Diplomatic Ice in Belgrade

"The first official contacts between representatives of the FRY and Slovenia ended with no tangible deals. Slovenian Undersecretary for South Eastern Europe Stefan Cigoj and Deputy FRY Foreign Minister Radisav Bulajic discussed the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations." That short report was published by Ljubljana daily Delo a day after Cigoj returned from Belgrade, but there were indications that something was happening because before he left, Cigoj urged the Slovenian Foreign Ministry to organize a press conference on his return - which didn’t take place.

Despite Slovenian expectations of a discussion on diplomatic relations in Belgrade, the FRY insisted on the painful issue of succession to the assets of the former Yugoslavia and that’s how the talks ended. The Slovenian diplomats later patiently explained what they were doing in Belgrade.

"If you want to succeed in diplomacy, if you want to open up a market, if you want to help your citizens, you have to launch initiatives. That’s what we did. However, we have to understand that we are not at the top of the list of priorities for Belgrade," Slovenian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Ignac Golob told Ljubljana TV. Cigoj was also careful with his choice of words after the trip. He said the talks were successful and that they will be continued soon in Ljubljana. Interestingly, no Slovenian official has used that cautious language in regard to Belgrade for the past six years.

Regardless of the recent blunders by Slovenia’s diplomats, the statement by the FRY Foreign Ministry that Yugoslavia can’t accept the opening of consular missions "while the succession dispute is ongoing" sounds contradictory and unconvincing. Despite identical disputes, the FRY is establishing or already has normal relations with Croatia and Macedonia.

There are other reasons why the diplomatic relations should be put in place. Slovenia has 5,000 citizens in the FRY while there are at least 20,000 Yugoslav citizens in Slovenia. International human rights organizations said at least 3% of the Slovenian population are of Serb origin including a number of people who lost all their rights in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, who have no citizenship and no chance of regulating their social, property, pension, job or other rights. Also, hundreds of Yugoslav citizens have taken their pensions in Slovenia even though the two states haven’t signed any agreements on that issue. Last year, some 100,000 FRY citizens traveled to Slovenia while some 50,000 Slovenian citizens went to the FRY. Since there is no agreement on payment, thousands of FRY citizens, mainly older people, are forced to spend money to travel to Slovenia for their pensions. Many are turned back from the Slovenian border either because they don’t have the required minimum of 350 DEM or because border officials decide to exercise their discretionary rights.

People who have citizenship in either state also face problems because they don’t have the right to inherit property in the other state and the required letters of guarantee and high consular costs hamper them from keeping in closer contact with relatives.

Slovenia is drawing closer to the rest of Europe slowly but surely and will probably become an EU member in a few years which will make relations even more complex.