Croatia Set to Ignore Ruling on Piran Gulf

Ahead of an announced decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Thursday on the dispute over territorial waters between Croatia and Slovenia, Croatia has made it clear it will not accept the ruling.

Croatia's parliament in July 2015 backed a government decision to abandon the arbitration process over the dispute, after the media revealed that secret, unauthorised conversations had taken place between a judge at the Court and the Slovene representative to the court.

The arbitration process has since continued without the presence of Croatia.

Former Croatian President Ivo Josipovic, a professor of international law, said the decision of the Court on Thursday "won't bring anything new".

"We're looking at the status quo, nothing will be resolved, since Croatia does not recognise any of the court's decisions," he told BIRN, calling the process "indeed compromised" and adding that Croatia did well to leave it.

"Although both governments will most likely continue to talk, it doesn't seem likely that either of the two will back down from its position and seal a deal," he added.

Josipovic said the only possible long-term solution was to open a case before the International Court of Justice, as the ICJ "has the jurisdiction to decide in inter-state disputes and passes decisions according to international law".

In July 2015, Vecernji list published recordings of unauthorised phone conversations between Jernej Sekolec, the Slovenian judge on the court, and Simona Drenik, the representative of the Slovenian government.

During the conversations, which were not permitted, Sekolec revealed confidential conversations between the judges, predicting that the court would award Slovenia up to 75 per cent of...