Italy ForMin Coming to Reconcile Slovenia, Croatia

After Ljubljana, the Italian foreign minister is coming to Zagreb to find a solution to the dispute between Croatia and Slovenia.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – Although the cause for the official visit of Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini with Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic on Monday is the signing of a memorandum on cooperation between the two countries, the two ministers will also discuss Slovenia’s blocking of Croatia’s accession talks in the EU. 

During an informal meeting of foreign ministers in Prague this week, Frattini was placed in charge of asking Croatia to be “flexible” with the aim of achieving an agreement with Slovenia. Italy has taken on the role of mediator in the Slovene-Croatian dispute and has intervened in Ljubljana before the Christmas period, for now, without success, with the goal to ensure Croatia’s entry into the European Union according to plan – by 2010.

If Croatia does not get gas from Russia by Monday, one of the subject of the talks between the two ministers will also be assistance from Italian gas reserves.

After the bilateral meeting. Frattini will hold a lecture at the Croatian Faculty of Political Sciences on the subject of “The Future of the European Union – Financial Crisis, Lisbon Treaty and the Expansion of the EU”.