Minister Gordan Jandroković held briefing for heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Croatia

He informed them about the content of yesterday’s meeting in Brussels with Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and the Slovenian foreign minister, as well as about Croatia’s efforts to find a solution to the Croatian-Slovenian border dispute and lift Slovenia’s veto off of Croatia’s accession negotiations.

Minister Jandroković rejected the Slovenian side’s accusations that Croatia had withdrawn from further negotiations on the border dispute, reminding that is was Croatia who had accepted the final compromise proposal by Commissioner Rehn, while Slovenia rejected it.

In that regard, he familiarized them with the Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader’s most recent proposals for the solution to the border dispute and unblocking of Croatia’s negotiations. The first one is passing a joint statement by the governments and parliaments of Croatia and Slovenia, which would confirm that not one of the documents passed after the gaining of independence has prejudged the border between the two countries. The other one is requesting of the European Commission and EU Council’s legal services a joint opinion about whether it is even legally possible for Croatia to prejudge the border by certain documents in its negotiations with the EU. If said legal services confirmed that, Croatia would withdraw those documents, while Slovenia would unblock Croatia’s negotiations. Immediate unblocking would also take place if it was determined that documents cannot prejudge the border.