Speaking to EurActiv on the sidelines of the European People's Party (EPP) congress in Warsaw on 1 May, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and former Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša indicated that their countries had to find a "wise" solution to their 18-year old border dispute to make sure not to damage their reputation in the EU.
Sanader, who has been prime minister of Croatia since 2003, told EurActiv that he was confident that a means could be found to move forward his country's EU negotiations, even if it were to take more time to resolve the border dispute.
"First, I think that we should accept the very important principle that bilateral issues should not interfere with our accession talks. This is a very important principle, and I hope that the majority of the EU countries are in favour of such a principle," Sanader said.
Indeed, the European Commission and the vast majority of EU countries are of the view that accession negotiations should not be taken hostage by bilateral issues. Greece, however, is holding up both the EU and NATO accession of its neighbour Macedonia, because of a conflict over the applicant country’s name. Greece says the name Macedonia implies territorial claims over Greece's own Northern Province of the same name (EurActiv 17/07/08).
Sanader suggested that it should be possible to compromise, because his country recently became a NATO member without Slovenia vetoing its accession (EurActiv 03/04/09). "We want of course to find a solution to the border dispute with Slovenia," Sanader said. "But also we should remember that Slovenia entered the EU and NATO with its border dispute with Croatia. Croatia also entered NATO with this open issue," he pointed out.
US pressure is widely believed to have convinced Slovenia to unblock Croatia's NATO membership talks, but a similar approach towards Greece failed with respect to Macedonia.
Sanader added that the accession negotiations and the border dispute should be dealt with as "parallel processes". "So I'm very confident that we can find a solution on how to proceed with the negotiations in the course of May, or at latest – in June," he stressed.
NATO and EU 'not the same'
Janez Janša, prime minister of Slovenia until November 2008, agreed that it would "make sense" for Croatia to join the EU if it were able to join NATO. But he stressed that the EU and NATO were different organisations.
"Turkey, for example, has been a member of NATO for 40 years, but it is not a member of the EU. But this does not mean that Croatia does not belong to the EU. They deserve to enter; this is also in the strategic interest of Slovenia. We want all neighbours to be from the same family. Also, without Croatia in the EU, there is no hope for the other Western Balkan countries," Janša said.
The former Slovenian prime minister, who is from the centre-right Slovenian Democratic party, criticised his country's new government, led by Borut Pahor, a Socialist, for mistakes made in its approach to Croatia.
"The new government is fresh, inexperienced, and this is why some undesirable things happened," said Janša, adding that his cabinet had been able to avoid being blamed by other EU members for preventing a candidate country from joining.
"We encountered such difficulties during my mandate, in 2004-2008. Wise politics has a chance to avoid such situations and to find a compromise. We have different strategies with the present government. In the beginning of 2008, we established two mixed commissions, between Slovenia and Croatia, with the task of finding agreement on which international institution would judge this case. Because we agreed that we would need such help. The new government stopped this process," Janša explained.
He also blamed Croatia for not having availed itself of the opportunity at that time.
"Croatia refused a compromise that was offered in October, when our government was still at work. Croatia refused, because they thought the new government would be more easy to deal with. This was a miscalculation," Janša further elaborated.
Janša also expressed regret that his country's image had been damaged by the conflict with Slovenia. He said that during the Slovenian presidency, in the first half of 2008, his country had raised its profile, but now the situation had changed. "I am not happy about it," he added.
The former Slovenian prime minister insisted that it was in his country's interest to cooperate with Croatia in all areas.
"In the last few years, we have established many contacts, and economic relations have flourished. One million Slovenians go to Croatia for their summer holidays," he said.
