Overview of the week's top stories
since 15 December 2001

IFJ Secretary-General Aidan White told the press that "We cannot look for those responsible for the attack, but we will look into the manner in which the police have investigated it and why the perpetrators have not been discovered." In ten months, no progress has been made in the police investigation.

On Thursday, just days after the IFJ announcement, a parliamentary inquiry commission was finally established. The National Assembly proposed the commission in October, but only now will it begin work.

The parliamentary commission is charged with investigating the way police are dealing with the Petek case, as well as investigating the possibility of involvement by public officials. It will be led by Mirko Zamernik (SDS), and will include one member from each parliamentary party, as well as one representative of national minorities.

On Friday in Brussels, the Slovene delegation to the EU managed to close yet another chapter of the country's accession agreement, the one concerning transport. The total chapters closed is now up to 26 of 29, and Slovenia has closed the most of any of the candidate countries so far.

Negotiations on transport had a breakthrough when Austria agreed to align itself with the group position taken by the other EU members states. The chapter has already been closed by both Malta and Cyprus, island nations about which did not concern Austria. Thanks to Austria’s move, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania all closed the transport chapter at the same time as Slovenia.

Slovenia’s remaining three chapters will be among the most difficult. The chapter on regional policy in particular will present significant difficulties, given that the government has yet to make any significant headway towards even creating a regional policy. The other two chapters deal with agriculture and budgetary issues.

With 26, Slovenia has closed the most chapters of all the candidate countries, followed closely by Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Hungary, each with 24. Latvia and Lithuania have each closed 23; Slovakia has closed 22; Estonia, Poland and Malta have each closed 20; Bulgaria has closed 14; and Romania 9.

In this week's Mladina, Gregor Cerar takes up the issue of intellectual property on the internet. The WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT), an international agreement that will extend copyright protection into the internet, is set to take force in March 2002, but Slovenia has yet to sign it.

When 30 states have ratified the WCT, it will become international law. Both the United States and Japan have ratified the treaty, and though even the African country Gabon has signed it, no European Union member state has done likewise as of yet.

Cerar believes that the parliaments of EU member states are waiting for a directive from Brussels, and will eventually sign and ratify the WCT. As they harmonize their national legislation with that of the EU, Slovenia and the other candidate countries will have to ratify the treaty eventually. According to Cerar, this is not likely to happen before next year.

The WCT extends copyright protection to various sorts of works distributed via the internet, including books, recordings, computer programs and films. Currently, there is no legislation in Slovenia protecting intellectual property on the internet, and indeed while various laws may be interpreted to apply to the internet, there is no explicit legislation regulating the internet whatsoever.

Brezigar was born in 1953 in Ljubljana, and she holds a law degree from the University of Ljubljana. In last year's parliamentary elections, she ran on the list of the SDS, though she is not formally a member of any party. For now, the primary supporters of her candidature is the Nova Revija Circle, a group of prominent intellectuals, but she expects to attract a broad constituency from across the political spectrum.

According to the Law on the Election of the President of the Republic, to become a candidate for the presidency, one must: have the support of at least ten members of the National Assembly; be proposed by a party with the support of at least three MPs or 3000 voters; or be proposed by a group of at least 5000 voters.

On 17 December, Delo ran an article detailing what can and cannot be given to civil servants during the holidays. Although gift giving is customary during this season, the line between holiday pleasantry and corruption can be rather blurry.

Article 18 of the Code of Conduct of Civil Servants states:

The Council of Europe has established guidelines whereby civil servants may not accept anything worth more than DEM 100. But as Boštjan Penko, director of the government Office for the Prevention of Corruption, pointed out, "Even 5000 tolars can be corruption." Motivation in many cases is more significant than monetary value.

• On 14 December, Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel and Vatican Secretary of International Relations Archbishop Jean Louis Tauran signed the Concordant between Slovenia and the Holy See in Ljubljana. Rupel told the press he hopes the agreement is ratified as soon as possible, though it still must be reviewed by the Constitutional Court.

• As of 17 December, the SLS+SKD Slovene People's Party has shortened its name to simply the Slovene People's Party, or SLS. The decision was made at a meeting of the party's Executive Committee in Ljubljana, with a vote of 128:25.

Note: There will be no weekly news report published for the upcoming week. The next report will be published on Monday, Jan. 6th, 2002..