Slovenia and Croatia should first try to solve the issue by themselves. If that does not produce a positive result, they should go to international arbitration, Swoboda told reporters after a meeting between Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and members of the Socialist group in the European Parliament.
Swoboda supported Croatia's proposal that the issue of border demarcation should be resolved before an international court if no agreement could be reached bilaterally.
We have been going round in circles for long and I think the time has come for the two sides to take a step forward, which in my opinion is going to an international judicial institution, Sanader said.
Swoboda put forward an amendment on this issue to his progress report on Croatia, which had been presented to the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee in late January.
The amendment urges both parties to take advantage of all available opportunities to reach an agreement on all outstanding border issues and to refrain from any unilateral action that might prevent such an agreement.
In case no agreement is reached, the two countries are called upon to consider the possibility of resorting to international arbitration.
Over a hundred amendments have been proposed so far to the Croatia progress report. The Foreign Affairs Committee will put them to the vote later this month, after which the report will be sent to a plenary session of Parliament.
Borut Pahor, a Slovene Socialist member of the European Parliament, said that this was an entirely new circumstance.
Until now all European Union bodies, including the Parliament, have insisted that the issue should be resolved bilaterally. This is the first initiative suggesting that in case of failure the two countries should resort to international arbitration, Pahor said.