Slovenia, Croatia Border Deal Comes Into Force

The foreign ministries of the two countries announced that they exchanged diplomatic notes on Thursday which say that they have completed the necessary internal procedures for the agreement to enter into force.

The agreement will allow a team of international arbitrators to determine the disputed sea boundary between the two former Yugoslav republics. The team's decision will be binding on both countries.

The deal was signed in November 2009 by the prime ministers of the two states and has since been approved by the parliaments in Zagreb and Ljubljana and by popular vote in a close referendum in Slovenia.

Croatia and Slovenia have been unable to agree on their land and sea border since becoming independent states in the early 1990s. The dispute centers on ownership of Piran Bay in the north Adriatic Sea and Slovenia's access to international waters.

Slovenia, the only former Yugoslav republic to have joined the European Union, has blocked Zagreb's EU progress for extended periods over the spat.