The date when Finland’s former President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari will start as the mediator of the border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia has not yet been clinched.
This is because the quarrelling parties have not succeeded in agreeing on the terms of the arbitration.
“The matter is still open. Commissioner Olli Rehn is in charge of the arrangements. We’ll have to wait and see what happens”, said Ahtisaari, who spoke at a Crisis Management Initiative seminar in Brussels on Thursday.
The dispute relating to a smallish land and sea area dates back to the break-up of Yugoslavia. There have been previous efforts to resolve to problem.
Commissioner Rehn suggested in January that Ahtisaari would be the right person to lead the three-strong arbitration body.
Ahtisaari is strongly backed up by the Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU Presidency. Also the quarrelling sides would accept Ahtisaari as the mediator.
The prolonged border dispute is seriously hanging over Croatia’s prospective EU membership. The membership negotiations have stalled because Slovenia keeps delaying them.
If the arbitration process is not set in motion quickly, Croatia’s chances of making it into the EU in 2010 or 2011 will be seriously weakened.
Enlargement Commissioner Rehn said on Thursday that a decision one way or another on the start of the arbitration should be reached by the first week of March at the very latest.
“We need a ruling that will unpick the border dispute and will also unblock the issues that stand in the way of Croatia’s membership talks”, Rehn said.
Croatia cannot become an EU member state if Slovenia objects to it. The Union can expand only on the unanimous decision of member countries. In Slovenia the anti-Croatian feeling has spread into other issues as well. Names are currently being collected for a petition seeking a referendum on thwarting Croatia’s NATO membership.
