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Original scientific paper

Reconstructing the Intractable: The Croatia-Slovenia Border Dispute and Its Implications for EU Enlargement

Thomas Bickl ; Duisburg-Essen University, Institute for Political Science


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Abstract

This study seeks to reconstruct two crucial phases in the management of the protracted territorial conflict between Croatia and Slovenia over the common State border: (i) The causal mechanisms of the genesis of the Arbitration Agreement during the Croatian accession negotiations with the EU 2008/2009, and (ii) the conflict dynamics during the subsequent arbitration procedure before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) 2012-2017. The method employed is process tracing based on elite interviews (politicians and civil servants) and informal documents. The arbitral award from 29 June 2017 is the end of a formal process, but not of the substantive dispute. Bilateral conflict between an EU Member State (Slovenia) and a Candidate Country (Croatia at the time) creates de facto add-on political conditionality. The Croatia-Slovenia case has profound implications on the SFRY successor States and EU enlargement in the Western Balkans.

Keywords

EU Enlargement; Arbitration; Croatia; Slovenia; Serbia

Hrčak ID:

190336

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/190336

Publication date:

8.12.2017.

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