Slovenia has said that it will ratify Croatia's Accession Treaty with the European Union by 1 July 2013, when Croatia is scheduled to join the bloc.

The ratification "will proceed in accordance with procedures and deadlines envisaged by Slovenian laws," Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec has told Social Democrat MP Samo Bevk.

As an EU member country, Slovenia will certainly ratify the treaty by July 1 next year, when Croatia is scheduled to join the Union, he said.

Bevk's party on Tuesday published Erjavec's written response to Bevk's question as to when the Slovenian government would adopt a bill on the ratification of the Croatian Accession Treaty and sent it to parliament.

Bevk put the question a month ago, saying it would be good to ratify the treaty as soon as possible, as postponing would be a bad signal to $ Croatia, although both countries assess their relations as good.

Slovenian media have speculated in recent weeks that Slovenia will wait with the ratification until a meeting of the two governments mentioned during Erjavec's recent to Zagreb.