After its preferred location turned out to be in Slovenia, founders hope to establish themselves on a 100 square metre strip of unclaimed land

The world's youngest micronation, the self-proclaimed Kingdom of Enclava, has announced it will settle on a new spot along the Croatian-Serbian border after learning that its initial chosen location was on Slovenian territory.


"We cease all activities related to the establishment of the new state on a strip of land on the Croatia-Slovenia border," Piotr Wawrzynkiewicz , one of the founders of Enclava, said in a statement sent to AFP.

Instead, the kingdom will now be located on a portion of unclaimed land along the Danube river "near the Free Republic of Liberland (on the Croatia-Serbia border)", he added.

The saga began when Wawrzynkiewicz and his friends, Polish tourists on a trip to Slovenia, learnt from locals that there was an unclaimed 100 square-metre (1,070 square feet) strip of land near the town of Metlika, some 50km (30 miles), west of Croatia's capital Zagreb.

The tourists decided it was the perfect place to make their dreamed-of Enclava a reality, but the Slovenian foreign ministry said last week that the patch of land was part of its territory and the so-called micronation was only a virtual idea that had created a media buzz.

Following the breakup of former Yugoslavia in 1991, seven new states emerged in the region with many border disputes that left some territories as terrae nullius, or no-man's land.

While a Hague-based international arbitration panel is expected to rule on the Slovenia-Croatia border by the end of this year, a solution of the dispute between Croatia and Serbia is still not in sight.

The idea behind Enclava is "to create a place, where everyone, regardless of skin colour, religion or nationality, will be able to express their opinions, study for free, and earn money without worrying about taxes", Wawrzynkiewicz told AFP earlier this month.

News of the aspiring mini-nation spread quickly online and more than 5,000 people have already applied for citizenship, he said.

In a similar vein, Czech national Vit Jedlicka last month created the Free Republic of Liberland on a small parcel by the Danube river between Croatia and Serbia.