Slovenia's Ambassador to the EU, Ciril Stokelj, presented at a meeting of permanent representatives of EU countries (COREPER) in Brussels on Wednesday his government's proposal to sign an agreement on preventing incidents like last week's, and make it possible to "seek lasting solutions to outstanding bilateral issues through dialogue".
Croatian diplomatic sources said today that they still had not received the proposal, but knew about it.
The latest crisis in Croatian-Slovene relations erupted on September 23, in the closing of an election campaign in Slovenia, when Croatian border police detained for several hours 12 Slovene politicians, led by Slovene People's Party leader Janez Podobnik, for refusing to show their IDs.
Immediately after the incident, Slovenia announced that it would withhold support to Croatia's integration with the EU.
The agreement on the avoidance of border incidents would be a "gentlemen's agreement" between the countries' foreign ministers, and it would be binding not only for state bodies, but for individuals as well, and it would replace te so-called "fishing code" which has not been in force since May, when Slovenia joined the EU, the Slovene press reports.
The proposal would also include two mediators, for the time being anonymous "prominent politicians" from EU countries.
In yesterday's interview with Slovene Radio, Croatian Ambassador to Slovenia Mario Nobilo demonstrated some reservation towards the idea of mediators helping the two countries settle outstanding issues, the STA news agency reported today.
Stressing that arbitration was the only way to solve outstanding issues, Nobilo recalled the unsuccessful attempt by the two countries to solve the problem of demarcation at sea with the help of former US Secretary of Defence William Perry.
Slovene Foreign Minister Ivo Vajgl last night told the Slovene POP-TV station that there was a possibility for Croatia to agree to mediation although it had refused the agreement initialled by the countries' former prime ministers Janez Drnovsek and Ivica Racan, which Perry considered good.
"I believe that Croatia nowadays is in a different situation because it sees clear European prospects. The two statesmen who have offered their services are such that nobody will be able to accuse them of bias," Vajgl said, expressing hope that Croatia would answer positively to the proposal.
He added that the agreement on the avoidance of border incidents, which would be the first step towards calming down border incidents before international mediation, should be definitely signed by the end of the year.
Vajgl said that EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana had supported the Slovene initiative at his talks with Slovene officials last Tuesday.
Commenting on newspaper commentaries in Croatia and Slovenia, which interpreted Solana's statement after his meeting with Slovene officials as a "lecture" and "warning" to both sides and a sign that the EU was not siding with Slovenia, Vajgl said that the Slovene reaction to the incident was justifiably strong, but that the EU understood it.
"It is a fact that the EU aspires towards compromise and dialogue, so that such a message was sent to both sides. However, I believe that Zagreb would be acting right if it understood that Solana's answer was primarily intended for the country which is an EU candidate and not so much to the country which is already an EU member," Vajgl said.