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| Europe |
| Slovenia withdraws support for Croatian EU membership |
| 2004-09-24 |
| Slovenia has withdrawn its support for Croatia's EU membership bid following a border incident on Thursday. Ljubljana withdrew its support following the arrest of a number of men, including an opposition party leader — who are believed to have refused to show identity cards in a disputed border region. The arrests prompted Slovene Prime Minister Anton Rop to say that he was withdrawing support for Croatia's bid to join the European Union, according to Le Monde. "Unacceptable incidents like that on Wednesday... mean that Slovenia — for now - can not back Croatia's accession to the EU", Mr Rop told national radio, according to the French daily. Croatia is aiming to join the Union in 2007, along with Romania and Bulgaria. The authorities in Zagreb reacted angrily to Slovenia's announcement stating that EU membership should not be used as a tool to exert pressure. Hooey! Where *have* you been? Greece recently threatened to veto the EU membership of *nine* countries if Cyprus wasn't also given membership. In comparison this is quite small potatoes. Atleast they are only threatening the country they have a problem with. In a foreign ministry statement the Croatian authorities described the reaction as the "inappropriate politicisation, unprecedented in European Union practice". Dedicated to Mimesis and Bomb-a-rama. Without the EU, what leverage would a tiny nation like Slovenia have to use against Croatia? Not that this incident is *nice* of course. But it shows about the boost of diplomatic power that EU gives to its members. |
| Posted by:Aris Katsaris |
| #1 Border incidents! Shades of Bismark. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-09-24 1:20:10 PM |