"The Court reiterated its rule that governmental bodies or public companies under the strict control of a state are not entitled to bring an individual application before the European Court of Human Rights," reads the unanimous verdict reached by the court published on Thursday.

The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

The case concerned the main branch of the Croatian subsidiary of LB, which sought recourse from the Strasbourg court because it could not execute two writs issued by a court for the recovery of its claims to IPK Osijek.

The bank said it was owed around EUR 57.5m plus interest by the sugar factory.

This is thought to be only a small portion of the debt to LB left behind by Croatian companies following the collapse of Yugoslavia.

The bank has on the other hand been sued by foreign currency savers in Croatia who have demanded their deposits be paid out even though the bank is bankrupt.

The savers won an important victory when the Strasbourg court ruled last year that they must be repaid their outstanding savings by Slovenia, which has all along argued that the deposits were vouched by Croatia. Slovenia has since prepared a compensation scheme.

Responding to last year's ruling, Slovenia said it was going to review possibilities for recovering the claims held by LB to Croatian companies.

LB launched its lawsuit against Croatia because the execution of claims was allegedly stopped by former Croatian Finance Minister Slavko Linić, who stated that the bank would not be allowed to recover claims until it pays Croatian savers.

It claimed in the suit that its property rights and right to a fair trial had been violated and that Croatia discriminated against it.