Eurasia Press & News
The European Union’s Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, on Wednesday night presented Croatia and Slovenia with a new compromise proposal to resolve the border dispute between the two countries.
The proposal would enable the continuation of Croatia’s accession negotiations with the European Union, a statement from Rehn’s spokeswoman, Krisztina Nagy, said.
The statement came after Rehn held talks with the Croatian and Slovenian foreign ministers Gordan Jandrokovic and Samuel Zbogar.
A preliminary discussion on the draft took place at the meeting, according to the statement, which said both sides will now analyse the draft and are expected to respond soon.
After the three-hour meeting, neither the ministers nor Rehn spoke to the media.
Rehn will inform the EU foreign ministers, who are meeting on Friday and Saturday in the Czech Republic, about the results of his talks with the Croatian and Slovenian ministers. This will be the first time that the Croatian-Slovenian border issue and Slovenia’s blocking of Croatia’s accession negotiations are discussed at EU ministerial level.
The aim of the Commission is to help solve border issues and also unblock Croatia’s accession negotiations so that Croatia can meet its deadline of concluding technical negotiations by the end of 2009, the statement said.
This was the third meeting between Rehn, Jandrokovic and Zbogar after Croatia and Slovenia in principle accepted Rehn’s initiative that a group of experts headed by the former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari, become involved in solving the border issue.
On Wednesday, before the meeting, Rehn said that both countries agreed on the possibility of signing a joint statement which would confirm that no document or act since the proclamation of the two countries’ independence would prejudge the border issue. Rehn said this was an important measure in building trust and part of Europe’s overall effort to help solve this bilateral issue.
