Croatian officials have blamed Slovenia for slowing down Zagreb’s accession talks with the EU, as part of the row over fishing.
Gordan Jandrokovic will be meeting Dimitrij Rupel on the margins of a conference on security issues in Munich, which is being held on February 8-10.
The meeting was arranged after the presidents of both countries called last week for improved bilateral relations.
The dispute between the two former Yugoslav republics has taken a turn for the worse since January 1, when Croatia extended its Protected Ecological Fishery Zone, ZERP, to include EU neighbours, Slovenia and Italy.
Last week Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader accused Slovenia of halting progress in Zagreb’s EU membership negotiation in a bid to put pressure on its neighbour.
“There is an unofficial blocking of progress on three chapters: the issue of fishery, the chapter on freedom, justice and security, and the chapter on the common foreign and security policy,” Sanader told media, in a reference to the EU accession treaty, which is discussed chapter by chapter.
The prime minister reiterated his government’s view that Croatia had the right to introduce the zone, limiting fishing and other economic activities, in accordance with the UN’s law of the sea convention.
Italy and Slovenia – which holds the current EU Presidency – argue that such actions can only be taken with the agreement of EU partners.
Sanader urged Rome and Ljubljana to resolve their differences with Zagreb through talks.
Italian and Slovene trawlers and fishing boats have been working in Croatian waters for many years, and Zagreb is particularly irritated by the fact that in some areas the Italians catch much bigger quantities of fish than their Croatian counterparts.
Two Slovenian fishing boats, the Riba 1 and Riba 2, from Izola port in Slovenia were sighted 0.65 nautical miles inside Croatian territorial waters on Monday, Croatian police reported.
According to police, the boats stayed in Croatian waters briefly and left at 13:10 hours.
On Wednesday last week the same fishing boats were sighted in Croatian waters, however, they left when a Croatian patrol boat approached them. (balkaninsight)
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