The five stressed on Wednesday that they support the government’s decision regarding the implementation of the arbitration ruling on the border between Slovenia and Croatia. The Slovenian government last week passed a series of measures to implement the Slovenia-Croatia border arbitration ruling. The ruling needs to be implemented after Friday, and the government agreed that the measures it adopted will go into effect on Saturday.

On Saturday, Slovenia will start asserting control over the territory it was awarded in the arbitration ruling. Cerar said that Slovenia will refrain from incidents, and he expects Croatia to do the same, even though Croatia refuses to recognize the arbitration ruling. In the six months that passed since the arbitration ruling was announced, Slovenia and Croatia failed to reach a compromise on their border dispute.

Trdinov vrh, a peak that hosts a Slovenian military facility, was awarded to Croatia, but the military facility will remain under Slovenian control for the time being. A number of questions remain unresolved; therefore, it is essential that the two countries continue to work together.

Since talks between the two countries have reached an impasse, Slovenia hopes that Frans Timmermans, the first vice president of the European Commission, will take on a more active role as the mediator in the dispute. Timmermans said he would unveil his plan on how to implement the border arbitration ruling in early 2018.