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Slovenia blocking Croatia's EU progress
30.10.2008, 10:29
On 30th October, during the intergovernmental conference on accession, Croatia will close only one chapter, namely Foreign relations, whilst for the closing of one chapter and opening another four, the consensus haven't been reached due to the Slovenian resistance.
26 EU member states agreed to open 4 chapters and to close 2, but Slovenia only agreed upon closing one chapter, whilst blocking the others. It means that Croatia, on 30th October, will not open the following chapters: Freedom of movement of the capital, Regionaly policy and coordination of structural instruments, Freedom, justice and security and Environment. Also, it will not close the chapter Transeuropean networks.
Slovenia explained its position giving procedural, and not political reasons, because the new Slovenian government still exists only technically.
Slovenian representatives in the permanent Council of the EU in Brussels stressed that they are invoking the so-called parliamentary delay, meaning that they cannot give their opinions on negotiation positions until obtaining the opinions of the Slovenian Parliament's European affairs committee. That Committe was established already 10 days ago, but it will hold its first meeting on 6th November, too late for this intergovernmental conference between EU and Croatia.
Until the end of 2008, Croatia will have one more possibility in December during another intergovernmental conference to open and close the blocked chapters and as many as possible of remaining chapters. At the moment, Croatia has opened 21 out of 33 chapters, and after today it will have 4 temporarily closed chapters.