Midnight deadline in Balkan border row
Olli Rehn in renewed bid to resolve border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia.
By Toby Vogel
Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for enlargement, has given Slovenia and Croatia until tonight (30 March) to respond to his latest proposal for a resolution of their bilateral border dispute. Rehn confirmed the deadline after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers on Friday and Saturday (27-28 March) at Hluboká Castle in the Czech Republic. The foreign ministers also met their counterparts from current and potential membership candidates in the western Balkans and Turkey.
Slovenia has blocked Croatia's talks on joining the EU because of the dispute. Samuel Žbogar and Gordan Jandroković, the foreign ministers of Slovenia and Croatia, are to meet Rehn again this week, possibly on Wednesday (1 April).
Earlier this year, the European Commission floated the idea of a facilitation panel chaired by Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, but the two sides have not been able to agree on the panel's specific remit. Slovenia wants it to issue binding arbitration while Croatia wants a referral to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Michael Spindelegger, Austria's foreign minister, sowed confusion with comments on Friday (27 March) suggesting that Slovenia and Croatia had agreed to split the question of the border from that of Slovenian access to the open seas. Rehn later described the idea as "false rumours and speculations", and it was also rejected by Žbogar. Croatia maintains that Slovenian vessels have unimpeded access to international waters in the Adriatic regardless of the location of the land and sea border between the two neighbours.
The foreign ministers' meeting in the Czech Republic also exposed division among EU member states on the future course of enlargement. It is widely accepted that Croatia should be the next member, entering perhaps in 2012, though a membership application from Iceland later this spring is also a distinct possibility. But while Croatia's candidacy is in principle non-controversial, it has been caught up in the difficulties that Ireland and the Czech Republic have in ratifying the Lisbon treaty.
Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign minister, said: "Clearly there will be no enlargement if there is no Lisbon treaty. Everybody knows it, so why not say it?" German media reported similar statements by unnamed German diplomats. It was not clear whether this threatened halt to enlargement would also affect Croatia.
Carl Bildt, the foreign minister of Sweden, warned of "devastating consequences" for the applicants if the EU put the brakes on enlargement.
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Borders	Enlargement	Judiciary	Neighborhood	Rights
Austria	Croatia	Czech Republic	France	Iceland	Ireland	Slovenia	Sweden	Turkey
Olli Rehn