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Slovenia removes veto on Croatia's EU talks
Croatia will open six and close five negotiating chapters with the EU next Friday (2 October), following a vote in the Slovenian parliament to unblock negotiations which had been put on ice over a border dispute between the two former Yugoslav republics.
The parliamentary committee on EU affairs in Ljubljana voted unanimously on Tuesday (29 September) in favour of lifting the veto, the Croatian news agency Hina reported.
The move follows a decision by the two countries' prime ministers, who recently said the border dispute that had poisoned their relations should not present an obstacle to proceeding with Croatia's EU accession negotiations.
Background:
During the French EU Presidency, Slovenia blocked the opening of negotiating chapters with Zagreb over Crotia's EU accession due to an unresolved border dispute. Overall, Ljubljana prevented nine negotiating chapters from being opened and five from being closed.
The subsequent Czech EU Presidency failed to make any progress in the negotiations. In the meantime, hopes have died for Croatia's objective of wrapping up accession talks by the end of the year with the aim of joining the bloc in 2010.
The border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia concerns small pockets of land along the Adriatic coast, which could prove important if accompanied by exclusive access rights to deep-sea zones.
A huge mediation effort from the Union was abandoned last June.
The beginning of the Swedish Presidency marked a toughening in the EU's
mediation efforts, as Sweden stated that it would not engage in solving
bilateral problems, including the Croatia-Slovenia border dispute.
On 11 September, Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and her
Slovene counterpart Borut Pahor announced that the border dispute
should not constitute an obstacle to proceeding with Croatia's EU
accession negotiations.
Pahor said the negotiations on the settlement of the border dispute would resume - from the point at which they were interrupted on 15 June - when Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn's latest proposal was on the table.