LJUBLJANA, Oct 3 (Hina) - A possible decision that international arbitration should finally deal with the issue of the demarcation of the Slovene-Croatian border on the sea, will render the bilateral relations weaker and prolong the
settlement of other open issues, but it will not jeopardise Slovenia's bids to enter the European Union, major Slovene dailies assessed in their comment pieces in Wednesday's issues. "Announcing arbitration, (Croatian Premier Ivica) Racan was the first to bow to the pressure of the party-related patriotism, and he abandoned the difficult struggle for the (initialled) agreement in the parliament. In a way, he also did a favour to (Slovene Premier Janez) Drnovsek, who was exposed to the attacks from right-wing parties accusing him of the treason of national interests," Zoran Senkovic wrote in "Dnevnik" daily. Senkovic quoted Drnovsek as saying that "arbitration will neit
LJUBLJANA, Oct 3 (Hina) - A possible decision that international
arbitration should finally deal with the issue of the demarcation
of the Slovene-Croatian border on the sea, will render the
bilateral relations weaker and prolong the settlement of other open
issues, but it will not jeopardise Slovenia's bids to enter the
European Union, major Slovene dailies assessed in their comment
pieces in Wednesday's issues.
"Announcing arbitration, (Croatian Premier Ivica) Racan was the
first to bow to the pressure of the party-related patriotism, and he
abandoned the difficult struggle for the (initialled) agreement in
the parliament. In a way, he also did a favour to (Slovene Premier
Janez) Drnovsek, who was exposed to the attacks from right-wing
parties accusing him of the treason of national interests," Zoran
Senkovic wrote in "Dnevnik" daily.
Senkovic quoted Drnovsek as saying that "arbitration will neither
offer anything essentially different" from the document agreed by
the two premiers and which is now practically dead.
Gorazd Bohte, the author of a similar comment in another daily
'Delo', cautions that Slovenia must now take care that unsettled
disputes with Croatia would not affect Ljubljana's efforts to be
admitted into the European Union.
"Racan has closed the door and the agreement is now dead," he wrote
adding that for Slovenia it is now of the primary importance to see
how this will influence its bids to enter the EU.
"The thesis that the admission into the EU is conditional on the
resolution of the border issue has no serious arguments. However,
it is not excluded that in case of a dead-lock ... somebody could say
'Let Slovenia wait for Croatia to enter the EU'. Therefore the
Slovenian policy's key task is to ensure that something like that
will not happen. Croatia will, of course, pay its price for the
refusal of the deal. For the start, let's say that our southern
neighbours could forget about the settlement in the near future of
the issue of Croatian citizens' foreign deposits in the Ljubljanska
Bank," Bohte said.
(hina) sb ms