The European Union expects “clarity” on how to solve a border row between Slovenia and Croatia within weeks, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said. The prime ministers of the embattled countries are set to meet on Febuary 24, and “I expect clarity ... in the first week of March at the latest” on the question of whether both sides would accept EU mediation, he said. Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, “would be ready” to head a EU team to solve the problem, which has seen EU and NATO member Slovenia block Croatia’s bid for EUmembership and threaten to torpedo its bid to join NATO, Rehn said. Ahtisaari won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for leading UN efforts to broker a deal between Serbia and Kosovo over the latter’s independence claims. Croatia and Slovenia are at odds over the maritime border which runs through the Bay of Piran in the northern Adriatic - a bay flanked by both countries and Italy. Croatia says that the border should be drawn down the middle of the bay, but Slovenia argues that this would cut it off from international waters.

The row took on an EU dimension in December when Slovenia blocked talks on Croatia’s plans to join the EU. On January 23, the EU asked Ahtisaari to chair a high-level expert group to negotiate a solution, but any such group would only work if both Slovenia and Croatia agreed to it, Rehn said. EU and Croatian officials are set to discuss the accession process at the end of March. It is “important” that that meeting keeps up the momentum of the process, Rehn said.

Germany said it also hopes for a solution to the border dispute, to enable Croatia to join NATO and the EU, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. After a meeting in Berlin with his Slovenian counterpart Samuel Zbogar, Steinmeier referred to the offers made by Rehn and Ahtisaari to mediate in the dispute. Slovenia and Croatioa should approach each other with a constructive and flexible mindset, Steinmeier said. Zbogar announced that Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor planned to visit Berlin in March. The Slovenian foreign minister said relations to Germany were excellent, adding that Germany was an important partner. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon joined the chorus and said in Paris that Croatia should be able to join NATO as early as this spring. “The prime minister is lobbying for Croatia to be able to take part in the NATO summit in Strasbourg and Kehl as an official member,” a spokesman for Fillon said after the French prime minister had held talks with his Croatian counterpart, Ivo Sanader. The summit is scheduled to take place April 3 and 4. In April 2008, NATO invited Croatia and Albania to open membership negotiations, which usually conclude in one or two years.