The Port of Sibenik, which specialized in the transshipment of phosphates and artificial fertilizers, recently passed into the hands of the Turkish corporation Yildirim, which at the beginning of November last year took over the bankrupt Petrokemija in Krutina, and which has been the owner of the Port since 2018.
The Port of Sibenik in Croatia has changed several owners in the last thirty years. With all the sales so far, attempts have not stopped for the BiH company Sipad export-import to return the Port of Sibenik to its possession, because, as they claim, it is their property. So far, everything has been unsuccessful, and according to experts, Croatia has legalized such disputed sales, even though they are apparently unconstitutional and in violation of European Union (EU) legislation.
Annex “G” of the Succession Agreement
The story of the property of the Port of Sibenik is more than 15 years long. This extremely valuable property, which is estimated at more than 100 million euros, was never returned to the ownership of BiH, and as things stand, that is the end of the story, because Croatia, which owned it until recently, does not apply Annex “G” of the Succession Agreement.
Annex “G” is one of the most important documents in this segment, it shows that “Any alleged transfer of rights to movable and immovable property made after December 31st, 1990 and concluded under duress or contrary to subsection (a) of this article b.”.
The position of the Republic of Croatia is that Annex “G” cannot be directly applied without an additional bilateral act between the Republic of Croatia and BiH, as stated in the Decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH No. AP-3153/15 dated January 31st, 2018 (“Official Gazette of BiH” no. 13/18).
Croatia does not honor its obligations
In 2018, the former Minister of Justice of BiH, Josip Grubesa, met in Zagreb with the then Minister of State Property of the Republic of Croatia, Goran Maric, and the topic of the meeting was the succession of the property of the two states. Despite the clear effort of Minister Grubesa to continue the negotiations and to discuss this issue at the highest level, there was no success.
The Ministry of Justice of BiH says that the Republic of Croatia has the right on the territory of its state to regulate legal issues with laws, but they think that the issue of property protected by Annex “G” of the Agreement on Succession Matters should definitely be resolved on a bilateral basis with the representatives of BiH.
Judging by everything, Croatia clearly shows that it does not respect the obligations taken from the multilateral Succession Agreement. The local authorities need to react to all this. It remains to be seen whether this issue will be raised again, Akta reports.
E.Dz.
