Overview of the week's top stories
since 25 January 2003

The second of two rounds of accession negotiations between NATO and Slovenia took place on Friday in Brussels. On the agenda were security and legal questions, as well as the issue of just how much Slovenia will have to contribute to the alliance’s budget should it join.

Slovenia expects to pay roughly 0.3 percent of the total NATO budget, or about USD three million annually. The exact figure will only be known when accession negotiations conclude with all seven candidate countries, which is expected to take place on 10 February.

The focus of the first round, held on 18 January, was Slovenia’s preparedness to join the alliance, as well as political, defense and military issues.

Parliament announced on Thursday that referenda on EU and NATO entry will in fact be held on Sunday, 23 March, as predicted. This will be the second referendum on EU accession held in the candidate countries, after Malta; it will also be the only referendum on NATO accession held in the candidate countries.

This news came as the results of the latest Politibarometer were released, which show that Slovenes are increasingly opposed to NATO membership but remain committed to joining the European Union. The survey also exposed a large drop in support for the current government.

If a referendum were held last weekend, 44 percent would have voted for Slovene entry into NATO (down from 50 percent in December), while 39 percent would have voted against (up from just 30 percent). The number of undecided fell from 20 percent in December 2002 to 17 in January 2003.

Of those who would have actually participated in such a referendum, about 48 percent would have voted for entry into NATO (down from 55 percent), while 37 percent would have voted against it (up from 30 percent).

Support for Slovene entry into the EU remained high, at 81 percent, while opposition was just about 19 percent. Some 60 percent saw benefits to EU membership, while 22 percent did not.

Of those who would have actually participated in a referendum if it were held last weekend, about 65 percent would have voted for EU entry (down from 72 percent), while 18 percent would have voted against it (up from 17 percent).

The survey also asked whether respondents supported holding referenda for EU and NATO entry; 57 percent said yes, 34 percent no and 9 percent were undecided.

The January Politibarometer also registered a large drop in support for the government. In December 2002, 63 percent of those surveyed supported the government, while in January, only 48 percent did so. The majority of those who no longer support the government registered their votes as "undecided," however, since the number of those opposed to the government remained around the same, at 31 percent.

The public opinion survey Politibarometer is conducted monthly by the Center for Public Opinion Research of the University of Ljubljana. The latest Politibarometer was conducted from 20 to 22 January, with a sample of 942 people.

When the EU called for applications to fill positions related to expansion, Slovene response was modest, 665 of a total of 25,000 applications received. The EU accepted applications from citizens of member countries as well as candidate countries until 10 January.

Of the candidate countries, Poles led the response to the call with 10,027 applications. They were followed by Slovaks (5917), Czechs (1867) and Hungarians. Less than one thousand applicants were received from Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta.

The call for applications requested knowledge of at least one language of a candidate country along with English, French or German. Among the Slovene candidates, the majority knew English, followed by German and French. Slovak is spoken by 27 Slovene applicants, followed by Polish (19), Czech (8), Greek (4) and Estonian and Hungarian (2 each).

Nine Slovak, seven Polish and five Czech applicants said they knew Slovene. Among applicants from the current EU countries, 19 Italians said they knew Slovene, followed by ten from Austria and nine each from Belgium, France and Germany.

The conference is to take place on 10 and 11 July at the Diana hotel in Murska Sobota. Its organizers are the Institute of the Dr. Šiftar Foundation and the Regional and Study Library. Help has also been requested from the pedagogical faculty of the University of Maribor. Organizers will petition the town of Murska Sobota to be the conference’s major sponsor, as well as the country’s education and culture ministries.

An introductory paper on the geopolitical and cultural-historical dimensions of the land between the Mura and Raba rivers, the Prekmurja dialect, regional conscience and national belonging will lead the conference. Twenty-three other papers will then be delivered by scholars from Slovenia, Austrian Styria, Hungarian Porabja and Croatia in three thematic groups: language, literature and culture.

Trieste (Trst) mayor Roberto Dipiazza delivered a speech on Monday marking Italy’s Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Fascism in Italian with simultaneous translation in Slovene, responding to the demands of the local Slovene community.

Leaders of the two major organizations of the local Slovene minority, the Slovene Cultural-Economic Union and the Council of Slovene Organizations, protested initial plans which would have seen Dipiazza deliver his speech only in Italian.

Slovene leaders were pleased that Dipiazza acknowledged their community. The local Slovene-language daily Primorski dnevnik duly praised Dipiazza’s decision on Tuesday, saying his decision "earned him the recognition and thanks of all democratic good-thinking people."

• The National Assembly approved a decree founding Slovenia’s third university, based in Koper, on 29 January. The university is to include five faculties, for humanities, education, management, tourism, and medical studies, as well as the Koper Science and Research Center and the Primorska Institute of Natural and Technical Sciences. The first plans for the university began eight years ago. Primorska University will join the University of Ljubljana, established in 1919, and the University of Maribor, established in 1975.

• On Friday, more than 100 people participated in a march to protest the threat of war in Iraq. The march began at Kongresni trg in Ljubljana and ran along Prešernova ulica to the American embassy and back. The march was organized by Koper’s Society for Cultural Research and Ecology. An international convoy of activists involved in the "Human Shield" action were also expected to arrive in Ljubljana, but were unable to attend. Another march is planned for 15 February, when protests will be held in a number of European and American cities.

• The number of illegal border crossings fell by two-thirds in 2002 over 2001, according to the national police. While 20,883 people were arrested in 2001 for illegally crossing the border, just 6926 were arrested last year. The highest number of arrestees came from Yugoslavia (2015 people), followed by Macedonia (1221), Turkey (820), Iraq (586), Bosnia (425), Croatia (328), Moldova (295), Romania (178) and Albania (142). The largest number of arrests took place at the Croatian border, followed by the Italian, Hungarian and Austrian.

• MTV Director of Development Dean Possenniskie visited Ljubljana recently to investigate the possibility of establishing a local MTV program in Slovenia. According to Gospodarski vestnik, Possenniskie spoke to Pro Plus, although Finance could not get confirmation. MTV has a long-term goal of establishing local programs in each country in Central and Eastern Europe.