Speaking after a meeting of two European Parliament committees, Swoboda said he would not withdraw his amendment, but added that arbitration was the last resort if the bilateral way failed. Attending the meeting was also Croatian Justice Minister Ana Lovrin.
Swoboda is the author of a progress report on Croatia which the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to adopt on March 27. Over a hundred amendments have been submitted to the report.
Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel recently lobbied in the European Parliament for eliminating the mention of arbitration from the report.
Swoboda said he would try to convince both sides to reopen bilateral negotiations based on what had already been agreed in the past, but added that if bilateral talks could not help there existed two possibilities -- mediation and arbitration.
He said both possibilities could work only if the two states agreed to them, and that an agreement on how to resolve this issue should be reached by the end of the year.
The Croatia progress report was presented to the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in late January.
Swoboda's amendment to the report called on both sides to exploit every available opportunity to reach an agreement on all outstanding border issues and to refrain from any one-sided actions that might obstruct such an agreement.
The amendment further called on the two sides to consider the possibility of international arbitration if no such agreement was reached.