The Croatian ministry stated on Friday that it holds the view that it is inappropriate that Slovenia uses its membership in the European Union as a position for exerting pressure on Croatia while the latter is conducting accession negotiations with the EU.
Slovenia will underline the issue of Ljubljanska Banka Zagreb as a condition for Croatia's joining the European Union, the Slovene Foreign Minister said on Thursday.
The conclusion of a document which contains explanations of Ljubljana's standpoints regarding foreign currency savings accounts in former Yugoslavia in general and particularly the savings deposits of Croatian citizens in Ljubljanska Banka Zagreb, says that Croatia "ignores the fundamental principles and standards of international law of the contemporary civilised international community", and particularly the principle that one must stick to the agreed and implement signed agreements.
Responding to Slovenia's accusations, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Friday said that the Croatian government will insist that all Croatians holding savings accounts in Ljubljanska Banka be given back their savings deposits.
The issue of Croatians holding savings accounts in Ljubljanska Banka should not be solved as part of talks on succession to the former Yugoslavia, because it is about a legal relationship between the bank and its clients and the government will insist that all depositors of Ljubljanska Banka be given back their savings, Sanader said in a comment on the document published on Slovene foreign ministry's web site.
Condemning Slovenia's attempt to raise the issue of the Ljubljanska Banka as a precondition for Croatia's entry into the European bloc, the Croatian ministry recalls that "the topic of negotiations between the Republic of Croatia and the European Union is the acquis communautaire and not the Ljubljanska Banka".
"The issue of the debt of the Ljubljanska Banka to Croatian clients is the matter of the relations between the bank and its clients regulated by civil law. Croatian clients deposited their foreign currency savings into the Ljubljanska Banka, namely its Zagreb branch, and have all the right to expect the bank to pay back their deposits together with pertinent interest rates," the Croatian ministry stated in a press release on Friday evening.
The said bank and the Republic of Slovenia have been denying Croatian clients their right to their property and their savings deposits for 12 years, the ministry said.
In addition, in 1994, the Slovene government interfered in the relations between the bank and its clients adopting a constitutional law which divided the then bank into two entities.
Nova Ljubljanska Banka (the New Ljubljanska bank) assumed all the assets and continued to pay Slovene clients, while Stara Ljubljanska Banka (the so-called old bank) formally retained all debts owed to non-Slovene clients, although it had no sources to cover the debt, according to the chronology of events which the Croatian foreign ministry presented in Friday's press release.
In this way, discriminating against non-Slovene clients, Slovenia made it impossible for them to take back their deposits which the Croatian ministry describes as behaviour being absolutely contrary to all European standards and values.