"Intolerable incidents like the one that happened on the Slovene-Croatian border on Wednesday mean that Slovenia will withhold its support to Croatia's admission to the EU indefinitely," the STA agency quoted Rop as telling Slovene Radio.
The Croatian police detained several Slovene nationals at the Plovanija border crossing point on Wednesday as they were on their way back from the village of Mlini where they visited Josko Joras, an ethnic Slovene who does not recognise Croatian sovereignty in that area. Two members of the Slovene parliament, Janez Podobnik and Ivan Bozic, were among the detainees.
The Croatian police in Istria County explained that the Slovenes were detained as they had illegally crossed the state border. Joras's guests, most of them members of the Slovene People's Party like himself, said they refused to present their ID as they "were on Slovene territory".
On Wednesday, Slovene Parliament President Feri Horvat sent a protest letter to his Croatian counterpart Vladimir Seks, and Slovene PM Rop yesterday said that the Plovanija event was "an intolerable incident which pushes Croatia further away from the European Union". Last evening Rop phoned Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to discuss the issue.
Commenting on the latest border incident by Slovene citizens, Sanader said yesterday that Croatia could not tolerate such cases, but stressed that he was against any moves that might escalate the situation.
Croatian journalists asked Sanader, who was in New York attending the annual session of the UN General Assembly, to comment on the incident. Asked about his government's tolerance threshold with regard to such incidents from the Slovene side, the prime minister said: "Well, there is no tolerance. If someone violates the border, if they enter Croatia without documents and do not respect Croatian laws, then the Croatian police will act like in any other case."
Slovene Foreign Minister Ivo Vajgl, who cut short his visit to the UN in New York because of the incident, informed European Union High Commissioner for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana of the developments. The Slovene minister asked Solana to convey to Croatia his country's message that Slovenia, as an EU member, could not tolerate such conduct on Croatia's part. He also told Slovene Television that Solana had expressed his shock at the incident,
Solana's spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said she could not confirm Vajgl's statement that Solana had expressed his shock at the incident.
Gallach said in a phone interview with Hina on Thursday that she could confirm that Solana had talked to Miomir Zuzul of Croatia and Ivo Vajgl of Slovenia last night, but she could not comment on the meeting saying she did not attend it nor was able to contact Solana afterwards.
Slovene Interior Minister Rado Bohinc sent a protest note to his Croatian counterpart Marijan Mlinaric claiming that the conduct of the Croatian police was "contrary to international law".
Croatian Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt told Croatian Radio on Thursday that she had discussed the issue with her Slovene counterpart Zdenka Cerar. Skare Ozbolt described the conduct of the Slovene MPs and politicians as "an original model for scoring political points ahead of elections".
Most Slovene parliamentary parties have condemned the incident.
Roman Jakic, head of the Slovene parliament's foreign affairs committee, has sent a protest letter to his Croatian counterpart Gordan Jandrokovic.
Jakic, who also heads the Slovene delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, has informed the Assembly's secretary-general and president, Bruno Haller and Peter Schieder, of the incident. The Slovene official has also protested to Frane Matusic, head of the Croatian delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.
Slovene Ambassador to the EU Ciril Stokelj said yesterday that the European Commission had been notified of the incident. He added that he would inform other bodies of the European Commission of the matter.
Graham Watson, head of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament, on last evening warned that Croatia, as a candidate for EU membership, should be aware that all its moves were being carefully monitored by Brussels.