Brussels, 04/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting in Stockholm attended by the president-in-exercise of the European Council Fredrik Reinfeldt, Prime Ministers of Croatia and Slovenia Jadranka Kosor and Borut Pahor signed an agreement on 4 November, whereby both countries submit their border dispute to international arbitration. The political agreement on the issue in early October allowed Croatia's accession negotiations to the EU, which had been blocked by Slovenia for nearly 10 months, to be reopened. The arbitration tribunal will have five members: a judge appointed by each of the parties, a president appointed by common accord and two other members appointed by common accord from a list of names put forward by President of the Commission José Manuel Barroso and Commissioner Olli Rehn. Mr Rehn welcomed the "historic agreement", which is a "most European way of peaceful dispute settlement". The commissioner for enlargement hopes that the agreement will be ratified by the parliaments of both countries very quickly and voiced his hopes that Croatia will be able to finalise its accession negotiations very soon. So far, the country has opened 28 of the 35 chapters, 12 of which have been provisionally concluded. (H.B./transl.fl)