Unresolved bilateral issues are one of the main challenges in the enlargement process and more and more attention will be dedicated to this in the future, European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said on Thursday.
We do not want to import outstanding bilateral issues to the European Union and we do not want bilateral 'mines' to explode in the midst of the accession process, which could halt or throw the process off track, Fuele said in his speech in the Council of Europe in Strassburg.
Fuele underscored that this begged the question of how to tackle bilateral issues.
Some issues can be solved easily by both sides involved, others can be solved with the EU's assistance and as Croatia and Slovenia showed, arbitration can be of assistance. Finally, we have the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Fuele said.
The attitude that bilateral matters should not hamper enlargement processes does not mean much in practise as each step toward the EU requires consensus of all member countries, which means that any one country could misuse the right of veto in order to obtain a better position in any dispute with a neighbouring country aspiring for accession.
