Juri said on Saturday in an interview with the web portal of the cultural and economic association (SKGZ) of Slovenes in the Italian city of Trieste, that he had fulfilled the criteria for retirement and decided not to run in EP elections any more, prompted by Pahor's policy towards Croatia with which he disagreed.
"The current relations with Croatia are very poor due to the blockade of Croatia's accession negotiations and if I were able to turn things back, I would suggest that the (Slovene-Croatian) border dispute should be referred to an international court and that Slovenia and Croatia may go back to the times of their good neighbouring relations and focus on more important everyday issues," Juri said.
Accusing Croatia of having forwarded to the EU documents prejudicial to the outcome of their border dispute, Slovenia used its veto powers in late 2008 to block Croatia's EU membership talks. Croatia insists on going before an international judicial institution to settle this problem, while Slovenia is strongly in favour of applying the principle of equity in drawing the borderline.
The initiative of EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn on the border row settlement and on the unblocking of Croatia's EU talks is a compromise solution, Juri said, adding that the initiative was not producing results as the two countries were too far apart in their positions.
Juri fears that if Croatia fails to complete the negotiations by the end of this year, such developments would have a negative impact on the prospects of other EU membership aspirants in the region.
He warned about a possible "rise of nationalism" in the region as a result of the Slovene-Croatian dispute.
Juri, a former long-standing mayor of the coastal town of Kopar and deputy in the Slovene parliament, said that since the very start of this problem he was against the blockade of Croatia's EU entry talks, which is why he left the caucus of Slovene MEPs who he said resolutely supported Pahor's position on Croatia.