Arhar was appointed to a six-month term in mid-2012 and now has one more year to seek a solution regarding Croatian savings in the now-defunct bank in talks with Croatian expert Zdravko Rogic. They were appointed by the Slovenian and Croatian governments and have met four times to date.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec announced last week that Slovenia would extend Arhar's mandate, which some Slovenian media saw as an attempt to put pressure on Croatia.
Slovenia is making the ratification of Croatia's European Union Accession Treaty conditional on the settlement of the bank issue and the dropping of lawsuits against the bank before Croatian courts.
The treaty needs to be ratified by all 27 EU countries in the first half of next year so that Croatia can join on July 1.