European Union (EU) and Croatian negotiators were able to open only one policy area and close three in an accession conference on Friday, as a result of veto by Slovenia.
Croatia had hoped to open 10 new "chapters" and close five. Slovenia, which joined the EU in 2004, fears that the documents that Croatia will use in the negotiations will prejudge the outcome of border disputes between the two countries.
The conference opened Chapter 5 -- Public Procurement -- and provisionally closed chapters on intellectual property law, information society and media, and economic and monetary policy.
Croatia, which opened accession negotiations with the EU in October 2005, now has opened 22 out of 35 chapters and formally closed seven.
Slovenia and Croatia have not been able to completely draw their land and sea borders since their independence in 1991.
EU Officials appealed for calm on Friday. "Let's all try to calm down, have a good Christmas break and immediately after start thinking about how we can get out of this," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a press conference.
Despite the impasse, Rehn said Friday that the target of concluding the accession negotiations by the end of 2009 remained realistic.
Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic, who represented his country in Friday's negotiations, explained that his country is not using the negotiations to prejudge the outcome of the border disputes. He vowed to find a solution to this hiccup in negotiations.
Source: Xinhua
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