Slovenia

April 2005 | Ratings Update

Relations with neighbouring Croatia were soured following the Slovenian government's decision to ban Croatian hauliers without an EU licence from transporting goods from Slovenia to other EU member countries. While the Slovenian government protested (accurately) that it was enforcing the requirements of an EU directive, its failure to give warning of the policy shift and negotiate a remedy beforehand looked calculated to cause offence. Predictably, the Croatian authorities responded with a symmetrical measure, appeasing angry Croatian hauliers but doing nothing to address their difficulties, which require dialogue between the two states, rather than tit-for-tat measures. Encouragingly, more recent efforts by the Slovenian government to support Croatia's candidacy for EU membership suggest an increased focus on regional stability, rather than political expediency.

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