"Thus, these small victories, celebrated by Croatia, may be legitimate, but they are futile," he said a day after it was announced that the advocate general handling Slovenia's case against Croatia over EU law violations at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) deemed the case inadmissible.

He said that Croatia was loud in declaring its small victories in avoiding the implementation of the border arbitration award.

However, the border has been defined, he said, adding that he does not perceive the advocate general's position as a slap in the face for Slovenia. "Slovenians like to paint a pessimistic picture," but one must be persistent, especially when arguments are on your side.

He said that Croatia had been looking for ways to avoid meeting its obligations, "hoping that one day it will persuade us to start bilateral negotiations once again".

Pahor is certain that this could never happen, because Slovenia is obligated to respect the arbitration award and because "no political force, existing or new, will be so brazen as to launch new talks because it could not possibly get more from them than Slovenia was attributed by the arbitration tribunal, both on land and at sea".

The president also expressed hope that the countries found a solution for Schengen expansion, which is in Slovenia's interest.

However, he will oppose Croatia enter the zone unless Slovenia is given guarantees that Croatia is capable of watertight border control.

"In the opposite case, Slovenia's current problems will not be solved, meaning that the internal EU border is protected by wire fence and patrols."

"I expect Croatia to prove that it is undoubtedly capable of controlling the border in a way that no internal border controls between Schengen zone countries will be needed. Fullstop."

Also touching on the government, Pahor said it was high time that the cabinet went through with some key projects. Being a minority government, the president believes that it should identify two or three passion projects and launch a broad public discussion.