Weekly Review of the Slovene Economy from 19 to 25 January

Ljubljana, 27 January - The new week continued to an old tune, as Slovenia persisted with complaints about the Croatian measures on foreign road transports of oil. Despite Croatian announcements that the previous measures, which had banned all foreign road transports of oil, were revoked and the situation was back to pre-ban status, Slovenia assessed that this was not the case. The diplomatic pressure became even more intense when Croatia implemented a new set of measures, including special corridors for foreign road transports. Slovenia thus lodged a number of complaints at foreign institutions, including the WTO and more counter-measures could be in the works. Another old tune heard this week was that of the brewery battle, as Interbrew first announced that it holds a 40.8-percent stake in Ljubljana-based Pivovarna Union following the conclusion of its takeover bid and then revealed that it was filing lawsuits against the state-owned Reimbursement Company (SOD) and rival bidder Pivovarna Lasko. SOD, at the sole initiative of the now dismissed Director Anton Koncnik, sold a 12.2 percent stake in Union to Lasko. This amount would have been enough for Interbrew to gain majority ownership.