25% Slovenes For Referendum On Croatian NATO Entry

A referendum is inappropriate, hold 65.4 Slovene citizens. Out of those who would hold it, 56.9 would vote against Croatia.

A referendum is an inappropriate way to decide on Croatia`s NATO accession, most Slovene citizens believe, who took part in the Delo daily survey.

If they took part in the referendum, 32.6 percent of the subjects would support Croatia on its path to NATO, 56.9 percent would vote against its accession, while 10.5 percent of the subjects are still on the fence.

Apart from the referendum on Croatian NATO entry, due to unsolved border disputes between Croatia and Slovenia, Slovenia is blocking Croatia from opening and closing a third of its chapters in the negotiating process concerning its European Union accession.

Unofficially, Croatian Foreign Affairs Minister Gordan Jandrokovic and his Slovene counterpart Samuel Zbogar will meet with EU expansion commissioner Olli Rehn in Brussels on Monday, to talk about the European Commission`s proposal for the issue to be solved with the help of a group of experts, headed by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.

The same issue will be discussed by Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.