Zagreb Municipal Court Judge Nikola Raguz on Thursday requested Privredna Banka's representative to submit within 30 days an official Croatian translation of the memorandum signed by the Croatian and Slovenian prime ministers, after which he will hand down his decision. He said another state's interpretation was not binding for the court.
Slovenia claims "stay" means the proceedings before Croatian courts should be stopped until a solution to the LB issue is reached internationally, while Croatia claims "stay" means the proceedings can be suspended for a maximum three years.
This is not the first time Croatia and Slovenia have been "lost in translation". During their border dispute, the two countries interpreted the word "junction" differently in the agreement on the settlement of the issue.
The memorandum of understanding on the settlement of the LB issue was signed by PM Zoran Milanovic of Croatia and Janez Jansa of Slovenia on March 11, after which the Slovenian parliament ratified Croatia's European Union accession treaty.
Under the memorandum, Croatia committed to putting on hold all legal proceedings which two of its banks, Zagrebacka and Privredna, instigated over former LB Croatian clients' transferred foreign currency savings.
The trial adjourned today is one in a series, Croatian banks have instigated against LB and NLB over transferred savings. At the last hearing, in one of the trials, Privredna Banka's representative moved a one-year stoppage, in line with the memorandum, so that a peaceful solution could be found.
Today's hearing coincided with Slovenian President Borut Pahor's first official visit to Croatia since stepping into office.