The government made the proposal so that all relevant facts concerning border demarcation according to the Tudjman-Izetbegovic agreement could be considered, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said at a government session on Monday evening.
The government also suggested continuing consultations with the Bosnian government on the construction of the Komarna-Peljesac bridge.
Croatia will not give up the project of the Komarna-Peljesac bridge, because it has an inalienable right to its territory, but it must respect Bosnia-Herzegovina's right to unimpeded passage, Sanader said.
The government also proposed resuming consultations with Bosnia-Herzegovina to regulate property-rights relations.
Speaking to reporters at the end of a Euro-Mediterranean Group summit in Barcelona earlier in the day, Sanader said that Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were two friendly countries which had to do their best to solve outstanding issues.
Commenting on the agreement defining the border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sanader said it was obvious that the agreement, signed by (former Croatian president Franjo) Tudjman and (former Bosnian president Alija) Izetbegovic in 1999 was not entirely fair.
Commenting on the construction of the Komarna-Peljesac bridge, Sanader said that Bosnia-Herzegovina has the right to unimpeded passage, but that Croatia too has an inalienable right to link the two parts of its territory, Komarno and Peljesac, the mainland and the Peljesac peninsula.
"We believe that we will share the same future in the EU as we shared our past in the former Yugoslavia, and we want all issues to be solved in the spirit of good neighbourly relations," Sanader said.
Commenting on property-rights relations between the two countries, Sanader said: "This agreement too has been harmonised, but it has not been signed, and a fair solution should be found and backed by both countries".
The issue of the sea border has become topical in Croatia after the Croatian government last week adopted a proposal seeking from the parliament to ratify under urgent procedure the agreement on the state border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, signed in Sarajevo on 30 July 1999 by former Croatian and Bosnian Presidents Franjo Tudjman and Alija Izetbegovic respectively.
The section of the agreement referring to the demarcation at sea defines the sea border, in line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, as the middle line at sea running between Croatia and Bosnia's mainland, which has been interpreted as the middle line in Mali Ston Bay, situated between the peninsulas of Klek and Peljesac.
The problem is that before the signing of the Sarajevo agreement Bosnia-Herzegovina did not have an inch of the sea in that area, as since the year 1333 the border had run along the rim of the southern side of the Klek peninsula, while the entire maritime area, including the islets of Veliki Skolj and Mali Skolj in the immediate vicinity of Klek, was part of the Dubrovnik Commune and later of its legal successors, the legal successor today being the Republic of Croatia. This was also the border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina at the time when they were part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), which was later confirmed by the Badinter commission.
Although the Sarajevo agreement confirms respect for the unchangeability of the internationally recognised borders and reads that the border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina is determined by the situation as it was in 1991, when the SFRY ceased to exist, the sea border was determined to the detriment of Croatia, prompting some parliamentary deputies, notably those from the Croatian Party of Rights, to say they will vote against the ratification of the Tudjman-Izetbegovic agreement.