Considering the problems and scandals the port operator Luka Koper continues to face, it is a miracle that it actually managed to overtake the nearby Trieste and Rijeka ports.

However, lobbyists try to persuade Slovenia that it should end the concession agreement with the state-owned Luka Koper, set up a state-run port management and rent out at least one pier to foreigners, who would then squeeze out the state-owned company in no time.

But this is the model that allowed Luka Koper to be better than the ports nearby. Moreover, such a move would lead into the loss of neutrality. At the moment, all shipping companies are equally welcome in Koper, while ports in which everything is dictated by one company are no longer attractive to others.

The paper also wonders what investors would be willing to invest in Luka Koper, knowing about the complications with the second rail track.

The port's problem is not its business model. It lies in foreign interests that have been supported by pretty much all governments in the past 15 years, Delo says.

If Slovenia were indeed a maritime country it would not be going through all sorts of complications over 27km of rail, the paper says under the headline Maritime Country?