Balkan border rows complicate EU drive LJUBLJANA, March 23, 2010 (Reuters)
Slovenia's Constitutional Court approved a border arbitration agreement with Croatia in a Tuesday ruling needed to complete Zagreb's European Union membership bid. Slovenia, the only former Yugoslav state to have joined the EU, vetoed Croatia's EU entry talks in December 2008 because of a land and sea border dispute, which lasted until the two countries agreed on international arbitration last September. All other Balkan states outside the EU want to join the bloc but could face similar problems. By contrast, the former Yugoslavia's borders with Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria and Greece have not been challenged. SLOVENIA-CROATIA: Slovenia and Croatia dispute about 6 km (4 miles) of a total of 664 km of their land border, as well as the sea border in the northern Adriatic. Under their 2009 agreement, an international arbitration team will settle the dispute and its ruling will be binding for both countries. CROATIA-BOSNIA: Croatia and Bosnia have several disputed points along their land border and in the southern Adriatic, where two tiny uninhabited islands are contended. Bosnia has also said Croatia's plan to build a bridge bypassing the narrow Bosnian stretch of the southern Adriatic coastline would complicate its access to international waters. Because of the recession, Croatia has shelved the plan for now. CROATIA-SERBIA: Croatia and Serbia have largely resolved their border except for a sliver of land along the Danube river. Under an interim agreement Croatia and Serbia share control over two disputed islands on the Danube. CROATIA-MONTENEGRO: Croatia and Montenegro have agreed to resolve the issue of the Prevlaka peninsula in the southern Adriatic before an international court. SERBIA-KOSOVO: Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, and still sees Kosovo as Serbian territory. The border between the two is 352 km long and unclear in several parts. Serbia says any attempts by the Kosovo government to settle border issues with its neighbours violate Serbia's territorial integrity. SERBIA-BOSNIA: Several Serbian villages have been physically cut off from Serbia along the Lim river. Serbia has proposed a land swap with Bosnia several times but no agreement has been reached yet. SERBIA-MONTENEGRO: The two countries are still working on small parts of their border, after Montenegro declared independence in 2006. SERBIA-MACEDONIA: Small parts of the border have yet to be determined but the issue has not been politically exploited on either side. MACEDONIA-KOSOVO: Macedonia and Kosovo, while it was part of Serbia, were unable for years to agree the exact border, particularly along several kilometres near the village of Debelde. The problem was resolved with help from the United States and the EU. The agreement was ratified by the two parliaments in October 2009. KOSOVO-MONTENEGRO: According to Kosovo authorities, around 1,500 hectares of border land is being disputed with Montenegro but talks between the two states have yet to start. (Reporting by Balkan bureaux, edited by Adam Tanner and David Stamp) http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/printerfriendly.aspx?id=27885 _______________________________________________ News mailing list [email protected] http://lists.antic.org/mailman/listinfo/news
