Slovenia Accepts European Commission’s Mediation

The Slovenian government in principle agrees with the European Commission’s suggestion for solving the border dispute with Croatia.

At Thursday’s session the Slovenian government accepted the initiative of the European Commission on resolving the border issue with Croatia through mediation, Slovenia’s Prime Minister Borut Pahor told a news conference. 

- The government accepted the conclusion that it agrees, in principle, with the suggestion of the European Commission to solve border issues with Croatia through mediation – Pahor said.

The Slovenian side views the EC initiative as a process in which “mediators will be helping two countries to determine the border on land and sea”, Pahor said.

Slovenia is interested in results being achieved through mediation 

Answering reporters’ questions, he explained that now they should wait to see whether the Croatian side would accept the EC’s initiative.

The European Commission’s initiative is great progress in solving the border issue and an achievement for Slovenia itself, Pahor said.

- Mediation gives rise to hope that, in case both governments agree on the start of the mediation, the border will be determined in a relatively short space of time. If that is achieved, that would be an excellent result, Pahor said.

Asked whether the government discussed the possibility of re-activating the arbitration commission, which Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader suggested during a meeting with Pahor at the beginning of the week, Pahor replied that the government would discuss this at its next session.

- Based on a report about the commission’s work so far, we will make a decision next week if there is any sense in the commission to keep functioning – Pahor said.