Slovenian Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Zbogar stated that if talks over the border dispute are not resolved in his country's interest, it would be "quite realistic" to expect a popular referendum on ratification of Croatia's accession treaty to the Union, the Croatian daily Jutarni List reported yesterday (7 January).
A spokesperson for Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told EurActiv that the Commission never comments on ratification procedures for international treaties, including accession treaties, in different member states.
During the French EU Presidency, Slovenia twice blocked the opening of negotiation chapters as a direct result of the border dispute, with the Commission expressing regrets over the latest development, the daily reports. Despite French mediation efforts at the last intergovernmental conference, Slovenia prevented its Croatian neighbour from opening nine out of ten negotiating chapters (EurActiv 18/12/08).
The border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia concerns small pockets of land along the Adriatic coast, which could prove important should they include exclusive rights to deep-sea zones. Unlike Slovenia, Croatia has a long coastline, prompting Slovenia to attempt to assert its rights as a "geographically disadvantaged state".
Croatia hopes to wrap up accession talks by the end of the year in preparation for EU entry in 2010 (see EurActiv LinksDossier on EU-Croatia relations). At a summit of the bloc's members last month, French President Nicolas Sarkozy even announced that a deal to satisfy Irish demands ahead of a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would be included in Croatia's accession treaty as an "Irish protocol" (EurActiv 12/12/08).
