"The government will immediately propose [to parliamentary committees] that Slovenia removes restraints for Croatia's EU negotiating process," Slovenia's Borut Pahor said after talks with his Croat counterpart Jadranka Kosor.The news will come as a boost to Zagreb -- whose EU bid has been on ice for almost 10 months -- and other EU hopefuls in the Western Balkans, where bilateral disputes abound. "This is a positive signal for Croatia's EU accession, but also for the overall EU enlargement, for Croatia's neighbors who have European ambitions," said Neven Mimica, who heads the Croatian parliament's committee for European integrations.
Slovenia, which in 2004 became the only former Yugoslav state so far to join the EU, has been blocking Croatia's entry talks since last December. It said documentation Zagreb had submitted for the EU accession prejudged their border row.
The breakthrough is also the first major triumph for Kosor, who took over in July when her predecessor Ivo Sanader unexpectedly resigned after almost six years at the helm.
Kosor said Croatia had now pledged that no documents used in the EU negotiations would be prejudicial to the outcome of the border dispute, which dates back to the communist Yugoslavia's demise in 1991.
"I just faxed a letter to the Swedish [EU] presidency where I said clearly that we reached an agreement on the continuation of talks with the EU and continuation of the border talks. No document can be prejudicial to the final border solution," Kosor said.
