Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor has said that Slovenia has no more reasons to block the opening of the policy chapter no. 31 on Foreign, Security and Defence Policy within Croatia's accession negotiations with the European Union and that he hopes that the Slovenian government and parliament will greenlight the opening.
"Slovenia has no reason to postpone the procedure of opening the Policy Chapter no. 31 in the EU-Croatia negotiations," Pahor told reporters after he and his Croatian counterpart Jadranka Kosor formally opened an exhibition of Croatian architect Nenad Fabijanic and Slovenian designer Oskar Kogoj in Zagreb on Wednesday evening.
According to Pahor, Slovenian diplomats in Brussels have been instructed to notify their colleagues that Ljubljana would like to see the opening of the said chapter.
"Given that Slovenia has no objections, Croatia expects the opening of the policy chapter no. 31 soon," Croatian Prime Minister Kosor said while visiting the exhibition in the glyptotheque of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
"We expect that all policy chapters will have been opened and a majority of them will have been closed by the end of the Spanish presidency of the EU," she said. The Spanish EU chairmanship ends on 31 June.
According to Kosor, Croatia has done its part of job by ratifying a border arbitration agreement in the national parliament.
"Following information I have received from Prime Minister Pahor, I believe that Slovenia will son finish this job," Kosor said.
