Bickering blocks Croat, Albanian NATO bids

Slovenia's internal political woes have blocked the ratification of Croatian and Albanian accession protocols to NATO, reports say. Former PM Janez Jansa's Slovenian Democratic Party on Thursday in Slovenia's parliament refused to vote in favor of the protocol, after the majority failed to adopt the final report of the 2007 budget. Bickering blocks Croat, Albanian NATO bids Jansa's party was in power during that year, and now its leader refuses to give the NATO protocols a two-third majority they need to pass until the budget document has been adopted. All this caused criticism of Jansa at home and abroad, including from Prime Minister Borut Pahor, who accused his predecessor of "blackmail and damage to Slovenia's reputation in the international community". But Pahor also gave in to Jansa's demands and accepted to have the contentious document on the parliamentary agenda "again some time next week", not withstanding the fact MPs already rejected it once. Slovenian media are now reporting that this has "caused indignation" of the ministers from the ranks of other parties in the ruling coalition, as well as that of lawmakers, "who do not wish to vote on this matter in a different way".

Bickering blocks Croat, Albanian NATO bids

Janša's party was in power during that year, and now its leader refuses to give the NATO protocols a two-third majority they need to pass until the budget document has been adopted.

All this caused criticism of Janša at home and abroad, including from Prime Minister Borut Pahor, who accused his predecessor of "blackmail and damage to Slovenia's reputation in the international community".

But Pahor also gave in to Janša's demands and accepted to have the contentious document on the parliamentary agenda "again some time next week", not withstanding the fact MPs already rejected it once.

Slovenian media are now reporting that this has "caused indignation" of the ministers from the ranks of other parties in the ruling coalition, as well as that of lawmakers, "who do not wish to vote on this matter in a different way".