"We have agreed to the proposal tabled by the European (presidential) Troika and Commissioner Rehn which was debated by the Croatian Parliament. However, after that the Slovenians came with some amendments which substantially changed the proposal," Sanader said at the start of the Croatian government's session in Zagreb, refuting criticism from Ljubljana that Croatia had withdrawn from the negotiations.
Sander said that he had therefore outlined another two proposals at yesterday's summit meeting of the European People's Party which he said might presumably facilitate the situation and make Slovenia lift its veto.
European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn does not intend to convene a new round of talks with the foreign ministers of Croatia and Slovenia after no progress was made at yesterday's trilateral meeting on solving a Croatian-Slovenian border dispute and unblocking Croatia's EU accession negotiations, the spokesman for the Enlargement Commissioner, Krisztina Nagy, said in Brussels on Friday.
Commissioner Rehn does not think that it would be useful to convene a new meeting under the current circumstances, she said in response to questions from the press whether Rehn would organise a new trilateral meeting in a foreseeable time.
The talks had progressed well since January and there remained only a limited number of points to be settled. Regrettably, the two sides today failed to make progress on those points. Commissioner Rehn will now report to the current and future EU chairs. The border issue is a bilateral problem, read a brief statement issued by Rehn's office on Thursday.
The EC statement made no mention of Croatia withdrawing from the process launched by Rehn, of which Slovene Foreign Minister Zbogar accused Croatia on Thursday.