NEWS

664 tough, yet successful days for Slovenia, Croatia and the European Union, as well as peace and security in the region

Today marks the second anniversary of the breakthrough meeting held between the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia at Trakošćan Castle in Croatia where, after 18 years of attempts to resolve the border and other open issues between the two countries, the prime ministers agreed on a framework plan to deal with such matters.

  

The gist of the agreement between the two leaders, as far as the method of determining the border is concerned, was to get both countries to return to the starting point, i.e. the second draft arbitration agreement of the European Commission, leaving Slovenia with the obligation to resolve the impasse in negotiations between Zagreb and Brussels on Croatia's accession to the European Union. On the same day, the prime ministers also agreed on the method and timetable for the intensive negotiations scheduled to take place, which was witnessed by the Kingdom of Sweden — the country holding the EU presidency at the time — and US diplomacy.

   

In light of the agreement concluded at Trakošćan Castle, the two prime ministers met in Ljubljana on 11 September 2009 and issued a joint statement eliminating any existing prejudices: on the one hand, this facilitated the resumption of negotiations between Zagreb and Brussels, and on the other gave reassurance to Slovenia with regard to the preparations of the final version of the arbitration agreement underway, as well as to Croatia in clearing the path for further accession negotiations with the European Union.

   

One of the milestones in solving this complex issue was the signing of the arbitration agreement by the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, and the Prime Minister of Croatia, Jadranka Kosor, in the presence of Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sweden, on 4 November 2009 in Stockholm.

   

With this in mind, 2 October 2009 was another important date marking Croatia's re-launch of accession negotiations, which were successfully concluded on 30 June 2011. To sum up, as many as 664 days elapsed from the prime ministers' first meeting until the definite resolution on the establishment of the border between the two countries (the registration of the agreement by the UN on 25 May 2011) and the successful resumption of Croatia's EU accession negotiations.

   

Since the issue concerning how the maritime and land borders were to be agreed upon — an issue which was resolved by the two prime ministers and upheld by their respective governments and parliaments — received significant political attention, the Slovene people expressed their support for the ratification of the agreement at the referendum held on the first Sunday in June, i.e. on 6 June 2010.

   

The final act of the process, which began in Trakošćan and called for a tremendous amount of political and diplomatic will from both parties, and a strengthening of trust and negotiations carried out in good faith, was the deposit of the arbitration agreement with the depositary: the UN in New York on 25 May 2011. This and the forthcoming signing of Croatia's agreement to accede to the EU will mark the entry into force of the principles contained in the arbitration agreement. This document is to peacefully, and by common consent, determine the land border (with regard to the remaining unresolved issues) and in particular the maritime boundary, which is seen as the last in a series of actions Slovenia has taken to outline the basic elements of its sovereignty.

    

Ever since the first signs of the strengthening of trust between the two countries, which began to materialise after the meeting held at Trakošćan Castle, there have been no serious incidents witnessed by Slovenia and Croatia, virtually since the day they both became independent.  Similarly, thanks to a significant improvement in relations over recent years, most of the other open bilateral issues have been resolved, all of which have previously hamstrung deeper cooperation between the two nations as well as the continued peace, security, stability and welfare of the entire region.