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Slovenia yesterday (6 May) welcomed Croatia's decision the previous day to accept Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn's proposal for solving the border dispute between the two countries, which had frozen Zagreb's accession negotiations and become an irritant for the EU.

Background: During the French EU Presidency, Slovenia blocked the opening of nine out of ten negotiating chapters with Zagreb due to an unresolved border dispute (EurActiv 18/12/08).  The succeeding Czech Presidency has also failed to make any progress in the negotiations so far. Indeed, the EU recently postponed an accession conference after the two countries had failed show any signs of conciliation (EurActiv 24/04/09).  Diplomats have serious doubts about Croatia's ability to wrap up accession talks by the end of the year (so as to be ready to join the bloc in 2010) if the bilateral dispute is not resolved soon (see EurActiv LinksDossier on 'EU-Croatia' relations).  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. Unlike Slovenia, Croatia has a long coastline, prompting Ljubljana to attempt to assert its rights as a "geographically disadvantaged state". 

Slovenia welcomed the Croatian government's positive response to Rehn's plan, Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar told the press hours later.  "We welcome today's [...] response. It will enable the resumption of talks," Zbogar told the press. He added that Slovenia would comments on the proposal after internal consultation. The minister declined to comment on media reports that Rehn's proposal was not in his country's interest, but made it plain that Slovenia would table amendments to the text.  Zbogar also disagreed with Croatian President Mesic's statement that the Rehn proposal was a "take it or leave it" offer. 

GA_googleCreateDomIframe('google_ads_div_nexttocontent' ,'nexttocontent'); GA_googleFillSlot("nexttocontent120x"); GA_googleCreateDomIframe('google_ads_div_nexttocontent120x' ,'nexttocontent120x'); Ljubljana - Slovenia's politicians - the ruling bloc, the opposition and the president - have found a rare occasion to stand united, with everyone stubbornly backing the decision to block the path of neighbouring Croatia into the European Union - despite Brussels' wishes. In a perennial row over where their common sea border meets the Adriatic coast, Slovenia - an EU member since 2004 - has stalled Croatia, which hopes to join in 2011. Most recently, Ljubljana effectively dismissed a proposal by EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn to resolve the stalemate by having international arbitration draw up the contested border. Croatia had already agreed to the proposal, but the Slovenian response - though wrapped prettily in diplomatic language - was effectively "no." Slovenia asked for amendments that were flatly rejected not only by Croatia but by the plan's author as well.

Slovenia and Croatia should work on finding a solution to their year-long border dispute if Zagreb's EU membership negotiations are to stand a chance of making progress during an EU-Croatia meeting next month, the EU enlargement commissioner has said. "It is important that in the next accession conference which is planned for March ... [it is possible] to open, maybe close, but at least open a number of chapters, so that the dynamic of the negotiations will be kept on," commissioner Olli Rehn said at a press conference in Brussels on Friday (20 February).

Slovenia and Croatia have been unable to agree on their common land and sea border since they both seceded from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. But a patch of the Adriatic Sea close to the Slovenian city of Piran, which Slovenia says would secure its ships direct access to international waters, is a particularly thorny issue that caused Ljubljana to block the opening or closing of 11 chapters of Croatia's 35-chapter package in December. "It is important that we find a solution that could help solve the border issue and would allow Croatia's EU accession negotiations to continue according to the negotiating framework," Mr Rehn said.

Croatia – an EU candidate since 2004 – is hoping to conclude EU accession talks by the end of this year, so that it can join the bloc by 2011. "Concluding the accession negotiations by the end of this year is a tall order," Mr Rehn told EUobserver. "If we can find a way forward on the border issue, and if Croatia works very intensively on the reforms, then the target date is within reach. But every day increases the risk that the timetable will slip," he warned. The Slovenia–Croatia blockage is the latest in a line of disputes blocking EU candidate countries. But commissioner Rehn denied this being a sign that new – political – criteria are being added during the accession talks with candidate or potential candidate countries.

Yet another round of talks on the longstanding border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia failed on Wednesday (27 May) increasing the pressure on Zagreb's EU membership timetable. It was the first meeting between EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn and the foreign ministers of Slovenia and Croatia since the two countries presented their responses to the latest Brussels proposal aimed at solving the bilateral quarrel.

The 18-year-old border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia reached a turning point in December when Slovenia blocked Croatia's EU accession talks over the issue. The blockage prompted Mr Rehn to intervene and suggest a mediation proposal to help break the deadlock. In the latest version of his proposal, the commissioner suggested the countries should solve their dispute via a five-member international arbitration tribunal that would operate in line with international law – a point Croatia has been strongly pushing for.

Slovenia is expected to unblock Croatia's EU accession talks at a ministerial meeting today (15 June). The two countries have clashed for several months over disputed territories on the Adriatic coast.

Background: During the French EU Presidency, Slovenia blocked the opening of nine out of ten negotiating chapters with Zagreb due to an unresolved border dispute (EurActiv 18/12/08).  The Czech Presidency has so far failed to make any progress in the negotiations. Indeed, the EU recently postponed an accession conference after the two countries had failed to show any sign of conciliation (EurActiv 24/04/09).  Diplomats have serious doubts about the viability of Croatia's objective of wrapping up accession talks by the end of the year (so as to be ready to join the bloc in 2010) if the bilateral dispute is not resolved soon (see EurActiv LinksDossier on 'EU-Croatia' relations).  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. 

However, this may not be the end of the region's problems, as similar obstacles are expected to emerge in the Western Balkan accession process as a whole, diplomats told EurActiv.  EU diplomats said the lack of a clearly defined border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina could soon create problems "one hundred times worse" than the current dispute between Ljubljana and Zagreb, in which the European Commission has invested a huge mediation effort. 

The European Commission has suggested forming a special group to help solve the lengthy Croatia–Slovenia border dispute and Finnish former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari could be the person chairing it. "Commissioner Rehn has discussed with President Martti Ahtisaari and explored whether he would be available to chair a senior expert group in order to facilitate a solution on the border issue between Slovenia and Croatia," Krisztina Nagy, spokesperson for EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn, told journalists on Friday (23 January).

Croatia on Thursday spoke out in favour of the move, with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader "hailing" the European Commission's proposal. "Such an initiative to move away from a frozen position and blocked Croatian [EU] talks is certainly welcomed," he was quoted as saying by Croatian news agency HINA. Slovenia, however, has had a more cautious reaction. "It is too early to say" whether Ljubljana supports the proposal, the country's foreign minister Samuel Zbogar said, according to Slovenian news agency STA.

Slovenia and Croatia yesterday (18 June) shattered hopes that a long-standing border dispute was coming an end, blaming each other for the deadlock and leaving Brussels to deplore the development.

The European Commission said it regretted that Croatia and Slovenia had failed to make progress in talks on the settlement of their border row, underlining that it was a bilateral issue.  The talks had progressed well since January and there remained only a limited number of points to be settled, but the two sides yesterday failed to make progress on those points, says a brief statement issued by Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn’s office. Rehn will now report to the current Czech and future Swedish EU Presidencies, it adds. 

Slovenia is hoping the status of the Serbian breakaway province of Kosovo will be solved by the end of its EU presidency in June, and has indicated that an outcome other than independence for the province is unlikely.

It is "obvious" that a solution that satisfies both parties cannot be found and "it's not possible" to force Serbs and Kosovars to live together after the way ethnic Albanians were treated during the regime of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, Mr Jansa was reported as saying by AFP. Kosovo will probably not obtain "total independence" right away though, he added.

The EU on Monday (27 April) called on Slovenia and Croatia to accept a European Commission proposal for international arbitration in order to solve their long-standing border dispute, warning that if the quarrel drags on it could have repercussions on other countries in the region.

"We recall the urgency attached to this issue," Czech deputy prime minister Alexandr Vondra, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said at a press conference following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg where Croatia's EU progress was discussed. "Many member states feel a certain sense of urgency, that the stalemate cannot last forever, that very much is at stake ... the whole strategic concept towards the Western Balkans, as well as other disputes," Mr Vondra added.

As it continues to enlarge, the European Union needs to review its current vote weighting and abandon the veto system, Erhard Busek, special enlargement advisor to the Czech EU Presidency, told EurActiv in an interview.

"Personally, I'm convinced that the current voting weight repartition, as well as the lack of qualified majority vote in most of the situations, is the real background of these hesitations. It has nothing to do with region, because it's completely clear for all member states that all the Western Balkan countries should become members of the EU," Busek said.  He also expressed his personal view that in order to avoid infighting between neighbours, Western Balkan countries could more easily join the EU as a bloc. As an example, he referred to the Croatia-Slovenia border dispute (EurActiv 10/03/09), which he said should be solved by negotiations.  "My personal opinion is that […] there could be a bloc of entering countries. Because the real danger is - and we have to learn from the experience of Slovenia and Croatia - is that one country blocks the neighbouring country because of bilateral problems. It's a real nonsense and I think it's better to do it all together," Busek said. 

The structural reforms Croatia still needs to carry out are more likely to hold up its EU membership bid than the current border dispute with Slovenia, a senior EU official has warned. "I would be more concerned about structural reforms [in Croatia]" than about the border dispute, Vincent Degert, head of the European Commission's delegation in Croatia told a group of journalists in Zagreb on Monday (20 April).

Mr Degert spoke about justice reform, as well as the need to restructure Croatia's shipyards and the agriculture sector, as some of the key areas where progress is still needed. "These are the hardcore reforms," he said, with Croatia hoping to finish membership negotiations within the next eight months and enter the EU by 2011.

Meanwhile, the 18-year-old dispute on the delimitation of the sea border between Slovenia and Croatia has been escalating in the last months, after Ljubljana blocked Zagreb's EU accession talks in December. The blockage is now threatening to delay the EU entry timetable targeted by Croatia. An intergovernmental EU-Croatia conference planned for the end of March was postponed and is now scheduled to take place on Friday.

In a new setback to Croatia's EU bid, the Czech EU presidency on Wednesday (24 June) cancelled an EU-Croatia intergovernmental conference planned for 26 June due to a lack of progress in Croatia and Slovenia's border dispute which has been blocking Zagreb's EU accession talks for six months.

"Despite substantial efforts to facilitate a solution to the country's border dispute with Slovenia, Croatia's accession talks remain blocked and no new chapters can be formally opened or closed," the Czech presidency said in a statement.

With Croatia, there is less certainty. Quarrels with Slovenia, its former fellow-Yugoslav republic, meant that the EU on Friday concluded only three chapters with Croatia and opened one more. Slovenia blocked further progress.

Then there is Serbia. A report by the United Nations war crimes prosecutor this month made it clear that, even if Serbian co-operation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague had improved, it ought to be even better.

Macedonia is stuck, too - over that wearisome dispute with Greece about what its name should be. As for Bosnia-Herzegovina, it will be something of an achievement if it hangs together as a state, never mind about joining the EU. And when Montenegro officially presented its membership application on Monday, there were mutterings on the EU side that this was much too premature.

Slovenia, currently at the helm of the European Union, is set to push for signature of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) - the first step to EU membership - with Belgrade in January.

Mr Rupel also announced the EU bloc would set up a special "task force" aimed at helping Serbia to speed up its progress towards the agreement, including the country's "even greater cooperation" with the International Crime Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Serbia's situation has been further politically complicated by the upcoming presidential race.

With just three years of European Union membership under its belt, Slovenia will take on the EU presidency today (1 January) landing itself a highly politicised agenda. Of all the issues that the small ex-Yugoslav state will have to deal with over the next six months, two are set to dominate the agenda - the Kosovo question and the EU renewable energy package.

Zagreb has accepted EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn's latest proposal aimed at solving the lengthy border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia, currently blocking Croatia's EU membership talks. "We will inform Olli Rehn in the next 24 hours. Essentially, we are accepting this proposal," Croatian president Stjepan Mesic said after a meeting with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and the leaders of the political parties in Zagreb.

But while Croatia has accepted the proposal, Slovenia's reaction has been much more reserved. Ljubljana says it is still analysing it and will reply after 10 May. The heads of the country's political parties will meet on Wednesday, while the government is to discuss it on Thursday. "Consultations are ongoing... We don't see it as a ‘take it or leave it' proposal," one diplomatic source told EUobserver.