Overview of the week's top stories
since 2 February 2002

On Monday, Foreign Minister Dimitri Rupel released a statement on the foreign ministry's website denouncing naysayers for trying to turn public opinion against Slovenia's NATO bid. Rupel particularly accuses newspaper journalists of trying to turn public opinion.

The minister stresses that the desire to join the alliance is held by the majority of the population, as well as the ministry, the government and even the opposition in parliament. He added that ministry data runs contrary to what has been published in the press – that public opinion polls consistently show that a majority do in fact support NATO membership.

The foreign minister said that the ministry would not oppose a referendum, but "many member States oppose referenda on NATO membership, but it is necessary to decide in accordance with prescribed procedures."

The European Commission released its plan on financing expansion this week, which came as a disappointment to candidate states, Slovenia included. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Drnovšek spoke out, alleging that Brussels has left too many controversial issues for the end of negotiations.

At a press conference, Drnovšek said that ten years is too long of a transition period to bring subsidies for new members to the level of current ones. The total of 25 percent of direct payment which members will get from the start is also too low. Also, the suggested quota on agricultural products is too low.

"It is clear that the European Commission was trying to find some sort of compromise, to defend the interests of the current members as much as possible, while still giving the candidate countries something," Drnovšek said, but he added that this compromise is unacceptable.

The Prime Minister accused Brussels creating blanket policies and applying them to all candidate states. Slovenia, which is expected to join the EU as a net contributor, is in a very different situation than most of the other candidates, and Drnovšek said that each candidate must be considered on its own merits.

At the press conference, Drnovšek said that he has already spoken with head of the EC, Romano Prodi, and informed him of Slovenia's position. Prodi defended the EC's standpoint, according to Drnovšek, but said that the EC is open to further negotiations on the issue.

During his visit to London, European Affairs Minister Janez Potocnik raised the issue with his hosts, who did not see the EC's position as being set in stone. According to Podobnik, UK representatives told him that the position is simply a foundation for further talks, not a final decision.

Meanwhile, on a state visit to Ljubljana this week, Danish Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen said that his country supports the EC's platform, but added that Denmark agrees that the candidates should be evaluated individually. Denmark will hold the presidency of the EU later this year, when candidate states are expected to complete the remaining three chapters, on agriculture, regional policies and budget.

At the same press conference, Prime Minister Drnovšek criticized American moves to raise tariffs on steel. President George W. Bush has until 6 March to decide whether he will raise the tariffs.

Two proposals are on the table. The first is to raise the tariff by twenty percent over the next four years. However, the American steel industry has proposed a hike of fifty percent. Bush is not bound by either proposal, and could even forego raising the tariff altogether, should he so decide.

Drnovšek urged Bush to make his decision carefully. As an exporter of specialized forms of steel, the Slovene steel industry supplements the American industry - not competes with it, the prime minister stated.

Slovenia is not alone in opposing American tariff hikes on steel. Brazil and South Korea have both protested, as has the European Union.

In 2000, Slovenia exported some 8600 tons of steel to the United States. This represents 6.1 percent of the country’s steel exports, worth USD 14.5 million.

Pfizer intends to appeal last week's decision by the Administrative Court, which refused to hear the American pharmaceutical giant's case against the Ministry of Health. The only option for appeal is to the High Court.

Two weeks ago, Pfizer filed a complaint with the Administrative Court, requesting temporary restrictions on three drugs the Ministry had approved. The court threw the case out, citing procedural errors on the part of Pfizer.

"[Pfizer] would like to stop us on the Slovene market, especially in production, and they are particularly tortured by our successes in the Central European market, which will soon be part of the EU market. They are bothered also by our breakthrough in EU countries. We sell thirteen percent of all drugs manufactured in Novo Mesto from raw materials to finished products in Western Europe."

Regardless of the appeals, both Lek and Krka announced that they will begin production of the drugs in question in the coming weeks.

On Friday, representatives of Delo and five local newspapers met to discuss plans to unite them into a new daily under Delo's aegis. None of the local papers - Primorske Novice, Gorenjski Glas, Novi Tednik (Celje), Dolenjski List and Radio Tednik Ptuj - have officially supported the plan, except in principle.

After the meeting, Finance reported that Jure Apih, head of Delo, said that the five papers would retain full autonomy should they agree to the plan. The idea is not to create a single daily newspaper, but to pool resources among the five and Delo in areas such as technology, content, organization and business.

Apih did not want to reveal much about the current state of play, since he believes that the details already known hit the public too soon, which was detrimental to the project. However, he did say that further details will be known within a month.

There were hints of a shakeup at Gorenjski Glas this week as well. Dnevnik, one of Delo's primary competitors, revealed its interest in buying shares of Gorenjski Glas from the National Financial Society and the Slovene Indemnity Society. The shares would give Dnevnik 40 percent of the paper, and would put Dnevnik in an odd position should the Delo plan go ahead. A spokesman for Dnevnik, however, told Finance that Gorenjski Glas would have autonomy should they acquire the shares, and cooperation with Delo would not be opposed.

Director Igor Šterk's second feature film, Ljubljana, premiered on Wednesday at the Kolosej. The film had its world premier last week at the Rotterdam film festival and hit theatres in Ljubljana, Celje and Novo Mesto on Thursday.

Ljubljana follows the pattern of several recent films depicting the interconnected lives of urban young people, such as the Czech-Slovene film Samotári or the American film Singles. This time, though, the young people are Slovene and the setting is the Slovene capital. And the film begins in a very Slovene way - with a suicide.

At Rotterdam, Šterk commented:

Mladina insists that the Duplerice images are art, and defending itself against the Croatian allegations, hastened to point out that their creator, Rolando Peharec, is Croatian himself.

• The still-unsolved case of the beating of journalist Miro Petek took a strange twist this week as Janko Zakršnik, owner of the Slovenj Gradec-based firm Eurocity, filed suit against Petek and several other journalists alleging articles published about him from 1999 to 2001 were slanderous and have caused him emotional stress. Apart from Petek, journalists from Delo, Mag and Slovenske Novice are also named in the suit. All together, Zakršnik is seeking SIT 20 million (apx. USD 80,000) in damages.

• A court in Kranj has filed a recommendation to indict the three schoolboys who two years ago tortured, and then killed, some 42 cats. The case took time to build, and only now does the court feel that it has gathered enough evidence. The centerpiece is a journal kept by the children, in which they describe the ways they tortured and killed the animals. If convicted, they face up to three months in jail.