Rupel Labels Croatian Map of Shellfish Farms Provocation
Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel reacted on Monday to the recently-published map of Croatian shellfish farms that places the maritime border between the two countries in the middle of the Bay of Piran, saying that this is another in the line of Croatian provocations regarding the border between the two countries.
The Foreign Ministry opposes such actions and rejects these and similar maps, and it will respond to the provocation by sending a diplomatic note to Croatia, Rupel said in Ljubljana.
Rupel said that Croatia had often tried to prejudice the course of the border and added that the ministry regretted such events and linked them with the election campaign in Croatia.
Rupel also pointed to a joint statement on incident avoidance, signed by the two governments in June 2005. The governments then agreed to act in line with the situation on the ground on 25 June 1991 when both countries declared independence.
"The ministry and the government are very serious about respecting this and we reject all maps published after 25 June 1991," Rupel said.
Asked about the validity of a map presented last week by Marjan Podobnik, a prominent member of the ruling coalition People's Party (SLS), he said that "no other maps but those that reflect the situation as it was on 25 June 1991 can be valid".
The map, unveiled last Monday by the Institute 25 June, details eight "problem spots" on the border where, the group claims, Croatians pushed northwards with settlements, administrative changes or violent appropriation. One of the spots is also the Bay of Piran.
The SLS meanwhile said that the Croatian map was a "new act in the series of attempts to encroach on Slovenian sea and territory by Croatia".
It therefore called on competent Slovenian authorities to react in a decisive and unequivocal manner as well as notify competent bodies in the EU.
Mladen Pavic of the Croatian Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Ministry meanwhile said that the map did not prejudge the border and was based on valid agreements between the two countries.
According to the ministry's spokesman, the ministry published a precise map of all shellfish farms in the Adriatic as part of a regular annual document that deals with the quality of the sea at shellfish farms.
He rejected claims that the map was created as an answer to Podobnik's map.
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