Slovenia is expected to unblock Croatia's EU accession talks at a ministerial meeting today (15 June). The two countries have clashed for several months over disputed territories on the Adriatic coast.
Gorgan Jadronkovic, Croatia's foreign minister will meet his Slovenian counterpart Samuel Zbogar on the sidelines of the EU foreign affairs ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg on 15 and 16 June.
The meeting will take place under the watch of EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and the current EU presidency 'troika': France, the Czech Republic and Sweden.
On 10 June, Rehn said he expected Croatia's EU accession negotiations to be unblocked soon. He added that after six months of hard work, the sides were now close to an agreement.
The Czech EU Presidency also expressed hope that on the occasion of the Luxembourg meeting, the EU-Croatia intergovernmental conference would be able to take place on 26 June. Prague hopes that this success will brighten its final days at the EU helm.
More problems coming up for the Balkans
However, this may not be the end of the region's problems, as similar obstacles are expected to emerge in the Western Balkan accession process as a whole, diplomats told EurActiv.
EU diplomats said the lack of a clearly defined border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina could soon create problems "one hundred times worse" than the current dispute between Ljubljana and Zagreb, in which the European Commission has invested a huge mediation effort.
The Czech Presidency also revealed that at its invitation Serge Brammertz, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), will brief the EU ministers about Croatia and Serbia's cooperation with the Hague-based UN tribunal.
As the Croatian news agency HINA reported, some EU members have shown reservations regarding the opening of the 'Judiciary and Fundamental Rights' chapter, after Brammertz had criticised Croatia for its failure to deliver some key military files from the August 1995 Storm Operation, related to the trial against Generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac.
Croatia insists that some of the documents never existed, while others are missing. If Slovenia lifts its veto, Croatia will be able to open nine and provisionally close up to five policy chapters at the 26 June intergovernmental conference, HINA further writes.