Slovenia urges EU not to give up in border row

(LJUBLJANA) - Slovenia urged the European Commission Tuesday not to end its mediation of a long-running border dispute with Croatia, even after talks last week ended in a new stalemate.

"Slovenia will propose officially to the European Commission to continue the process," Prime Minister Borut Pahor told journalists here after meeting parliamentary party leaders.

"Over the last six months (under the Commission's mediation) we have made such great progress that it would be a shame giving it up," he added.

An updated proposal by Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn for solving the 18-year row "has brought us very close to something that, in my opinion, would be a very just solution that could be the ground for an arbitration tribunal to rule on the dispute," Pahor also noted.

The EU's executive body has been trying to broker an accord between the two former Yugoslav states since Slovenia blocked EU accession talks with Croatia in December.

But at a meeting last week, the two sides failed to reach an agreement on Rehn's proposal.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country takes over the rotating EU presidency in July, said Monday that he would not launch new initiatives to solve the dispute but allow "a period of reflection" for the two countries.

Ljubljana insists that the dispute be resolved before Croatia's EU accession negotiations resume.

The row involves a small piece of land and sea and dates back to 1991, when the two proclaimed independence from the former Yugoslavia.

Pahor did not rule out a bilateral solution but insisted it would have to be based on an agreement reached in 2001 by former Slovenian premier Janez Drnovsek and his Croatian counterpart Ivica Racan but then rejected by Croatia's parliament.

"If Croatia wants to solve the problem bilaterally, then it should re-examine the Drnovsek-Racan agreement from 2001," Pahor said.