Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and her Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor agreed at a working and friendly meeting in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, on Wednesday that they would try, by Croatia's next European Union accession conference, to settle issues related to the reservations Slovenia has regarding the opening of three policy chapters in Croatia's EU entry talks.
The Slovenian PM said after the meeting that before the next accessionconference, set for February 19, he and Kosor would try to solve "at leasttwo of the three current issues, so that Slovenia no longer has anyreservations" about the opening of the said policy chapters.
Pahor did not specify those policy chapters, and at Croatia's last accessionconference last December, Slovenia blocked, for reasons of substance, theopening of the policy chapters on fisheries, environment, and foreign anddefence policy.
Two of the three chapters, that is, Slovenia's objections to them, could beclarified in terms of substance first at the level of joint commissions theestablishment of which was agreed on today, and then at the level of the twogovernments, Pahor said, adding that Slovenia was not blocking the saidchapters, and that its reservations regarding their substance were in line withthe right all EU members are entitled to in the accession process.
Pahor said the two countries' good relations and the possibility ofsettlement of the remaining outstanding issues were continuing now that themost difficult issue, border demarcation, had been regulated by an arbitrationagreement.
The Slovenian PM said that it had been agreed to reactivate a jointcommittee for economic cooperation, which he said could meet in Zagreb nextmonth.
Croatian PM Jadranka Kosor, who addressed the press together with Pahor,said that today's meeting was very good and that she was certain it would yieldresults, as had been the case with her previous meetings with the Slovenian PM.
"Croatia wants to complete its EU entry talks this year and we will doour best to make it happen. I believe we will make a significant step forwardbefore the accession conference on February 19, and I am confident there willbe results, as has been the case so far," said Kosor.
She expressed confidence the two governments would show determination todeal with the remaining outstanding issues within the joint commissions thathad been agreed on, and that the joint committee for economic cooperation couldmeet in Zagreb already in early February.
Kosor also highlighted Slovenia's positive role in the region as an EU andNATO member, and Croatia's role as a member of NATO and an EU hopeful.
"The start of our talks on arbitration was a message of hope, not onlyto us but to all our neighbours," she said at the joint news conference.
The Croatian-Slovenian agreement on international arbitration in the borderdispute was commended also by Pope Benedict XVI, Kosor said, adding that bynegotiating, the two countries were sending a message of peace and stability inSoutheast Europe, and were showing that they were looking towards the future.
Kosor said that she and Pahor today agreed in principle to hold a newmeeting, somewhere along the Croatian Adriatic coast.
Pahor told reporters that Slovenia and Croatia had launched a jointinitiative to organise a conference of regional heads of state and governmentwith EU officials to discuss the prospects of EU membership for all WesternBalkan countries, and that this was an important message from Slovenia as an EUcountry and from Croatia, a country which would soon become an EU member.
