Later two Croatian police boats joined the Croatian boats. After several minutes of arguing about the ownership of the waters the Croatian boats, which actually had no intention of fishing, left the area.
It is the last in the line of incidents at the Bay of Piran after the Arbitration Court ruling on the border between Slovenia and Croatia in June, according to which the larger part of the Bay of Piran belongs to Slovenia. As explained by the Slovenian Police on Friday, since the ruling there were 142 incidents, 279 consisting of boats sailing in.
Cerar running out of patience
On Wednesday meetings at Umag and Savudrija, Croatian fishermen complained to the Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenković about the pressure by the Slovenian police they had been facing daily at their work after the ruling of the Court of Arbitration, and Plenković told them that they were allowed to fish in the Bay of Piran just as they did before the ruling, i.e. up to the middle line. He repeated that due to withdrawal from the arbitration procedure, Croatia does not accept the arbitration ruling.
On Thursday Minister of Foreign Affairs Karl Erjavec responded to the statements made by the president of the Croatian government, and among other things expressed his concern that a prime minister of a EU and NATO member state is encouraging invasions into Slovenian sea. Next day Prime Minister Miro Cerar warned that his patients and willingness for a dialogue with Croatia will disappear should his Croatian colleague at their September meeting in Zagreb show no real willingness for implementation of the arbitration ruling.