ZAGREB Croatia said on Monday it would quit “contaminated” arbitration talks over its border with Slovenia after the leak of a tape purporting to show a Slovenian judge on the panel discussing the case with a representative of the Ljubljana government.
Advertisement
Milanovic, however, insisted that “this is unbearable, we must get out”.
The affair that prompted Zagreb’s decision broke out mid-last week when Croatia’s Vecernji List daily published compromising transcripts, and then audio recordings that confirmed contacts between Slovenian member of the court Jernjej Sekolec and Slovenian representative before the court Simona Drenik, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Croatia can not stay in this arbitration.
“There is no doubt that the termination of the arbitration agreement is the only acceptable option at this time and any procedure that would follow as a outcome is Slovenia’s proposal to go back to what the prime ministers signed in 2007 and that is to go before the UN ICJ in The Hague which should be acceptable to both sides”, another Commission member, Neven Simac, said.
Slovenian Prime-Minister Miro Cerar said Monday that Croatia can’t unilaterally withdraw from your body that also contains one and several global judges from France.
Each country was asked to propose a member of the five-member tribunal that would have to be impartial and, therefore, should not discuss the tribunal’s work with their government.
Croatian lawmakers were to meet at an extraordinary session on Wednesday and were expected to make a final decision on whether to withdraw from the proceedings.
Slovenia, which has just 46 kilometres (29 miles) of coastline, believes its access to global waters is at stake because Croatia, whose coast stretches for 1,700 kilometres, wants the border to be drawn down the middle of the disputed bay.
Advertisement
Sekolec and Drenik have since resigned. There has been no immediate reaction from the tribunal to the Croatian withdrawal announcement.
