Croatia's EU Accession Looking Likely as Slovenia Lifts Veto

Well, it looks like they have finally done it. Slovenia's has said it is ready to lift its veto stopping Croatia's accession into the European Union, after the two Prime Ministers agreed on how to solve the 18-year long border dispute in EU sponsored talks.

The border dispute has been the single biggest obstacle to Croatia's accession into the EU. Slovenia -- the only former Yugoslav state to gain membership to the EU -- has been blocking discussions over Croatia's accession on the grounds that documents therein would be prejudicial to their bilateral border dispute.

"The government will immediately propose [to parliamentary committees] that Slovenia removes restraints for Croatia's EU negotiating process," Slovenia's PM Borut Pahor said after talks with his Croat counterpart Jadranka Kosor.

Croatia's property market will also be boosted by the deal, as investors flock to get in before the trend increases in property prices that EU accession brings. Mind you, Croatia has already had a boost; when EU entry first looked likely Croatia became very popular with investors and prices increased rapidly. As talks stalled, Croatia, then higher priced property quickly lost its lustre in comparison to the new EU hopefuls.

"This is a positive signal for Croatia's EU accession, but also for the overall EU enlargement, for Croatia's neighbors who have European ambitions," said Neven Mimica, who heads the Croatian parliament's committee for European integrations.

The breakthrough is also the first major triumph for Kosor, who took over in July when her predecessor Ivo Sanader unexpectedly resigned after a term of nearly 6 years in charge. The seemingly stalemated EU accession talks is widely thought to have been the reason for Sanader's departure.

The deal clincher was, actually quite simple; a guarantee from Croatia, that none of the documents prepared in the process of negotiating Croatia's accession into the EU would contain anything that might be perceived as prejudicial towards the final border solution.

"I just faxed a letter to the Swedish [EU] presidency where I said clearly that we reached an agreement on the continuation of talks with the EU and continuation of the border talks. No document can be prejudicial to the final border solution," Kosor said.