Slovenian and Croatian prime ministers Borut Pahor and Ivo Sanader are to due to meet on February 24 2009 for talks on a prolonged dispute over the countries' border that is holding back Croatia's European Union accession hopes.

The border dispute was on the agenda for the EU's External Relations Council at its meeting in Brussels on February 23. Unless resolved, the dispute could sink Croatia's aspirations to complete EU membership talks in 2009.

The two countries are in dispute over territorial waters in the Adriatic Sea close to the Slovenian city of Piran. The issue dates to June 1991 when the two countries quit Yugoslavia.

According to media reports, Sanader and his Slovene counterpart at the time, Janez Jansa, met in August 2007 and drafted a plan to put the border dispute to the International Court of Justice in The Hague

On February 18 2009, the Slovenian parliament adopted a resolution setting out its demands in the dispute, to which the Croatian parliament responded two days later with a declaration of its own.

In the declaration adopted on February 20, the Croatian parliament said that it dismissed what it described as Slovenia's attempt to prejudge the state border.

The Croatian parliament said that recent developments showed that the International Court of Justice in The Hague was the best choice for a peaceful solution of border disputes.

The Slovene People's Party (SSN) is raising signatures for a referendum on Croatian accession to Nato and has called on Pahor to submit a demand to Croatia to remove border crossings from places claimed as Slovene territory.
 
On February 20, European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said that the two countries should "work on finding a solution to their year-long border dispute if Zagreb's EU membership negotiations are to stand a chance of making progress during an EU-Croatia meeting next month."

On February 22, Croatian foreign minister Gordan Jandrokovic said in an interview with a Slovenian newspaper that Croatia was ready to propose to Slovenia an extremely free system of movement and fishing in the Adriatic Sea, but was not ready to concede territory.

Jandrokovic said that Zagreb appreciated the European Commission's efforts to find a solution to the border dispute between the two countries, but he believed that the problem could be solved only in the International Court.