STA, 8 April 2019 - POP TV reported on Monday that the Croatian government had used an intermediary to try to prevent the commercial broadcaster's news portal from revealing that the Croatian intelligence agency SOA was behind the tapping of the phone calls between Slovenia's judge and agent in the border arbitration.

It was 24ur.com which reported last week that the communication between Jernej Sekolec and agent Simona Drenik, who were not allowed to communicate with each other, was reportedly picked up in July 2015 by SOA operative Davor Franić.

The recorded conversations were leaked the same month only to have Croatia declare the border arbitration process "irrevocably compromised".

POP TV journalist Jure Tepina said today that a day before the portal planned to publish the name and a photograph of the Croatian operative, a phone call came from a person asking the portal not to run the story.

"The lobbyist who contacted us was not even aware of the consequences, and he did not know who had actually ordered the attempt to put pressure on an independent Slovenian media house," Tepina said.

"The intention to run the story was known only to two POP TV journalists. Croatia could have learned about this only with special intelligence methods," he added, suggesting that Croatia is spying on journalists.

Tepina said that it was not the only attempt from Croatia to prevent the name of the Croatian operative and the conspiracy by the SOA from being revealed to the Slovenian and foreign public.

"A member of the management board of one of the most influential Croatian media houses and a good friend of numerous Croatian politicians tried to prevent or even bribe a director of a foreign multinational to put pressure on POP TV."

POP TV revealed in its evening news show later in the day that the high-ranking media official was Ivan Tolj, a 51-year-old Franciscan priest "with great influence on the Croatian media".

Citing Croatian media reports, Tepina said in an article posted on 24ur.com that Tolj headed a small parish in Bosnia but spent most of his days in Zagreb, working as a representative of Styria, the Austrian-owned publisher of Večernji List, the paper that first ran the Sekolec-Drenik wire taps in 2015.

Tolj also seems to be close to the Croatian political elite. He has hosted President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović in his home town in Bosnia a number of times, according to Tepina. He was a friend of former Prime Minister Ivica Račan and an ally of former President Ivo Josipović.

24ur.com has published an audio recording of the conversation, in which Tolj says he "has a proposal from the Croatian government" and asks for help. He asks the person on the other side of the line whether he had "influence on POP TV".

Croatia officially denies the report about its intelligence agency being behind the wiretapping and claims that the story is a fabrication.

If this is so, the question is "why the Croatian side would bother so much to influence a foreign media house and prevent the release of a story, for which it claims, without any proof, that it is a fabrication", Tepina wonders.

Croatia has been rejecting any responsibility for the recordings of the conversations between Sekolec and Drenik, which were first published by the Croatian media.

STA, 4 April 2019 - Prime Minister Marjan Šarec expressed concern on Thursday over the news that the Croatian Intelligence Agency (SOA) was behind the wire-tapping of Slovenia's arbitrator and agent in the border arbitration. "If this is the modus operandi in the EU we are concerned," the PM said after today's government session.

Šarec said the head of the Slovenian national intelligence agency SOVA had presented the situation in this case and in the Balkans to cabinet members behind closed doors today.

"I will not go into detail because these are matters of the system of national security and the intelligence agency and it is not wise to talk too much," he said, adding though that what they had heard was worrying.

"On the one hand we are happy because the intelligence agency is doing a good job, but on the other we are concerned if this is the modus operandi within the EU and if this is how countries which are supposed to be friendly treat each other."

News portal 24ur.com reported on Wednesday that the SOA was the one who wire tapped the phone calls between Jernej Sekolec and agent Simona Drenik, who were not allowed to communicate with each other, in July 2015.

After the recordings of the conversations were leaked, Croatia declared the process irrevocably tainted.

Even though Sekolec and Drenik resigned and the tribunal decided the breach was not so grave as to derail the process, Croatia declared it would not accept the arbitration award.

So far it had been speculated that German or US intelligence services were behind the wire-tapping.

The prime minister stressed that the arbitration process was now concluded and that solving the border issue through arbitration had been a condition for Slovenia's support to Croatia's EU membership.

"This is why what we heard today did not give us optimism regarding our neighbourly relations," he said, adding that Slovenia would continue to act in the European spirit.

The Croatian side rejected today any involvement of its intelligence services, with Foreign Ministry State Secretary for European Affairs Andreja Metelko Zgombić telling the press she did "not know where the Slovenian prime minister got such information from".

She said Croatia had not been able to determine how the story about the collusion on the Slovenian side had arrived to Croatia media.

Meanwhile, Slovenian Defence Minister Karl Erjavec, who was foreign minister at the time of the wire-tapping scandal, told the press today he was happy that it was finally clear who had conducted the wire-tapping.

"Obviously this was the job of Croatian secret services for a reason, because the Croatian leadership obviously thought the arbitration award would not be favourable for Croatia, that Slovenia will be given free access to high seas and more than half of the Piran Bay. Obviously they wanted to discredit the procedure," he said.

He added that Croatia had also picked the perfect timing to release the recordings, when he was on a private trip abroad with his wife.

Erjavec refused to speculate whether the revelation that the SOA wire tapped the Slovenian officials would in any way help Slovenia's efforts for the implementation of the arbitration award.

The report on wiretapping to Sekolec and Drenik will be discussed by the parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Commission next Wednesday. The commission will also debate the situation in the Western Balkans and an increase in illegal migration.

Slovenia launched proceedings against Croatia over its non-implementation of the arbitration award before the EU's Court of Justice in the mid-March 2018. It argues that Croatia infringes EU law by refusing to implement the June 2017 award of the arbitration tribunal.

STA, 3 April 2019 - The recordings of phone calls between Slovenia's arbitrator and agent in the border arbitration, which were leaked to the public only to have Croatia declare the process irrevocably tainted, were made by the Croatian Intelligence Agency (SOA), news portal 24ur.com reported on Wednesday.

The communication between Jernej Sekolec and agent Simona Drenik, who were not allowed to communicate with each other, was reportedly picked up in July 2015 by SOA operative Davor Franić.

According to 24ur.com, which quotes Bosnian media and own sources at SOA, Franić has triggered a number of scandals under the instruction of top Croatian politicians.

After the recordings of the conversations between Sekolec and Drenik were leaked in the summer of 2015, both of them resigned.

Even though the tribunal decided the breach was not so grave as to abort the process, Croatia declared the process irrevocably compromised and declared it would not accept the arbitration award.

So far it had been speculated that German or US intelligence services were behind the wire-tapping.

The Slovenian Foreign Ministry would not comment on the news today, saying only that it had closely cooperated with the relevant Slovenian bodies after the recordings were made public.

The police told 24ur.com that they could not reveal any details from on-going investigations.

According to the web portal, Franić was a low-profile agent until only a few months ago. Allegedly he had been involved in several failed operations, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

But after the arbitration operation, he was propelled to the very top of the SOA, where he is now the chief of staff in the office of the SOA head, Daniel Markić.

A few days ago, his name came up in a case involving recruiting of fighters and smuggling weapons from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, with which Croatia allegedly attempted to show its neighbouring country as a playground for terrorist.

Franić was allegedly using Bosnian hauliers who have a residence permit in Slovenia as weapons mules. The hauliers reportedly turned to the Bosnian Embassy in Ljubljana for help.

All our stories about the Croatian border can be found here

STA, 27 March 2019 - Foreign Minister Miro Cerar announced on Wednesday that Slovenia would issue a diplomatic note to Croatia over a grave border violation by a Croatian police boat in the Bay of Piran last Sunday.

Cerar said the boat crossing 2.5 km into Slovenian waters and even 1.3 km across the bay's midline was a special kind of provocation.

He spoke of an unnecessary escalation between the two countries, of a failure to honour international and EU law and of a violation of the Schengen border - by a country that would like to become a member of the Schengen area.

The newspaper Delo has reported that the Croatian police blamed their excursion on problems with navigation equipment.

"This is obviously just an excuse and as such completely unacceptable", Cerar commented, saying accepting this would be an "affront to the intelligence and abilities of the Croatian police authorities, which know exactly what they are doing".

The latest incident is part of a long history of run-ins in the bay featuring police and fishing boats on both sides of the border.

Since June 2017 the bay has also become the central theatre of the two sides' take on the international border arbitration decision, which Croatia is refusing to implement. The arbitration award gives 80% of the bay to Slovenia.

Cerar added today that Sunday's incident proved the implementation of the arbitration award was urgent, not only from the legal and political standpoints and bilateral relations but also because of "the entire European story".

"Such behaviour is not European and also serves as a poor example to the Western Balkans," Cerar said, adding the EU was constantly repeating that membership candidates needed to respect international law.

STA, 17 March 2019 - Opposition Democrats (SDS) president Janez Janša has told the Croatian newspaper Jutarnji list that the Slovenia-Croatia border arbitration decision is legally binding but that it still allows for a bilateral agreement on a section of the border or its entirety. He also argued Hungary's Victor Orban "has a historically correct stance on migration".

Janša, whose SDS won the 2018 general election but was not able to form a government, said that the border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia, two newly created states, is "one of the most specific situations in history".

He argued that "according to all realistic assessments", the international arbitration tribunal's June 2017 decision on the border "is in Croatia's favour and to the detriment of Slovenia".

"Still, Croatia is rejecting it and Slovenia is insisting on it," Janša said.

He said the SDS and "almost half of Slovenian voters" had rejected the arbitration agreement, "because we predicted things would evolve the way they did".

"I believe two wise governments could find a relatively elegant way out of this situation in the future," the former prime minister added.

Janša feels that some manoeuvring space exists that would allow Croatia to get a bilateral agreement and Slovenia a border that would make more sense than the one determined in arbitration.

On Slovenian politics and Europe

Commenting on the political situation in Slovenia, he said the minority government was fully dependent on "the extremist Left" and labelled the revised 2019 budget too wasteful.

As for the EU, he urged stabilisation and a greater voice for small member states like Croatia and Slovenia.

Janša expressed support to European People's Party (EPP) Manfred Weber as the EPP's spitzenkandidat, while arguing he preferred the EU development vision of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) head Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to that of "socialist and liberal" French President Emmanuel Macron.

Janša is convinced that the label of populism is being abused due to large coalitions at the German and European level that are looking "for some kind of third enemies", while adding nationalism can also present a problem.

Moreover, Janša believes that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who he feels should not be interfering in party politics, has started a conflict with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban within the EPP.

He highlighted the strong support for Fidesz in Hungary and argued that Orban "has a historically correct stance on migration".

As for a potential Fidesz exclusion from the EPP, Janša compared the gay rights efforts of EPP members from the north of Europe to Fidesz's policies. While the SDS is opposing LGBT adoption, it is not demanding that parties supporting it should be excluded from the EPP.

The EPP needs both the Christian socialists from Luxembourg and Hungary's Fidesz, since this is the only way for it to be strong and influential, Janša added, saying most serious EPP members expected a compromise solution and a fully preserved EPP.

All our stories on Slovenian politics can be found here

STA, 6 March 2019 - Transparency International Slovenija (TI) has reported the director of the Agency for Commodity Reserves Anton Zakrajšek to the state prosecution over suspected abuse of office in the procurement of what is currently a 179-km fence on the border with Croatia.

Following allegations that the procurement of the fencing favoured a specific contractor, TI obtained part of the documentation after almost three years of efforts, receiving a nod from the Information Commissioner and engaging in a tug-of-war with the agency in courts.

Screenshot from YouTube

TI believes Zakrajšek abused his powers when signing a razor wire contract with Minis in 2015 which included the provision of an advance payment of EUR 860,832 or 70% of the contract's total value.

Minis has been the main supplier of "technical obstacles" that Slovenia started erecting on the Croatian border during the migration crisis. It has received more than EUR 9.3m from the agency, while the remaining suppliers have been paid a total of EUR 6m, the newspaper Dnevnik reported today.

TI says the agency would have required special consent from the finance minister for the advance payment, which it does not appear to have received, while Zakrajšek is arguing the payment had never been executed.

The official, who is adamant that Minis was always picked as the cheapest bidder, argues the advance payment had been conditional on the supplier securing a bank guarantee in the full amount of the payment, which it failed to do.

What is more, the Finance Ministry said this provision only applied to direct budget users, while the agency is not defined as a budget user at all.

TI responded by saying "the alleged advance payment is only one of the suspicions elements, while confirming or rejecting the suspicion is in the domain of the relevant authorities". The NGO told the STA it saw no reason to withdraw its report.

TI only asked for a portion of the documents, as much of the fence procurement documentation remained classified as internal. The STA has not yet received an answer from the government about whether it planned to declassify them.

The agency said in a press release in the afternoon that the documents were classified because their contents could put in jeopardy the government's objectives to regulate migration flow.

Moreover, Zakrajšek said in the press release that the agency had asked Minis for a bid because the company had already been cooperating with the Interior Ministry at that point and the department had no complaints. The Interior Ministry also provided the specifications for the fence, the press release said.

The fencing contracts, signed under special provisions governing procurement in cases labelled classified, have been raising eyebrows for some time.

Alenka Bratušek, the head of the SAB party who was an MP at the time, caused waves after a 2017 session of the parliamentary Commission for Public Finance Oversight, when she claimed the documents studied had been manipulated with and that the chosen bidder had not been the cheapest.

SAB secretary general Jernej Pavlič said today that Bratušek had forwarded her findings at the time to the prosecution.

Zakrajšek insists the chosen bidder had been the cheapest and fastest and claims Bratušek is misleading with her accusation, which he says is based on a mistake that occurred in one of the minutes.

Media have also been wondering about the choice of Minis, with POP TV reporting on Tuesday that the company and a local office of the Modern Centre Party (SMC), the senior coalition party between 2014 and 2018, shared the same address for a while.

SMC leader Miro Cerar responded to the reports by saying the intensive migration pressure in 2015 required the decision to protect people and property.

"This was the task I put to the ministers," he said, expressing his belief the decisions followed professional criteria and legal obligations. "I believe Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek acted in due fashion."

All our stories on corruption and Slovenia are here

STA, 26 February 2019 - Frans Timmermans, the lead candidate of the Party of European Socialists (PES) for president of the European Commission, argued in an interview with the STA that the European Commission had been "crystal clear" in its reaction to the Slovenian-Croatian border dispute. He also warned against the instrumentalisation of history by politicians.

The first vice-president of the European Commission, who is to visit Slovenia on Thursday as part of the EU election campaign, does not share the view that the European Commission allowed politics to get in the way of law in the case of Croatia's refusal to implement the border arbitration award.

"Thank you for this open and very unbiased question... First of all, this is a bilateral matter. Second, we've been very clear the award needs to be implemented," the Dutch politicians said, arguing that Slovenia and Croatia could "not discharge responsibility and say the Commission should resolve this".

"This is not our role," he added, also dismissing claims about the Commission completely ignoring the opinion of its legal service that confirmed a link between the arbitration award and EU law.

"This is an oversimplification. The link is that if you don't have clarity on the border, you have problems with EU policies, such as fisheries and other policies. This is the link with EU law. These are the consequences of the award not being implemented and the parties should start implementing the award."

"The Commission has been crystal clear about that and I really don't understand why our position is not understood."

Commenting on the state of social democracy in Europe, Timmermans said he does not "believe this doom and gloom about social democracy".

"There's a more general point that the traditional popular parties on the centre left and centre right are both no longer the huge parties they used to be. It's not just a problem of social democracy but of the European People's Party (EPP) as well. So we are not alone in that.

"I want to warn about the temptation in both, centre left and centre right, to think that you can regain your position by going to the extremes. I don't agree with that analysis because if you want to go to the extremes there's already somebody there and they are the original.

"Or you stay true to your own soul and you stay centre left and that's what we are. Looking at Europe today, the central left is staying more in the course of the lines we believe in than the central right which is courting to the extreme right everywhere," Timmermans said, adding he was constantly warning the EPP against getting its soul changed by extremes.

Tajani wrong to rewrite history

Asked in this context about the statements by European Parliament President Antonio Tajani that were understood as Italy's territorial claims against Slovenia and Croatia, Timmermans said he hates it when politicians start instrumentalising history or rewriting history.

"And this is what Tajani did. I disagree with him fundamentally. I'm not asking for his resignation but I want to make it clear that I strongly disagree with him.

"As Churchill put it, the history of Europe is written by rivers of blood and we overcame rivers of blood after the Second World War...Please, please leave history to the historians, they deserve to be writing history not the politicians."

Timmermans, who said he was aiming for the post of European Commission president and had, contrary to rumours in Brussels, "no interest whatsoever in being the EU's high representatives for foreign affairs", also elaborated on his call for a new social contract for Europe.

Tech firms must be taxed

"We're in the fourth industrial revolution, everything is changing, which means the relationship between people and states also needs to change and adopt to this new reality," he said.

People across Europe feel "that our society is not fair for many reasons", he said, listing fairer taxation as the first step towards changing this.

"It's completely inadmissible that the biggest corporations in the world would make profits here but don't pay a single euro of tax. You don't allow your local café to live like that, so why would you let Google, Facebook or Amazon do it?"

Other necessary steps listed by Timmermans include fair minimum wages in all members state, EU legislation that would secure fair job contracts for the young, and affordable housing.

STA, 15 October 2018 - Brežice, the municipality on the border with Croatia which suffered the brunt of the migration crisis in 2015 and 2016, received assurances from the interior minister on Monday that the police were coping with illegal migrations on the southern border. 

STA, 12 October - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was willing to assist in the resolution of the Slovenia-Croatia border dispute and praised Slovenia's efforts to protect the Schengen border after she held talks with Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec in Berlin on Friday. 

STA, 8 October 2018 - The Slovenian police apprehended nearly 160 illegal migrants on the country's southern border with Croatia at the weekend, 74 in the area of the Novo Mesto Police Department, south-east, and 85 in the area policed by the Koper Police Department, south-west.