European Forum

Accession conference with Croatia postponed: new proposal to solve the border dispute

On the 23rd of April the Czech EU presidency postponed an intergovernmental accession conference with Croatia as the country failed to reach an agreement with Slovenia on solving the border dispute. Earlier, on the 20th of April, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic rejected EU mediation as he insisted on an appeal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in order to settle the dispute.

Although Croatia and Slovenia were unable to solve the dispute for 18 years, recently it seemed that a certain breakthrough had been reached. Slovenia did not veto Croatia’s NATO membership― on 1 April Croatia joined NATO― whilst Croatia accepted EU mediation in the border dispute as long as the final word was up to the ICJ. However, in the end the plan proposed by EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn― creation of a council of five legal experts to suggest a solution to the dispute by the end of the year― was rejected by Croatia. According to the Croatian government officials, the proposal did not emphasize the importance of international law in finding a solution. On the 24th of April the European Commission proposed a new plan in which the word “mediation” is deleted from the proposal on the arbitration commission, and which does not continue along former lines of argument based on the 'principles of justice', or the political definition of borders. Instead the dispute will be resolved by the principle of international law.

A five member committee will be made up of one expert in international law from Slovenia and Croatia, and three from the EU, with Croatia seeking that the three from the EU have to be practicing judges. Both countries are expected to respond to the newest proposal within ten days. Croatian government has already welcomed the newest proposal. It has to be awaited if Slovenia will accept the proposal. For now, the accession talks between Croatia and the EU are postponed yet again.

Source: BIRN, SETimes and Vecernji