ABSTRACT
Earlier developments are dealt with in the Introduction and Overview. 6 March 1995: Italy lifts its veto on Slovenia having an association agreement
with the EU. (Negotiations on associate status began on 15 March; Slovenia and the EU initialled a trade and political co-operation agreement on 15 June 1995.) The dispute was about the property rights of Italians who fled from the Istrian peninsula after the Second World War. Italy demanded that the property rights of Italian citizens who left the territory of Slovenia after 1945 should be restored. This contradicts the stipulations of the 1975 Osimo Treaty and of the Rome Agreement of 1983, which provides for fair indemnity for such property. The Slovene government has undertaken to submit to parliament legislation harmonizing its laws with those on property rights in force in the EU member states. Under present Slovene law foreign physical persons can inherit property (including land) and can acquire and own buildings (but not land), while foreign-owned legal persons are allowed to acquire all kinds of business-related property (Anton Bebler, The World Today, May 1995, vol. 51, no. 5, p. 98). In 1975 Italy and Yugoslavia signed a treaty which agreed compensation for property losses and all other outstanding issues (FT, Survey, 6 April 1995, p. 35). The promise to the EU does not mean that Italians will be allowed to claim back their property or to take part in auctions of real estate. (The Italian government insists that property should be returned if still under the control of the Slovenian state. Otherwise, if the property is for sale, former Italian owners should be given preferential purchase rights: FT, Survey, 26 March 1996, p. i.)
On 4 February 1998, Italy accepted $62 million from Slovenia in compensation for property seized from ethnic Italians who fled after the Second World War. (Some 21,000 Italians left the country.) This confirmed the validity of the Osimo and Rome agreements, under which the former Yugoslavia agreed to pay a total of $110 million in compensation. Slovenia’s share is $62 million (FT, 6 February 1998, p. 2).
