Croatia's EU membership talks have been in a stalemate for months due to the blockade of the negotiating process imposed by Slovenia over a Slovenian-Croatian border dispute.
We have been working six months so as to find a solution to the border issue and unblock Croatia's accession negotiations. We are now very close to the settlement of major issues, we have passed a long path and I think it is high time for the completion of the process, Rehn said in Brussels on Thursday after meeting Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.
Rehn said that on Monday morning before a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, he would meet with the ministers of the EU presidential troika: France, the Czech Republic and Sweden - and after that with Foreign Ministers Gordan Jandrokovic of Croatia and Samuel Zbogar of Slovenia.
At the invitation of the current Czech Presidency of the European bloc, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Serge Brammertz, will inform the ministerial meeting on Monday about the cooperation of EU hopefuls Croatia and Serbia with the Hague-based UN tribunal.
Some EU members have shown reservations regarding the opening of the policy chapter (negotiating area) on Judiciary and Fundamental Rights in Croatia's entry talks after Brammertz criticised Croatia for nondelivery of some key military documents from the August 1995 Storm Operation on which the prosecution insists in the trial against Generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac.
Croatia claims that some of the documents had never existed and that some were missing.
In case of the lifting of Slovenia's blockade, Croatia will be able to open nine and provisionally close up to five policy chapters at the next intergovernmental conference, set for 26 June in Brussels. This will mean that by the end of the Czech presidency, Croatia will have 31 policy chapters opened and 12 formally closed. There are 33 policy chapters subject to negotiations.