizens, he explained.
The Croatian border commission's head, Olga Kresovic Rogulja,
reiterated that documentation from cadastral offices of both
countries had been used for demarcation wherever possible. Where
territory was not registered, a 50-50 split was made, but other
factors were taken into consideration, such as road connections.
"The biggest corrections were made on the boundary-line itself, and
we took into account the important fact that the border must be
visible and that it can be controlled," she said.
On Sv. Gera Hill, Croatia got a contentious army barracks and other
nearby facilities built by ex-Yugoslavia's federal army. The
border on Mura River is finally precisely defined and will no longer
depend on changes in the course of the river. Four contentious
villages in Istria near the border remain on Croatian territory.
The Croatian PM believes the agreement will get the green light from
the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, which will be in
session in late August. He, however, predicts a longer path for its
ratification by the Sabor.
(hina) ms