The reporter dedicates special attention to the possibility of Solana helping Slovenia and Croatia to establish dialogue and settle the border dispute. This, he says, is indicated by a part of Slovene President Janez Drnovsek's explanation of the decision to award Solana a high Slovene state decoration, which mentions the so-called Spanish compromise, i.e. the meditation of Solana as Spanish foreign minister in 1995 in settling the problem of Italy's blocking Slovenia's EU integration.
"Many thought of those events after Rop last Wednesday stated in his reaction to the border incident that Slovenia would withhold support to Croatia's admission to the EU indefinitely, which the government formulated as a special conclusion at its regular session the same day," the reporter writes.
"However, Solana's visit was planned several weeks ahead and had a different purpose. Although the explanation stated that the visit was an incentive for future cooperation, those who thought that Solana would immediately visit Zagreb to hold a lecture about the European conduct were wrong," Maksimovic said.
"It can only be speculated what Drnovsek and Solana talked about... and what was said at the tete-a-tete talks between Solana and Foreign Minister Ivo Vajgl. But it is no secret that in his two-minute speech after he received the decoration Solana stressed three times that Slovenia must be a model to other countries as being an EU member was a privilege as well as a burden because it included cooperation and reaching compromises with others," the reporter writes.
"That is why Prime Minister Rop's statement about Slovenia supporting all western Balkan countries on their road to the EU sounded like a compromise," the reporter concludes.