Zagreb - The issue of Croats in Slovenia, who do not have a recognised national minority status, is one of the outstanding issues between Zagreb and Ljubljana that we would like to resolve in a spirit of good neighborliness, Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Thursday.
"That is one of the open issues," he said at the end of his two-day official visit to Slovenia .
"The status of Croats living in Slovenia is important to us. We believe that there are conditions for them to receive the status of a national minority. The Slovenian side has its own constitutional and legal solutions where only two minorities are recognised, Italian and Hungarian, while the others are treated differently," he told the press in Ljubljana, adding that Croatia wants to "solve this problem in a spirit of good neighborly relations and mutual respect."
Although about 55,000 Croats live in Slovenia, whose representatives Jandroković met on Thursday, they do not have the status of a national minority, which is a problem that has been going on for decades. Slovenia recognises only Italians and Hungarians as national minorities.
"There will be dialogue about it and I believe we can find solutions that will be satisfactory for both parties," he concluded.
Jandroković is wrapping up his two-day official visit to Slovenia which happened at the invitation of his Slovenian counterpart Urška Klakočar Zupančič. In addition to her, Jandroković also met with Prime Minister Robert Golob and National Council President Marko Lotrič.
He pointed out that bilateral relations are at a high level, friendly and good-neighborly, and that the Slovenian officials strongly emphasised the help that Croatia provided to Slovenia, which was hit by floods in August, and Slovenia to Croatia after the earthquake in 2020.
"This time we were connected by that adversity and both countries showed that we also care about helping our neighbors," he added.
During all talks in Ljubljana, it was pointed out that the economic cooperation is excellent, the figures are great when it comes to trade, mutual investments are growing, and the number of Slovenian tourists in Croatia is large, second only to the Germans, Jandroković said.
They also discussed energy cooperation when it comes to the co-owned Krško nuclear power plant, as well as the use of the LNG terminal on Krk island for Slovenia's future needs.