CROATIA EU NEGOTIATIONS HIT A SLOVENIAN-MADE BUMP

UNCLAS ZAGREB 000762 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL HR SI EUC SUBJECT: CROATIA EU NEGOTIATIONS HIT A SLOVENIAN-MADE BUMP IN THE ROAD REF: ZAGREB 000734 ¶1. (U) The French EU Presidency and the EU Commission hosted a meeting on October 30 in Brussels regarding Croatia's EU negotiations, at which Croatia was only able to provisionally close one negotiating chapter, "External Relations." According to both Croatian and EU sources in Zagreb, Slovenia blocked an EU consensus on the opening of four additional chapters -- "regional policy", "environment", "free circulation of capital", and "justice, freedom, and security" -- as well as the provisional closure of "trans-european networks" chapter. ¶2. (U) Slovenian officials claimed that because its new government had not been officially formed and its newly constituted European Affairs Parliamentary Committee -- whose guidance informs Slovenia's actions in this regard -- had not yet convened, the outgoing caretaker government was unable to green-light the opening and closing of additional chapters. However, at least one Slovenia diplomat publicly acknowledged that Slovenia may have significant reservations about allowing Croatia to move forward on chapters that, in their view, bear on the ongoing bilateral border dispute (reftel). Slovenia, in the past, has indicated that it would block all chapters in which Croatia's negotiating position include reference to an exclusive Croatian ecological zone in the Adriatic or contain any references that could pre-judge the border dispute, even as Croatian negotiators insist that they have carefully avoided any such references in formulating their negotiating positions. ¶3. (SBU) Croatian officials have publicly sought to play down this development, urging that bilateral issues be excluded from Croatia's EU negotiations, but arguing that Croatia's negotiations were going well. The Croatia delegation stressed that they were sparing no effort to complete negotiations and working to quickly meet all benchmarks specified by the EU. The Croatians are hoping to receive a "roadmap" by the EU Commission in November that specifies a rough timeframe for the conclusion of accession negotiations by the end of 2009. According to Croatian media reports, early drafts of the upcoming progress report regarding Croatia's progress toward EU membership are promising that such a roadmap will be forthcoming. COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (SBU) The chapters in question are not the most difficult for Croatia in terms of the legislative effort needed to complete them. Croatian officials say that even if there is a several month delay in the formal opening of these chapters, they can still be concluded before more challenging chapters, such as competition policy, are likely to be complete. Therefore, yesterday's events alone should not derail the Croatian goal of wrapping up negotiations next year. However, Croatian MFA officials have privately expressed to us their anger and frustration with the outgoing Slovenian government's decision to block progress on these chapters. Croatian officials fervently hope the new Slovenian government will abandon the former government's approach of what both Croatian and EU contacts in Zagreb portray as an effort to use the EU process to put pressure on Croatia to resolve the border dispute. END COMMENT Bradtke