The Slovenian Foreign Ministry said it was unable to comment the new Italian citizenship legislation because it was not yet signed into a law. The amendments passed earlier this month by Italian parliament enable Slovenians and Croatians whose ancestors were Italian citizens or belonged to the Italian minority in Slovenia or Croatia, to ask for dual citizenship.
Nevertheless, the changes are not in line with the Osimo Treaties, concluded between Yugoslavia and Italy some 30 years ago. "We believe that in bringing up issues from the past, one needs to be particularly sensitive," the ministry wrote.
A day later Rupel reiterated this position when he was quizzed about the legislation by the parliamentary foreign policy committee. He added that the Italian ambassador had already summoned and that the ministry was mulling over the most appropriate response to the circumstances in which the changes were passed, that is just before the elections.
At the committee's session Rupel also expressed reservations to a revived proposal that the presidents of Slovenia, Croatia and Italy would hold a special conciliatory meeting regarding WWII. The initiative was brought up again on Friday, 17 Feb, when President Janez Drnovsek said he would be willing to attend such a meeting. The idea was first given by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi a year ago.
Rupel doubts that such a meeting was feasible. He added that the government had been reserved to such a meeting all along. A similar view is held by Croatia; sources at its Foreign Ministry said that overcoming problems from WWII was unlikely to bring about a desired result when there are new tensions among the three countries, reported a Croatian daily on Wednesday.
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