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Ljubljana - The matter of ratification of Croatia's Treaty of Accession to the European Union was one of the topics of hours-long consultations which Slovenian President Borut Pahor held with parliamentary parties' leaders on Thursday afternoon, and after the meeting Pahor said that they had reached consent on the ratification, which Slovenia makes conditional on a solution to the dispute over the now-defunct Ljubljanska Banka.
"An exceptionally significant result of today's meeting is that all parties will support the ratification when agreement on Ljubljanska Banka is reached," Pahor said. This means that the Slovenian parliament will ratify the Croatia-EU treaty with a two-thirds majority, regardless of the current political crisis which threatens to topple the cabinet of Prime Minister Janez Jansa. However, Slovenia insists on finding a solution to the LB dispute on which the Slovenian and Croatian foreign ministers are conducting negotiations, before it launches the ratification procedure.
Igor Luksic of the Slovenian Social Democrats (SD), who is seen as one of the biggest proponents of ratification as soon as possible, said ahead of today's consultations that the ratification was the first thing that the national parliament should do despite the ongoing crisis. He said that it seemed to him that all parliamentary parties were aware of the importance of the issue.
As for the political developments under way in Slovenia since some junior partners left the ruling coalition, the meeting does not seem to have lessened the ongoing imbroglio. (Hina)