"It won't be the European Parliament to decide on arbitration, but Croatia and Slovenia. Regardless of what Swoboda or anyone else says, this is a bilateral and not a multilateral issue. There will be no arbitration if the two states agree so," Sanader said at the start of a government session, adding that there was no need to mention outstanding issues.
He was responding to comments that yesterday some European People's Party deputies in the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee were against an amendment to a progress report on Croatia mentioning the possibility of arbitration in the border dispute with Slovenia, which the author of the compromise amendment, the European Parliament's rapporteur on Croatia, Austrian Socialist Hannes Swoboda, interpreted as a turnaround in the EPP's policy towards Croatia.
Sanader recalled that Croatia proposed to Slovenia in October 2005 they should approach an international judicial body regarding their outstanding border issue.
He said he expected the Slovene colleagues to agree on the matter in due time and the two sides to go before an international judicial institution. He voiced hope the border issue would be closed soon and underlined that Slovenia had joined the EU and NATO notwithstanding this outstanding issue.
Sanader also said that before going to international arbitration the two countries must agree on which body to approach, on the exact topic, and to commit in advance to accepting this body's decision.