Slovene Bloc Comes In Handy For Croatian Premier

Ljubljana-based Delo paper commented that Sanader uses the Slovene veto to cover up for his cabinet`s incompetence

After an extraordinary and urgent visit of European Union expansion commissioner Oli Rehn to the Slovenian and Croatian governments, to provide help of the European Commission in solving the border dispute and for Croatian EU accession negotiations to continue, Bozo Masanovic commented in Slovenian Delo daily that Slovenia was not to blame for this cease, but the incompetent Croatian government.

In his comment, reported by the world media, he wrote that the Croatian cabinet used the December veto of Slovene PM Borut Pahor`s cabinet as “a suitable excuse above all for being late in realising reforms and other demands of the Union. It is not possible to shift the blame to their Northern neighbours”. He argumented his position:

- The rigid truth is that the balance of Croatian accession negotiations would not have been brilliant even without the Slovene bloc. Our Southern neighbour managed to open barely two-thirds of legal chapters and has closed just three in time, until last October when the fourth year of expansion dialogue began, in short, before Janez Jansa`s cabinet expressed the objection over the disputable Croatian documents which were attached to the negotiation stances”.

Masanovic believes the resolution of the foreign policy committee of the European Parliament, which expresses “great regret over interrupted negotiations of bilateral issues” came in “handy for the Croatian government to prove to the home public – if it needs to do so anymore – that they have great support in the Union and that Slovenia is absolutely isolated in its position”.

The fact is that Croatia has not significantly, if at all, advanced in the most important issues – the justice and public administration reforms and the solution of corruption and organised crime. This is what Joseph Daul, vice president of the European Parliament, and Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini came to say in Croatia. It is definite that PM Sanader`s government uses the option of hiding these problems, pointing out that the main problem was the Slovene bloc.

However, the fact is that the Slovene government is also creating its own spin, washing its hands before the home and European public because of the bloc. Croatia`s Northern neighbours want to get everything with blackmail and maintain its reputation of a decent European country with a PR campaign in the media. Can they sell it to anyone else?