Slovenia’s parliament endorses Croatia’s access to EU

Slovenian Parliament on Tuesday endorsed Croatia’s accession to the European Union (EU), thus giving the green light to Zagreb’s entry path after years of freeze.Croatia concluded EU accession talks in 2011 but needs all 27 EU members to ratify its entry before it can join the bloc on July 1. With neighboring Slovenia’s 82-member parliament voting unanimously in favor, 23 member states have done that so far.Croatia will be only the second former Yugoslav republic to join the EU. Montenegro started the accession talks last year while Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosovo have yet to do so.Germany, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands are expected to follow suit, after the European Commission said last month that Croatia had met all requirements and was ready to join.Slovenia had until now kept Croatia on hold because of a dispute over Slovenian lender Ljubljanska Banka (LB). LB closed down without reimbursing its Croatian depositors when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in 1991.Croatia agreed in March to suspend a lawsuit before its courts, in which it is seeking reimbursement from Ljubljana. Further talks on LB will be held under the auspices of the Swiss-based Bank for International Settlement.Meanwhile the prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo were set Tuesday to take another stab at normalizing their relations in a meeting that the European Union said would be “conclusive.” The two sides have held seven rounds of talks under EU auspices since October.Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Serbia steadfastly refused to recognize the mostly ethnic Albanian breakaway province.