Overview of the week's top stories since 10 Jan. 2004

This week’s headlines…

• Croatian, Slovene foreign ministers meet in Zagreb
• Minority communities demanding greater protections
• Council of Europe urges quick resolution to izbrisani situation
• New regional plan

Croatian, Slovene foreign ministers meet in Zagreb

Top on the list of open issues between the two countries is the matter of agreeing to a final demarcation of the border they share. Other issues include the joint administration of the nuclear plant in Krško, the fate of deposits by Croatian customers in Ljubljanska Banka and Croatia’s desire to widen its authority in the Adriatic.

Rupel reiterated Slovenia’s intention to assist Croatia in its bid to join the European Union, saying that Croatian EU membership in Slovenia’s "vital interest." Slovenia will join the EU in May, while Croatia hopes to join by 2007.

The Slovene and Croatian prime ministers are next expected to meet, perhaps before the end of the month. That meeting is expected to focus on coming to an agreement over the final border between the two countries.

Minority communities demanding greater protections

Following Roberto Batelli’s resignation on 31 December as chairman of the parliamentary commission for national communities, the Council of Coastal Self-Administrative Groups of Italian Nationality (OSSIN) announced its own list of complaints on 13 January.

Batelli is a member of parliament representing the Slovene Italian minority. He resigned from the commission citing frustration with increasing pressure for national minorities to assimilate into the majority Slovene culture. According to the 2002 census, the number of people claiming Italian ethnicity in Slovenia fell by 20 percent over the last census in 1991.

On Tuesday, the OSSIN voiced demands for the passage of a special law on the rights of the Italian national community in Slovenia, as provided for in articles 11 and 64 of the constitution. They are also demanding the creation of a region with a special status in the coastal region designed to give a special standing to the local Italian community.

The OSSIN supports Batelli’s resignation and made called for several other changes which they believe would help alleviate some of the pressure placed on Italians to assimilate into the Slovene majority.

Batelli is satisfied with Slovenia’s mechanisms for protecting the rights of national minorities, however he alleges that they are not being properly used – if they are being used at all. He maintains that even the work of the parliamentary commission for national minorities has no real effect on the lives of the people whose rights it is intended to safeguard.

On Wednesday, Batelli and Hungarian minority representative Maria Pozsonec were invited by President Janez Drnovšek to meet and discuss the problems faced by the country’s official minorities. Earlier in the day, Pozsonec took over as chair of the parliamentary commission for national minorities, after meeting with Speaker of Parliament Borut Pahor.

In their meeting with Drnovšek, Batelli and Pozsonec said that they want more attention paid to national minorities when regional development, cultural and economic policies are being formulated. They brought Drnovšek up to speed with the demographic problems both the Italian and Hungarian minorities are facing, and also informed him of problems in the work of the commission for national minorities.

Drnovšek issued a statement after the meeting in which he stated that he is certain that the autochthonous national communities are a treasure of the Republic of Slovenia, which we must care for and strengthen. This is particularly important as Slovenia is about to enter the EU, he concluded.

Robes wrote that the issue should be resolved in accordance with the relevant decisions of the Constitutional Court.

The izbrisani are citizens of other republics of the former Yugoslavia who were living in Slovenia at the time of independence but who did not have, or otherwise qualify for, citizenship in the newly independent country. The government revoked their permanent resident status and erased them wholesale from the registries.

In April 2003, the Constitutional Court ruled that all of the izbrisani must have their residency rights returned. The government was given six months in which to bring the law into alignment with the constitution, based on the Court’s decision. This was done in late 2003, but the changes were met with harsh opposition.

Robles said that he is closely watching the case but has not yet taken a position on the issue. The commissioner visited Slovenia last May to prepare a report on human rights practices in the country for the Council of Europe. The report was published in October 2003, and although it found no major human rights issues in the country, it was critical of several things including the izbrisani.

Back in Ljubljana, the Constitutional Court has until 23 January to decide whether a referendum on a draft law restoring the rights of the izbrisani is constitutional. On 9 January, the court ruled that preparations for the planned referendum scheduled for 15 February be halted until it can render a final decision on the bill.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were 18,305 citizens of other Yugoslav republics living in Slovenia in 1992 who had permanent resident status, though unofficial accounts put the figure as high as 30,000. Of the Ministry’s figure, 12,937 have applied for citizenship under procedures introduced later. Some 10,713 have since gotten citizenship. But according to unofficial estimates, 3000 to 4000 people are still without formal legal status in the country.

New regional plan

Slovenia is currently divided into 12 regions, used only for statistical purposes; the entire country will enter the EU in May as a single region, since no agreement could be reached on how the country should be divided.

According to the new bill, the statistical regions will be replaced by a series of 14 "development regions," but makes no comment on regional divisions for EU purposes. Informal comments suggest that authorities are leaning towards a three-region system composed of a western coastal region, a central region including Ljubljana and an eastern region. The government is expected to review the bill next week, and it is expected to be adopted in the first half of the year.

And in other news…

• The latest Eurobarometer poll, focusing on crime, showed that some 60 percent of Slovenes are most concerned about corruption in their country. Beyond that, 46 percent are concerned about money laundering, 43 percent about smuggling, 40 percent about wrongdoing in Ljubljana and 34 percent about wrongdoing in Brussels. Just 26 percent were concerned about the black market.

• According to a report released this week by the Institute for Heath Safety (IVZ), marijuana is the most frequently used narcotic in the country. The Third National Report on the Situation of Drugs in Slovenia also shows that intravenous heroine use is falling, while the use of marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine are on the rise. The report states that 2633 people sought medical assistance for health problems connected to drug use in the year 2002. Some 38 people died of drug overdoses in the same period.