By DPA
Ljubljana (Slovenia) : Slovenia’s agenda for its six-month presidency of the EU highlights the remarkable development of the tiny Alpine-Adriatic republic in less than two decades.
In 1991, Slovenia fought its way out of the economically and politically moribund Yugoslavia.
Now, it is set to start 2008 as president of the elite 27-nation bloc and with the aim of helping its former sister-republics, most of all troubled Serbia, to finally start catching up.
“We have to deal with all of our main partners, such as China, South America, the US, Russia and Africa … but we must fix the problems in our close neighbourhood, the Western Balkans. We must focus on this area,” Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said recently.
Following a brief independence war, Slovenia quickly pushed through a self-styled concept of privatisation favouring local investors and heavily protecting the workers in the privatisation of its industries.
Despite some black marks, such as for its “economic chauvinism” and the treatment of thousands of the “erased”, non-Slovenian residents without citizenship rights, Slovenia quickly rose up to gain membership in the EU and NATO in 2004.
Other Yugoslav republics – Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia – were meanwhile left far behind, with the still volatile Serbia and Bosnia yet to become even candidates for EU membership.
At the start of 2007 Slovenia also joined the European Economic and Monetary Union, replacing the tolar with the euro, and in the last week of the year it joined the border-free Schengen zone with eight other new EU member states.
Slovenia is to hold regular parliamentary elections in the spring, with conservative Prime Minister Janez Jansa facing an uphill battle following a sharp dip in popularity.
The election victory of the new Slovenian President Danilo Turk late in the year was another blow to Jansa, following a wave of price hikes with the arrival of the euro.
The small Alpine-Adriatic republic, half the size of Switzerland, nevertheless has a rich geography of rugged peaks, seacoast, rushing rivers and glacial lakes.
The capital Ljubljana has only 280,000 inhabitants, but boasts a highly ranked quality of life, with both the Adriatic Sea and ski slopes just an hour’s drive away.