Slovenia appoints ICJ head as its representative in border dispute arbitration

ZAGREB Croatia said on Monday it would quit “contaminated” arbitration talks over its border with Slovenia after the leak of a tape purporting to show a Slovenian judge on the panel discussing the case with a representative of the Ljubljana government.

The dispute reemerged last week when Croatian media published alleged transcripts of phone conversations between a Slovenian judge on the global court and a Slovene Foreign Ministry official. The pair have since resigned.

Premier Miro Cerar said Tuesday that the appointment of the French law expert was designed to ensure that the panel dealing with the longtime land and sea dispute between two neighbors will be able to continue its work.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic arrives for day two of an EU summit at the EU Headquarters in Brussels on June 26, 2015.

Each country was asked to propose a member of the five-member tribunal who would have to be impartial and, therefore, should not discuss the tribunal’s work with their government.

Slovenia has only 29 miles (46 kilometers) of coastline and argues that its access to worldwide waters hangs in the balance as Croatia, with its 1,050 miles of coastline seeks to draw the border right through the middle of the disputed bay.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said at the time that the situation was “worrying” and called into question the objectivity of the procedure, while Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusic announced her country was considering withdrawing from the process. That decision was to be binding for both countries. The Netherlands-based arbitration panel has said it could rule on the matter in December.

“We are confident that the rules that the two parties have accepted for its functioning will be respected”, spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told reporters.

The decision to back out of the arbitration was supported by parliament, which is set to convene over the issue on Wednesday.