The dispute is a bilateral matter and has to be settled by Slovenia and Croatia, the spokeswoman for EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, Krisztina Nagy, said on Thursday.
Slovenia said on Wednesday Croatia was responsible for the fact that Slovenia had not yet given its consent for opening negotiations on the chapter of fisheries, because Croatia, despite the 1997 bilateral agreement on cross-border traffic and cooperation, did not implement the part of the agreement relating to fisheries.
The Slovene Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday saying that Slovenia was not blocking Croatia's EU negotiations and that the part of the Croatian-Slovene agreement relating to fisheries fell within the European Commission's jurisdiction since Slovenia joined the EU and a solution was expected to be found by Slovenia, the EC and Croatia.