Slovenia, Croatia play down bank savings row

(MARIBOR) - Slovenia and Croatia played down media speculations Tuesday that an old dispute over bank savings has erupted again, insisting it would not affect Zagreb's planned 2013 entry into the EU.

"We were glad to receive the Croatian prime minister's assurances that Croatia's position remains unchanged from its EU accession talks," Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told a joint news conference with his Croatian counterpart Zoran Milanovic.

"This solves all those issues that have appeared recently" in the media, he added.

Earlier this month, Ljubljana sought clarifications from Zagreb after Croatian media reported the government was backing legal procedures against Slovenia's Ljubljanska Banka to recover savings deposited by Croatian customers before the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

Over 130,000 Croatians have claimed that they deposited 160 million euros ($210 million) in savings in Ljubljanska Banka before 1991.

But in a bid to secure EU accession, Zagreb in 2010 agreed to resolve the issue through internationally brokered talks on the distribution of the former Yugoslavia's wealth, rather than through separate legal proceedings.

On Tuesday, Milanovic pledged to adhere to Zagreb's commitment.

"We have to respect the commitments Croatia had to take as a condition to conclude (EU accession) negotiations," Milanovic told journalists.

Croatia still needs Slovenia and the other EU members to ratify its European Union accession treaty so that it can join the 27-member bloc by mid-2013 as planned.

Jansa meanwhile vowed that ratification would come "within the deadline that has been set."