ZAGREB, 25 June 2022 - Slovenia's President Borut Pahor said on Saturday that the most difficult decision which he had made in his political career had been to block Croatia's EU accession negotiations in his capacity as Prime Minister in 2008.
"Blocking Croatia was my most difficult political decision," Pahor told the Slovenian national broadcaster in his interview on the occasion of Slovenia's Statehood Day, observed on 25 June.
In December 2008, the Pahor cabinet vetoed the opening of new policy chapters in Croatia's EU accession negotiations over the border dispute between the two neighbouring countries.
The blockade was lifted only after Croatia's government led by Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor acceded to Slovenia's request to sign an arbitration agreement in late 2009.
Slovenia joined the EU in 2004, and Croatia in mid-2013.
In 2017, Croatia's government and parliament decided on withdrawing from the arbitration procedure after it was compromised by some of the Slovenian protagonists in the process.
Pahor's second presidential terms expires this year.
