Business Articles - Slovenia Life

Slovenia’s EU Presidency

Is the country prepared? What will be on the agenda?

by william wagner, december 2007

Slovenia is the first of the new EU member states to take the reigns of the EU Presidency. To find out more about what to expect during the six months of Slovenia’s Presidency, Ljubljana Life magazine spoke recently with Mr. Anže Logar, the official Spokesperson for Slovenia’s EU Presidency.

Can you briefly tell us about how your office functions?

The primary role of the Government Communications Office is to offer services of public relations for the government. The Spokesperson for the Prime Minister, who sits in the cabinet of prime ministers, needs support for organizing press conferences, inviting journalists, preparing all necessary documents, and here our office (GCO) steps in.

At the same time, we have many communication projects that are led by the GCO, for example, the “welcoming of the Euro” event, which was communicated (to the public) via the GCO, and the Schengen program, which was coordinated by the GCO, as well as other big projects that are in need of special support.

What has it been like preparing for the EU Presidency for the first time? Can you give some insight into what the overall process is like?

This is an additional task that fell upon the GCO. Myself as director will be the spokesperson of the Presidency. This means there is a whole variety of additional duties, together with our everyday work. This is all happening within an office that currently has just 43 persons, so it’s a helluva task! It’s an exciting job due to the fact that it’s going to be for the first time. We feel that we are a kind of pioneers among new member states and that all other new member states will be judged by our success. Therefore, we are putting extra effort into it and it’s the reason why we are eager to over-prepare and over-work for such a project.

How confident are you that everything will go smoothly and according to plan?

Things like this never go smoothly. There are always problems. If we look to the past, every Presidency had to face extraordinary events and crises, such as Lebanon, the bird flue, pipelines from Russia, etc. Something will happen during Slovenia’s Presidency, we don’t know when, we don’t know what, but a half year is a long time, and it’s a global world where a crisis in any part of the world will definitely affect the presiding country of the European Union.

Beside this, we will have to be very coordinated, we will have to have very short communication lines, and we’ll have to decide quickly in order to have an agile Presidency and to have a quick response to everyday problems that become evident in the European Union. To do this, we have now had 3 years of preparation process, and of course even during the preparation process there were problems, but these three years were a unique school for us that helped us prepare for what will be before us on the first of January.

The most important thing is that the team that will lead the work regarding the Presidency is communicating very well and is capable and aware of the work they will be facing during the Presidency.

Was there any challenge with finding enough qualified people to help with supporting the Presidency duties?

We know our framework, we know our obstacles, and we are aware of our size. If you take this into consideration, you know that you will first have to have some additional staff, that you can’t afford a parallel organization for the Presidency like some big countries use, that you will have to devote additional time beyond your normal working time. For preparation, you will also have to educate, instruct, and provide new knowledge for your staff. And during the Presidency you will more or less have to have a quiet house at home, which means that the home political agenda should not reflect badly upon your European agenda, because this is a Slovenian national project and we won’t have time to have a home political battle.

What will be the main EU priorities during the Presidency?

This will be one of the main topics during Thursday’s government session, but we can speak about four or five main priorities, which will definitely include energy and the environment. During our Presidency the March summit will be dedicated to the energy and environment package, as well as the Lisbon Strategy. We will have to design the next three-year circle, from 2008 through 2010, of the renewed Lisbon Strategy. 2010 will be the year to check what was done and what was not, and this will receive a lot of media coverage.

As well we will have the Western Balkans – things are moving fast there. We all know what is happening regarding Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina. We all know the aspirations of Macedonia as well as Serbia to become members of the European Union. So this will be a focus, and Slovenia can work very efficiently as we were once part of this part of the world. We have expertise, we know those people, we understand those nations, so the value added of Slovenia can be very useful.

Then of course the ratification process of the reform treaty will start very soon, and the follow-up process, or the engine to push forward the ratification of member states will be on our shoulders, and we will be very active on this part of the agenda.

And finally, 2008 is the year of multicultural dialog, and we will have in January the kickoff of this thematic year, and the presidents of the European Commission and the European Parliament will come for the opening event.

Do you have any plans to help promote the Slovene culture and language during the Presidency period?

Besides all the official stuff, we are also organizing here in the GCO, together with the Slovenian Tourist Organization, a so-called EU Road Show. A half year is 26 weeks and there are 26 EU members, so for each week we will have a kind of caravan or special event dedicated to the Slovenian Presidency, to present our culture, our food, our national beauties, tourism, our economy. There will be tailor-made events in all 26 capitals during the first half of 2008.

There will also be some exhibitions locally in Slovenia. We will promote some of the leading Slovene figures from history, Mr. Plečnik, Prešeren the poet, Primož Trubar, all those big names that are known in Slovenia and abroad, and we will have 20 to 25 special events for the Presidency in Slovenia.

And in Brussels, our Philharmony will play in March prior to the March summit, and we will also have a special exhibit of Primož Trubar that will visit Brussels. There will be plenty of activities happening during the Presidency.