Yes, most of all, I’m astonished by the length of the dispute. We had similar issues when Slovenia was negotiating and conceding to Italy…

As for the political assurances given to Ireland. It makes me wonder how the Commission will have 1 Commissioner per member state, before the change is ratified via the accession treaty of Croatia? Legally, the Commission will need to scale down for the period, pending the Accession treaty ratification, or?

M.

From an EU point of view, this is one of the examples of the absurdity of the unanimity rule in its different appearances.

Veto powers equals ‘liberum veto’, and it does not take much reading of history to see the results.

The second EU level issue is that the legally binding assurances to Ireland will be bound up with the Croatian accession agreement, if Ireland ratifies the Lisbon Treaty.

Expect some heavy leaning on both parties to sort out the mess.