Croatia resumes EU talks as Slovenia ends embargo

(BRUSSELS) - Croatia resumed its EU membership talks Friday after Slovenia ended a 10-month embargo on the negotiations because of a border dispute between the Balkan neighbours, an EU official said.

At a ministerial accession conference in Brussels, the EU and Croatia opened six new chapters -- or policy negotiating areas -- of the 35 that all candidates must complete to join, the official confirmed.

The chapters were: free movement of capital; agriculture and rural development; justice, freedom and security; food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy; taxation; and regional policy and coordination of structural instruments.

The EU was also expected to rule that Croatia has completed five other chapters which have been held up by the border row with EU member Slovenia.

However Slovenia could yet block progress on three other chapters "keeping them tucked under its arm just in case the resolution of the border dispute doesn't go the right way," a diplomat said Thursday.

Last month, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn expressed hope that Croatia would soon take a major step forward in its membership talks, and that it might be possible to complete them by the middle of next year.

The 18-year-old border dispute had held up Croatia's progress since December, and Slovenia insisted it be resolved before the accession negotiations could resume.

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

Slovenia joined the EU in 2004 and Croatia had hoped to become the EU's 28th member by 2011, but that timetable has been under a cloud.