At this important historical moment, the members of the Commission, conscious of their Christian and civic responsibilities, state the following:

Although not sufficiently informed, like the rest of the Croatian public, concerning the proposal by the Commissioner for the Enlargement of the European Union (EU) dated June 15, the Commission expresses its profound concern regarding peace and the spirit of good-neighborliness between the Slovenian and Croatian people, and regarding possible prospective violations of international rights that the Arbitration Agreement could cause. With the bitter aftertaste of pressures and partiality, the Commission recalls that these two nations of the old Christian, Catholic tradition have never had any major disputes in their fourteen centuries of neighborly relations and, above all, no conflicts, while the current secret diplomacy, far from the eyes of the Croatian public, has the potential to disrupt and undermine this valuable history and open a Pandora’s box of a dangerous international precedent in this unstable part of Europe, in which wounds from the era of totalitarian regimes and the recent wars of conquest are still healing.

The Commission is of the opinion that the Croatian public is deeply frustrated and justifiably embittered by the secret diplomacy that presents the public with a fait accompli. In fact, the Commission asserts that the European Commission and the EU have exceeded their authority by interfering in bilateral questions between two countries and are encouraging a dangerous precedent of the violation of European and international laws. The Croatian public does not know why its government has not formulated amendments to the latest proposal of the European Commissioner, when the Slovenian side has done so and incorporated claims upon Croatian territory. Finally, the Croatian public only learned about the content of the latest draft agreement on arbitration and the identities of all the participating parties on October 30.

In this exceedingly important question of justice and peace in Southeast Europe, several essential principles of democracy, international law and morality are involved: on one side, the duty of public representatives to inform their own citizens prior to all important decisions and obtain their consent, whether directly or through parliamentary representatives. At the moment, the Croatian Government is not doing this. Furthermore, it is not consulting or listening to its best experts from the areas of international law and the law of the sea. On the other side, Croatian national territory is not the property of this or any other government but, quite the contrary, the Croatian Government has the duty to protect the integrity of the national territory. In addition, the Croatian Government and Parliament are bound by international treaties that Croatia has ratified or to which it is the successor. Among these is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), which Croatia and Slovenia ratified in 1995, as well as all the other Adriatic coastal countries, all the members of the EU and the EU, itself. Among these is also the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1975 – Article III on the inviolability of borders), as well as the binding opinions of the so-called Badinter Commission of the international community dated January 1992, on the basis of which Croatia and Slovenia were recognized within their borders at the time. The Croatian Government does not have the right to violate the obligations issuing from this UN Convention, particularly not the provisions on the delimitation of bays (Article 15), the maximum width of the belt of coastal waters over which coastal states exercise their sovereign rights (territorial seas – Article 3) and others.

Our Commission is of the opinion that the Croatian side should systematically, effectively and energetically oppose the injustice of Slovenian ambitions before the world because they threaten justice and peace, and contribute to the destabilization of Southeast Europe. Our Commission is also over the opinion that the Croatian side should not abandon the principles according to which the demarcation between the two states was decided by the most qualified world court – the International Court of Justice of the United Nations, and not some “arbitration tribunal” of uncertain composition and legal experience, with the list offered by the European Commission, which would now have to rule according to non-juridical criteria.

In any case, the Croatian Government does not have the right to violate the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and assign Slovenia the “right” that the Convention expressly prohibits, i.e., the possibility of extending its territorial sea into the Croatian sea, so that Slovenia would have access to the so-called open sea but, again, the Croatian sea. Pursuant to the same Law of the Sea, Slovenia would not be permitted to seek something like this and the 158 other countries that are signers-parties to the Convention should not allow this to happen because the Convention does not permit territorial sea to be wider than 12 miles. Moreover, pursuant to the Convention, Slovenia is entitled to “harmless passage” through the Croatian territorial sea, so that even now ships sail freely into Slovenian harbors through the Croatian territorial sea. Furthermore, Slovenia has an “exit to the open sea” but via Italian territorial waters, since that is the shipping route stipulated by the International Maritime Organization at the co-proposal of Slovenia. Thus, it is not an issue of free sailing or “access to the open sea” but of territorial ambitions, so that since the end of 2008 until this autumn, the Slovenian Government has blocked Croatia in its accession to the EU. Should Croatia now reward this blockade with territorial concessions and provide a dangerous example to Europe and the world? For whose benefit, justice and peace?

The Croatian public knows that all unresolved questions of demarcation between member states of the EU are resolved as bilateral, outside the institutions of the EU, according to international law, most frequently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Until now, no member state of the EU has blackmailed another candidate state to give up its national territory for EU accession. Our Commission deeply regrets that this is what our neighbor, traditionally friendly Slovenia, is doing at the moment but the Croatian Government and Parliament do not have the right to accept it, even at the price of not entering the EU or the continuation of the blockade. Croatian citizens will not want accession to the EU if at this crucial moment it does not demonstrate that it is a community of law and moral values.

Do the Croatian Government and Parliament ask themselves what will happen if they illegally capitulate before Slovenian pretensions and the Croatian citizens decide at the referendum that they do not want to enter such a Union? How do Croatian politicians think to face their own citizens, their children and grandchildren, and even themselves, if they capitulate in this matter? Is it not clear to everyone now, after the publication of the Agreement on Arbitration, that the only risk, which domestic politicians mention in a roundabout way, is to be borne solely and exclusively by Croatia because it can illegally lose part of its national sea, undersea and airspace, while Slovenia can obtain the first, second and third?

The members of the Justitia et Pax Commission believe that the Croatian citizens want to stop the current deterioration of Croatian-Slovenian relations between the two friendly nations, the majority of whom are Catholics, but does not want to allow anyone to play irresponsibly with national territory because questions of demarcating borders cannot be connected with accession to the EU. The Commission is of the opinion that the Croatian citizens have the right and duty to demand that the Croatian Government and the international community require that the EU, OSCE, Council of Europe and UN deter the Slovenian Government from its territorial pretensions, from playing with fire in these regions where, not so long ago, encroaching upon the territory of others produced enormous human tragedy, precisely due to the violation of international law and the obligation to keep the peace.

The Commission urges all its fellow citizens, sisters and brothers in faith, to pray for the good, progress and peace of the homeland, and for the prudence and responsibility of those who lead it.

In Zagreb, 31 October 2009
Msgr. Vlado Košić, President of the Commission