Croatia wants to resume talks with Slovenia soon on a border dispute that is delaying its European Union membership bid and still hopes to finish entry talks this year or next, its prime minister said today.
Prime minister Jadranka Kosor, who took office this month, gave no date for talks with Slovenian conterpart Borut Pahor but said she was confident of making progress.
"I am awaiting a meeting very soon with the prime minister of Slovenia," Ms Kosor told reporters during a visit to Brussels. "I believe we are going to make a move forward. I am full of optimism."
She said Croatia continued to support a proposal by EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn for resolving the dispute although Slovenia, which as an EU member state can block its neighbour's accession, wants the proposal amended.
"We remain open to talk ... it is in our interest that this process is finished," Ms Kosor said.
"We are going to come forward with our proposals and I believe that in the friendly atmosphere that exists between our two countries we are going to resolve our problems, and indeed I expect progress soon."
Croatia has long hoped to conclude its EU entry talks this year and to accede in 2010 or 2011. But the dispute with Slovenia has put this in doubt and raised the possibility that new applicant Iceland could join the EU before it.
Slovenia wants Croatia to allow it direct access to international waters in the northern Adriatic and several villages on the northern Istrian peninsula. The dispute dates back to the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991.
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the EU's executive European Commission, said it was now up to Croatia and Slovenia to find a solution after six months of Commission mediation.
He urged Croatia to press on with political and economic reforms needed to join the EU and said the bloc was committed to all countries in the Western Balkans acceding because this would help bring stability to the region.
Ms Kosor said Croatia would do all it could to complete reforms of its justice system and state-run shipyards and cooperate with the international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Mr Barroso also met Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic and urged him to continue reforms, including the last steps needed to clear the way to its citizens having visa-free travel to the EU from next year.
"Montenegro has made good progress in the past year in its European Union integration course. We believe efforts must now intensify and concentrate as a priority on effective implementation of laws," he said.
Reuters