Cinderella goes to Europe

In downtown Sarajevo there is a beautiful post office, with stucco eagles on the facade facing the river. Urban legend says that during the hard days of the siege of the city, graffiti appeared underneath the eagles.

The first one said: 'This is Serbia'. The second one said 'This is Bosnia'. And the third one said: 'You idiots, this is a post office.'

Later, in an article for the New York Review of Books, Timothy Garton Ash said that a fourth line should have been added saying: 'This is Europe'.

In the meantime, more than fifteen years have passed, we entered a new century and the countries of the region are still waiting. In 2000, Croatia was the first South Eastern European state to start becoming European politically and not only geographically.

It proceeded with variable speed and success. But it was moving and it showed the way for its eastern neighbours. By the autumn of 2008, the accession process was making good progress, chapters were being opened and closed and even the European Commission said that the estimated time of completion was the end of 2009.

All this time, there was a problem looming in the background, initiated by Slovenia regarding its border with Croatia.

Nobody took the issue too seriously because Slovenia and Croatia never had any problems in the past.

It was somehow assumed that the issue would take care of itself or be resolved along the way. But rather than making it smaller, political neglect made it grow. And so, in the autumn of 2008, Slovenia, an EU member, blocked Croatia's negotiations and its progress towards EU membership.

The border issue was bilateral, but blocking Croatia's accession in effect also blocked the EU enlargement policy. So it also became Europe's problem. The Commission, especially the enlargement commissioner Rehn, and subsequent EU presidencies, have put a lot of effort into resolving the issue.

Finally, 11 months later, the Swedish presidency called the first intergovernmental conference for 2 October, when Slovenia lifted its objection to 11 chapters in Croatia's negotiations.

This is the result of a compromise that does not give everything to anybody, but includes something for everybody. Slovenia's original demand was met: Croatia officially declared that no documents – maps, cadaster and other documents – used in the EU negotiation process, could under any circumstances be treated as having any influence on the future decision on the border.

Croatia succeeded, at least for the time being, in separating the process of determining the border from its negotiations for EU membership. The EU can continue on its road of politically influencing and institutionally integrating the south-east of Europe.

We are not out of the woods yet. Some chapters are still blocked by Slovenia. Some serious reforms still need to be implemented by Croatia. The political sensitivities have risen in both countries and the distrust that developed along the way will take some time to repair.

Two more IGCs

The Swedish presidency is planning at least two more intergovernmental conferences by the end of this year. In order for them to succeed, both Slovenia and Croatia will need to invest real additional effort, knowledge and diplomatic skills into agreeing on the model for deciding on the border between the two countries.

In the meantime, the other countries of south eastern Europe are watching. If Croatia is successful in its domestic reforms and in its accession to the EU, it will be a positive signal and a good sign for all of them. But it is also a signal that the responsibility for the region is shifting to the countries of the region themselves.

Without the capacity to deal with their own problems and without changing their political culture, they will not become European and they will not join the EU. In a strange way, the issue between Slovenia and Croatia made that more clear than ever before.

Vesna Pusić is President of the Croatian National Council for Monitoring EU Negotiations. She is a member of Croatian Parliament and one of the main speakers of the opposition Croatian People's Party - Liberal Democrats and a candidate for president of Croatia in 2010