Slovenia, Croatia PMs sign border arbitration deal 

The meeting follows a decision on Monday by the Croatian parliament to back an arbitration deal with Slovenia, helping efforts to remove a major obstacle to Croatia's attempt to join the EU. 

Sweden, which holds the presidency of the European Union, said in a statement late on Tuesday that Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt had invited his Slovenian and Croatian counterparts, Borut Pahor and Jadranka Kosor, to the meeting. 

EU member Slovenia blocked Croatia's EU talks last December because of unresolved borders. In September, it lifted a veto and allowed Zagreb to resume membership talks after the two prime ministers agreed to resort to international arbitration. 

Sweden, which has made enlargement of the 27-member bloc a priority during its six-month presidency, said in a statement: "The purpose of the arbitration agreement is to enable a solution to the border dispute between the two countries and to enable continued progress in Croatia's accession negotiations." 

The dispute involves a sliver of land on the Istrian peninsula in the northern Adriatic and demands by Slovenia - squeezed between Italy and Croatia - to have direct access to international waters, which could force Croatia to cede some of the sea it sees as its own. 

Once the prime ministers sign the deal, it must be ratified by national parliaments, where opposition parties expressed dissatisfaction in both countries. 

(EurActiv with Reuters.) 

The Slovenian government on Tuesday adopted a unilateral statement to be attached to a document ratifying an arbitration agreement with Croatia, Croatian agency HINA reported. 

The statement says that under international law, the unilateral statement on non-prejudgement attached to the ratification document will have no legal effect on the substance of the arbitration agreement. 

Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor reiterated several times in the last few days that he would not sign the agreement should Croatia insist on signing a unilateral statement on non-prejudgement, claiming that this would downplay Article 3b of the agreement, which Slovenia sees as giving the arbitration tribunal the task of determining the coordinates of Slovenia's contact with the high seas. 

Two independent candidates for the Croatian presidency, Miroslav Tudjman and Boris Miksic, on Tuesday criticised a draft arbitration agreement on the Croatian-Slovenian border dispute. On 27 December Croatians will vote to elect a new president. 

Tudjman said at a news conference in Zagreb that the Croatian government should organise a referendum on the arbitration deal struck by Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and her Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor, and that the referendum should be held in parallel with the forthcoming presidential elections. 

Tudjman said that the referendum question should read 'Are you for solving the border issue with Slovenia exclusively before the International Court of Justice instead of by political arbitration?' 

According to Tudjman, "the public is embittered and concerned and it has been misled" regarding the Pahor-Kosor deal. He said that political arbitration was a defeat for the European Union too, because it revealed its inconsistency and lack of credibility in respecting international law. 

Tudjman described the government's ceding of national territory without first seeking the opinion of Croatian citizens on the demarcation procedure as an act of treason. 

Miksic said in a separate statement that the arbitration deal was devastating for Croatia's future. 

The European Parliament's rapporteur on Croatia, Austrian Socialist MEP Hannes Swoboda, said after meeting Croatian officials Vesna Pusic and Zoran Milanovic in Zagreb on Tuesday that the European Commission should put forward a list of the most prominent and most experienced judges to arbitrate in the Croatian-Slovenian border dispute in order to remove any doubts regarding possible bias. 

Outraged about a draft arbitration agreement on the settlement of the Croatian-Slovenian border row, Croatian fishermen  on the northern Adriatic peninsula of Istria announced plans to stage a protest rally on Saturday. 

The head of the 'Mare Croaticum' association of fishermen in the town of Umag, Daniele Kolec, issued a statement on Tuesday saying that locals would on Saturday join a Libertas convoy, which is to be organised by journalist Branka Separovic in protest against the agreement reached by the Croatian and Slovenian prime ministers, Jadranka Kosor and Borut Pahor. 

The dissatisfied fishermen insist that the border dispute should be dealt with by the International Court of Justice rather than by an arbitration tribunal, as proposed by the draft agreement. Another protest rally of fishermen and war veterans is scheduled for 14 November in the town of Umag.