All Good-Neighbourly? Bilateral Relations with Croatia During 20 years of Slovenian EU Membership

This article examines the impact that Slovenia’s EU membership has had on bilateral relations with Croatia. Although the road to EU accession was considerably rockier for Croatia than for Slovenia, both countries have more recently enjoyed the EU’s transformative power. Joint membership and the parity it confers have had a dampening effect on bilateral tensions. Nonetheless, issues of conflict have remained, such as the border dispute and the pre-1991 foreign-currency savings. In contrast, both countries have relied on close cooperation on energy policy and disaster relief. In terms of EU enlargement in the Western Balkans, Slovenian and Croatian policy goals do not fully align. The findings from the bilateral experience during Croatia’s accession to the EU suggest that the current EU accession process urgently needs (1) a careful balance between the merits-based approach and the grouping of countries for membership in order to detoxicate bilateral issues and (2) a robust dispute resolution framework based on silent diplomacy to actively tackle bilateral issues before accession.