Croatia, Slovenia edge closer to solving border dispute 

Croatia accepted the latest proposal from Rehn for the settlement of its border dispute with Slovenia, the Croatian state leadership decided on Tuesday after consultations with representatives of parliamentary parties, the state agency HINA reported. 

The country's president, Stjepan Mesic, and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader told reporters that the country's leadership and political parties had agreed that Rehn's proposal should be accepted, but said that details of the proposal would not be made public yet. 

"This was a 'take it or leave it' proposal. And we chose to take it," Mesic said. 

Asked if the acceptance of Rehn's proposal meant that Croatia did not have any objections to it, Sanader said Croatia felt that some of the text could have been different, but refused to elaborate further. In a recent interview with EurActiv, Sanader argued in favour of a deal, but said bilateral issues should not be allowed to hamper his country's EU negotiations. 

Under Rehn's proposal, the border between Croatia and Slovenia would be established by a five-member arbitration tribunal in line with international law. Further details of the proposal are not publicly available. 

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. 

"At the meeting [with Rehn] nobody said it was the final proposal or presented it as a 'take it or leave it' offer," Zbogar insisted.