The newspaper's cover story "They Unilaterally Expanded Concession to Piran Bay" featured an allegedly official map of Croatian map based on which the daily said the government made the decision.
The ministry said in a statement that the government's decision to grant concession for drilling for oil and gas in the northern Adriatic had only extended its approval from 2001 and 2002. The ministry underlined that Slovenia did not protest when the decision was made in 2002.
The ministry said the Delo piece contained an entirely wrong presentation of facts, and recalled that in its note of January 29 this year it had underlined that the Slovene public was entitled to a correct, objective and well-founded truth about the legal state of border issues with neighbours, including a legally based and non-politicised approach to the settlement of the sea border issue with Slovenia.
Regarding border demarcation, Croatia advocates the position that it is necessary to determine the border in Savudrija Bay (or Piran Bay, as it is referred to in Slovenia) in the northern Adriatic in line with Article 15 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the ministry said.
It once again underlined that the media's fomenting of tensions was not in the interest of creating an atmosphere necessary for reinforcing mutual trust, and that further talks on the closure of the border issue called for professional expert work.
The Croatian parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs said that Slovenia's insisting on the position that the Adriatic Sea was a matter of succession to the former Yugoslavia was a clear indicator of claiming Croatian territory.
The committee discussed relations with Slovenia at a closed session at the proposal of the Party of Rights.
The committee supported the government's policy on border issues with Slovenia and requested that it intensify diplomatic efforts so that contentious issues could be settled before international judicial bodies.
Committee members rejected Slovenia's positions, saying they were unfounded and contrary to international law.