Poettering said that his statement on arbitration as one of the ways of resolving the border issues was not intended as a form of political pressure on the two countries.
I didn't mean to exert political pressure, that's not my style, Poettering said in an interview with Slovene Radio.
His statement, made after a meeting with Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader in Brussels last week, was seen by the Slovene media as a sign of support to Croatia and a signal to Slovenia not to put the issue to the fore during its presidency of the EU in the first half of 2008.
Poettering said it had later been explained to him that in the event of arbitration Slovenia would want its entire border with Croatia to be the subject of arbitration, and that he was confident that it would be better if the two countries reached an agreement bilaterally, because the arbitration process would take years to complete.
Poettering would not comment on the contents of the report on Croatia's progress in EU membership talks, which will be put to the vote in the European Parliament next month, nor whether a draft amendment proposed by the rapporteur Hannes Swoboda, which mentions the possibility of settling the border dispute through arbitration if no bilateral agreement is reached, would be adopted.