The Slovenian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee has approved the closing of Chapter 31 (Foreign, Security and Defence Policy) in Croatia's EU membership negotiations at next week's intergovernmental accession conference, committee chairwoman Janja Klasinc said after the committee's closed meeting on Thursday.
Seven members of the committee voted in favour, while two were against, namely one member of the Democratic Party (SDS) and one member of the National Party (SNS), she added.
Klasinc dismissed Croatian media reports saying that Slovenia was again blocking Croatia's EU accession process. She, however, said that all committee members protested against a topographic map recently published by the Croatian Geodetic Institute, in which the border in the Bay of Piran is drawn along the middle of the bay.
Slovenia is no longer blocking Croatia over the border dispute, because that issue will be dealt with under the arbitration agreement, but will continue taking into account good neighbourly relations in Croatia's accession process, Klasinc said.
Klasinc said that Slovenia had recently managed to have a sentence, saying that bilateral issues should not affect EU enlargement, struck out from an EU document.
The claim that in some cases bilateral relations may affect the EU enlargement process was raised in Brussels earlier this week by Slovenian Development Minister Mitja Gaspari, and was supported by his colleagues from Greece and Cyprus, according to Slovenian media.
