Silent war of Slovenia and Croatia for Bay of Piran: Croats accuse Slovenes of dirty play, secret documents leaked

In response to The Hague, sent to Ljubljana and Zagreb, they have said an internal investigation showed that there was no leakage of documents

Croatia and Slovenia have been accusing each other for many years over Bay of Piran. Both states have agreed to resolve this issue before arbitration court, and then Croatia emerged from the process in 2015 by the decision of the Parliament. They said they want alternative resolution to this case, because the process of arbitration is compromised because of the alleged lobbying of Slovenians in their favor.

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The arbitrarily tribunal announced that the procedure is completed and that the decision will be brought in the next few months. Zagreb has told that the decision is a "dead letter" for them.

When European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in March this year visited Ljubljana where he reiterated his views that he expected respect of the decision of the arbitration committee over the Piran Bay, inter alia, said for the Slovenian media: "I'm a little surprised by inappropriate reaction of Croatia."

Juncker statement was not well received in Croatia of course, although the decision of the Commission is that decisions should be respected, it is important to recall why the Croatian side has decided to leave the arbitration and does not accept its decision on the territorial division of the bay. The court hearing, according to the postulates of the Court, is secret and confidential, and judge - no matter from which country - independent and impartial.

But, the member of the Arbitral Tribunal, Slovenian Jernej Sekolec talked on the phone with the party in the proceeding, a member of the expert team and the representative in front of the Court Simona Drenik from the Slovenian Foreign Ministry, and he reported the details from the confidential discussion, statements and opinions of the president of the court Gilbert Guilaume and the remaining arbitrators - German Brune Sime and British Vaughan Love, and Croat Budislav Vukas, writes express.hr.

This communication is not allowed, Vecernji list wrote in 2015, and they discovered the communication.

He reported the arbitrator statement which they attributed to the President of the court by which, very early in the process, he said that "Slovenians got what they wanted on the sea"m which could possibly indicate the partiality of the judges. He revealed that data that the delimitation of the sea, or the division of Bay of Piran will go "one third to Croatia, and two thirds to Slovenia, if not more". 

To recall, Croatian side asks for demarcation with equidistance, to divide the bay on half. Jernej Sekolec and the responsible department of International law in the Slovenian Ministry, Simona Drenik advised about the problematic points for Slovenia, analysed judicial opinions, talked about the strategy and planned how will Sekolec affect certain judges to change their opinions in favor of Slovenia.

In those talks Sekolec and Jerner function as a team, and not like they are in arbitrary proceedings: Impartial Judge and a party in the proceedings, writes express.hr.

Sekolec wanted to show the documents as his notes because it was no longer possible to add evidence into the procedure. They tried to cover up their tracks, so the authorship of the document can not be attributed to Simone Drenik.

These allegations certainly jeopardize the entire arbitration dispute, which costs the state over 5 million dollars but also, with something that can't be measured - territories. 

When a storm rose in Croatia, they denied from Slovenia that they have any kind of privileged information. Adviser for the Court in charge of the arbitrage of Croatia and Slovenia, Dirk Pulkovski, promised that the court will conduct an investigation. 

The then Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusic asked then by the Court of Arbitration of the Slovenian side of the plea about the statements of Minister Erjavec and asked the question whether there was communication between Slovenia and the Arbitral Tribunal. In response to The Hague, sent to Ljubljana and Zagreb, they have said an internal investigation showed that there was no leakage of documents.

The transcripts of the conversation between Simone Drenik and Jernej Sekolec refute that. Sokolec and Drenik talked on the phone on 15th November 2014, and 11th January 2015. That is the time when both sides handed over memorandums and counter memorandums with demands and presented all documents with their claims. 

The oral hearing in the court was already completed at that moment, where representatives of Croatia and Slovenia explained their views and the judges were left in the classified conversations and discussions to reach the verdict about demarcation of the two countries at the sea and on land. writes Express.hr.

Croatia's reaction was quick after the reveal of that information by Vecernji List. The decision was declared virtually unanimously to withdraw from the arbitration and and since then, Croatian side doesn't recognize any kind of decisions about the demarcation line on Bay of Piran. 

(Telegraf.co.uk)