US embassy cable - 04ZAGREB1737

UNCLAS  ZAGREB 001737 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PBTS, PREL, EFIS, PHSA, PGOV, SENV, SI, HR, Regional Issues 
SUBJECT: CROATIA FEARS POLITICKING OVER CROATIA-SLOVENIA 
BORDER COULD COMPLICATE EU ACCESSION 
 
REF: (A) ZAGREB 1077 (B) LJUBLJANA 758 (C) BRUSSELS 
 
     2495 
 
SUMMARY AND COMMENT 
------------------- 
 
1. (SBU) As rhetoric on border questions between Slovenia and 
Croatia escalates before the October 3 Slovenian 
parliamentary election, Croatia calls for arbitration and 
rejects as blackmail recent Slovenian threats to use the EU 
card. The potential for violence is small, but each side will 
continue to claim jurisdiction over the same small wedges of 
sea and land. 
 
2. (U) There are three intertwined issues:  the maritime 
boundary, the land border (probably more important as a 
bargaining chip in the maritime border dispute), and 
Croatia's declaration of a fishing and environmental zone due 
to go into effect October 3 (see septel). Croatian and 
Slovenian leaders have for weeks exchanged insults and 
accusations blurring the distinction among these issues. 
 
3. (SBU) Though pre-election politicking can explain harsh 
statements and provocative stunts by both sides, the serious 
issues of Slovenia's self-image as a maritime nation and 
Croatia's inferiority complex vis-a-vis Slovenia have kept 
the boundary issue alive since independence and will continue 
to do so even after Slovenia's October 3 election. Before it 
received official EU candidate status, the GoC had to 
backtrack on the fishing and environmental protection zone. 
However, the GoC is not strong enough to weather any further 
bilateral compromise on the border issue.  The GoC hopes to 
resolve the boundary issue through arbitration before its EU 
entry, but the fact remains that a "no" vote by any EU member 
can delay or derail Croatia's EU aspirations.   END SUMMARY 
AND COMMENT. 
 
MARITIME BOUNDARY 
----------------- 
 
4. (SBU) Croatia bases its maritime boundary case on its 
reading of the UN Convention on the Law of Sea, which the MFA 
legal department claims establishes guidelines for delimiting 
territorial seas in bays based on "equidistance." (Comment: 
UNCLOS also allows for exceptions based on historical title 
or special circumstance.) Despairing of a negotiated solution 
that would meet its political needs, the GoC notes in all 
public statements its strong preference for binding 
arbitration. 
 
5. (SBU) Controversy surrounds a 2001 agreement between 
Croatia and Slovenia (always referred to by Croatian 
authorities as a "draft" document), which was initialed by 
then-PM Racan's representative but repudiated by Parliament 
and never signed. The GoC maintains the agreement has no 
legal force. The document, which was never published but 
apparently grants Slovenia a corridor through the Adriatic in 
order to give it "contact" with the open sea, caused a 
national uproar and nearly brought down Racan's government. 
The Croatian MFA has expressed frustration at GoS insistence 
in keeping the 2001 document alive. 
 
LAND BORDER 
----------- 
 
6. (U) Increased tension over the maritime boundary has 
deepened divisions over the land border. Stunts and 
provocations by both sides -- police interdictions of fishing 
vessels, protests at border crossings, and most recently the 
September 22 arrest of several Slovenian parliamentarians by 
Croatian police for refusing to provide identity papers while 
crossing an international border -- kept the controversy in 
the headlines throughout August and September (ref c). 
 
7. (SBU) On the land border issue, the GoC cites the opinion 
of the Badinter Commission, a group of legal experts 
established by the EU in the early 1990s to determine borders 
within the former Yugoslavia.  According to the Badinter 
Commission, in the absence of agreement otherwise, the 
international borders of the new states should be the same as 
the internal borders of the Yugoslav Republics.  This 
"Badinter principle" is noted in both the Croatian and 
Slovenian declarations of independence.  Thus, the GoC 
considers the land border question closed.  (NOTE: The 
Badinter group did not address the maritime boundary, as 
there were no internal maritime borders in the former 
Yugoslavia.) 
 
8.  (SBU) The MFA asserts that the repudiated 2001 initialed 
agreement made only small administrative changes to the land 
border, on an equal land swap basis with Slovenia.  Slovenian 
press reports characterize these as major land concessions, 
 
but if that was the case, it was not sufficient to appease 
the Croatian parliament. 
 
FISHING AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ZONE 
----------------------------------------- 
 
9. (SBU) These maritime boundary and land border problems 
have intensified at an inopportune time, just before 
Croatia,s Fishing and Environmental Protection Zone (FEPZ) 
in the northern Adriatic enters into force October 3.  As a 
political concession to Italy and Slovenia in the run-up to a 
decision on Croatian EU candidate status, the Zone will not 
apply to EU member states (reftels A and C). The latest 
chapter in a muddled history on Adriatic fishing rights, 
including a 1996 bilateral non-interdiction agreement for 
Slovenian and Croatian fishermen, the FEPZ will give Croatia 
authority to interdict only non-EU flag vessels fishing in 
the zone.  Since the bilateral non-interdiction agreement 
expired with Slovenia's EU accession in May 2004, Slovenian 
police have begun stopping Croatian flagged fishing vessels 
(reftel B) and Croatian police have responded by escorting 
Croatian fishermen operating near the equidistance boundary. 
 
WON'T GO AWAY AFTER OCTOBER 3 
----------------------------- 
 
10.  (SBU) While much of recent Slovenian rhetoric seems to 
be political electioneering, this is a long-festering dispute 
that matters deeply to both countries.  According to the MFA 
and EC delegation contacts, EU accession will not solve the 
maritime boundary question because the EU has no competency 
over territorial seas.  Croatian officials fear Slovenia will 
block Croatia,s EU entry, but anything other than 
international arbitration will be impossible for the GoC to 
sell to its public. 
 
11.  (U) Embassy Ljubljana has seen this cable. 
FRANK 
 
 
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