The talks between Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor and his Croatian counterpart Ivo Sanader held on 24 February in the Slovenian town of Mokrice didn’t reach any agreement.
Now EurActiv suggests an interesting idea by an anonymous MP, that Croatia should voluntarily give up its right to veto future enlargements over bilateral disputes in an attempt to circumvent Slovenia’s blocking of its accession negotiations.
The issue of the Slovenian argument with Croatia is very serious, and it reminds me also of the objection with the name of the Republic of Macedonia raised by Greece. In both cases elements of the national sovereignty (territory and the constitutional name, respectively) are in question. Both Slovenia and Greece hold the upper hand in the disputes, because it is not possible to join the European Union without the unanimous support of all recent Member States. In both cases the question also hinders accession to NATO.
The solving of such problems may provide clue to the actual cohesion of national interests.
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