CER | Slovenia's Road Ahead

Eric van der Linden arrived in Ljubljana in June 2000, as head of the European Commission Delegation to Slovenia. The small Alpine nation is considered a frontrunner among EU candidate countries. The recently released European Commission report on Slovenia's progress (available online here as a PDF file) was also mostly positive.

We sat down to talk with Eric van der Linden about Slovenia's road ahead.

Central Europe Review: We often hear about what the European Union can offer Slovenia in terms of development aid, security, etc... but what can a small country like Slovenia (pop. 2,000,000) offer the EU?

Eric van der Linden: Slovenia, given its geographic position, would be an asset for the European Union as far as developing relations with southeastern Europe, and in contributing to creating peace, security and stability, which are necessary to have a really secure, stable Europe.

The Commission issues 13 regular reports on the progress of candidate countries towards accession. What are your thoughts on the recent report on Slovenia?

First of all, I think it was the most positive report that has been written up until now. Enormous and significant progress has been made in many, many areas, in particular an area which we had until now underlined, like the backlog in court cases.

A lot of progress has been made. Progress has also been made in the important internal market issues, in justice and home affairs. In fact, I could name practically all the chapters. There is one area, and I mentioned this also in Parliament [on 14 November], where more efforts are necessary but the authorities are aware of this; it concerns regional policy.

Now, as far as the administrative capacity [of Slovenia] is concerned—there is not a lack of it. In fact, I think that Slovenia has a better record than most other candidate countries, but more needs to be done. One thing is to transpose community legislation into the national legal framework, another is to implement it and to enforce the implementation. Institutions have been created, and a lot has been accomplished, but more still needs to be done.

You visited a high school in Maribor recently. How does the reaction between generations differ with regard to the EU? And what was the general response of students?

Well, I was positively surprised by the questions raised by the students. It is very important to address the students—be it of the last years of high school or university—because they are also part of those who have to vote in a referendum for or against membership.

Eurobarometer [public opinion surveys conducted on behalf of the European Commission] has shown that the younger generation is rather skeptical as far as the Euro is concerned. So I find it of prime importance to speak in high schools and I must say that the aggressiveness of some of the questions greatly impressed me.

And what impressed me even more is the degree of information of the students on EU questions. They clearly listen carefully to the news. They read and they think. And I believe that for the future of Europe this is a very healthy development.

What do you tell Slovenes about the soon-to-arrive Euro?

The main message is that when you are a tourist and you are traveling between member states you will not undergo exchange costs anymore. When you get money in a cash-withdrawal system in Barcelona, you can pay with the same money in Copenhagen and in Rome, so there is a practical advantage also.

For the business community, it is of course necessary that they adapt to this as well. And for those Slovene nationals who have some EU currencies in their portfolio, they have to know that there are deadlines within which they can change this money into Euros.

One issue that has come up is national sovereignty and Slovene feelings of statehood. As we know, Slovenia declared independence from a federal structure (the former Yugoslavia) just ten years ago. It is now set to join the EU by 2004. Is identity an important concern? Should it be?

I understand this concern, because the country is young and people think that they will go into a gigantic club, so that their own character is going to be lost. Well, my reply is simply that Europe is a Europe of diversity. The Danes maintain their character, the Dutch maintain their character, and so on for various member states, of course. And there is no risk whatsoever, in my view, that Slovene identity will be lost.

Now, as far as sovereignty is concerned, clearly a bit of sovereignty will have to go to Brussels, where the EU will have its say over various aspects of policy. But this is something that all candidate countries are well aware of, and most of them—including Slovenia—have made the constitutional amendments that will allow for this to take place.

Is it reasonable to assume that Slovenia will make it into the European Union by 2004? That they will cut their inflation rate and solve other problems?

In all honesty, I think that the problems that Slovenia has left to address are probably of a more modest nature than those which many other candidate countries—within the remaining time frame—have to address. So there are a number of outstanding issues. They are well known, and they will be tackled.

There are two schools of thought about EU expansion, which can be summed up with the terms "little bang" (a small wave of initial applicants) and "big bang" (many at once). How does Slovenia fit into this and what is your opinion about it?

Well, whether there will be a big or a small bang, Slovenia will be part of the bang.

Michael Manske, 17 December 2001

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