Overview of the week's top stories
since 3 March 2002

With a vote of five to three, the Constitutional Court decided this week that it is not unconstitutional for next month's census to include questions regarding religion and ethnic background. The court received two petitions in January requesting the ruling.

At the same time, the Court decided to revoke article 5 and part of article 23 of the Census Law, which would have allowed census information to be used by the government to create a building and household registry. With a vote of six to two, the Court decided it was unconstitutional for raw census data to be used by any office other than the one executing the census.

The 2002 census, the first since Slovenia’s independence in July 1991, is scheduled to run from 1 to 15 April. The last census of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia was conducted in the spring of 1991, while Slovenia was still part of that state.

Serbia's Blic News reported on Slovenia's Eurosong affair this week, saying that "of all of the former Yugoslav republics, Slovenia is already an entire decade (not only geographically) closer to Europe, but about twenty days ago it once again moved closer to the Balkans for a completely banal reason."

The selection of the drag trio Sestre as Slovenia’s representative at the May 2002 Eurosong competition in Tallinn has turned the country on its head in a way no other election has.

The public debate surrounding the affair may be increasing the trio's chances of winning. With CNN, the BBC and many other international media outlets reporting the story, the European public quite possibly knows more about Sestre than any of the other Eurosong competitors.

The affair got more complicated on Saturday, when vice-president of the European Parliament’s Commission for Public Freedoms and Civil Rights Lousewies van der Laan demanded an explanation from the government as to why the Sestre’s win is causing such turmoil in the country.

Van der Laan warned that the affair has raised questions about Slovenia’s stance towards gays and lesbians. She also pointed out that the rights of sexual minorities are an important facet of human rights, and respect for human rights is an important part of the EU membership criteria.

On Monday, van der Laan received word from Marko Kranjec, head of the Slovene mission to the EU, and Alja Brglez, head of the Governmental Office of Information. According to STA, Brglez explained to van der Laan that "Slovenia is an open and democratic society, which recognizes and can resolve problems in an entirely civilized manner."

Responding to concerns that the affair is showing the country to be incredibly homophobic, Brglez explained that the biggest problem is not homophobia, but the voting irregularities which allowed Sestre to win. The media has blown the problem out of proportion, she said.

Gay rights and gay-friendly NGOs protested Brglez’s statements on Tuesday. The organizations collected press clippings and other materials relating to the affair which they say clearly show that the level of homophobia within Slovene society has skyrocketed in recent weeks.

They also expressed concern that Brglez was not sufficiently informed about the situation, given that the results of numerous surveys and sociological research prove Slovene society has an unusually high level of intolerance toward others. The groups are demanding an explanation for Brglez’s comments from the Governmental Office of Information, and retraction of her factual errors.

A survey published in Nedelo on Sunday of more than 400 people showed that 58.5 percent are not happy that Sestre will represent the country in Estonia. Of those, 38.2 percent were not happy because the voting was conducted improperly, while the majority, 51.4 percent, believed a group of transvestites were unsuitable to represent the country abroad.

Last year, Slovenia got low marks for respect for human rights at the European Parliament due to the referendum which resulted in the forbidding of access to artificial insemination to single women. Van der Laan said that the EP saw the referendum as a "conspiracy of the Church, and an attempt at discrimination against lesbians."

In the 1980s, Slovenia was considered the most liberal part of Yugoslavia, and civil society movements -- including a gay movement -- flourished. The Sestre affair is just one more example of the stark change.

The government's European Affairs Service warned this week that parliament is moving too slow in harmonizing Slovene legislation with that of the EU - a key requirement for membership.

Last November, when the Regular Report of the European Commission on Slovenia's progress towards EU accession was published, parliament had a list of 80 laws to pass or amend by the end of 2002. The Service said that only ten of those laws have been passed in the last four months.

In the meantime, it is possible that the list will grow, as new legislation is passed in Brussels. Compounding the problem is the fact that Ljubljana must report to Brussels with the steps it has taken in the last year in the accession process in late May or early June, leaving little time for substantial progress.

This year's Report is the most significant to date, given that it will form the basis upon which Slovenia will be judged come time for EU expansion. Brussels wants to release the Reports in October this year, instead of November.

Minister for European Affairs Janez Potocnik told STA that everything is under control. "If [the situation were alarming], the European Commission would be warning us as well, along with the participants of the recent session of the Accession Committee," he said.

The annual Regular Reports of the European Commission evaluate the progress made by candidate states for membership in the EU. The last Report was positive overall, pointing out successes in judicial reform, the elimination of duty-free shops and the apparent finalization of the border with Croatia. But criticisms included Slovenia's lack of a coherent regional policy, the need for further reform of civil service and reports of rising police brutality.

American president George W. Bush decided on 5 March to raise tariffs on steel in an attempt to help American steelmakers. The new tariffs differ according to the type of steel and vary from eight to 30 percent. The tariffs will take effect on 20 March and will last for three years and one day.

So far, Canada, Mexico, Jordan and Israel are exempt, along with developing countries which are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Developing countries’ combined steel exports to the United States only account for little more than three percent of the US’s total imports.

During the Clinton administration, Slovene steel was not subject to any tariff, and currently the tariff is anywhere from two to six percent.

Even though Slovenia is not considered a developing country, unofficial information received by several media outlets indicates that Slovene steel will also be exempted based on the small amount it exports to the United States.

Many countries are protesting the Americans’ decision, including Brazil, Japan and the EU, all major exporters of steel to the US. Brussels is petitioning the WTO for a ruling as to whether the American tariffs violate international trade rules, and is also preparing countermeasures.

If the EU raises tariffs as a countermeasure, Slovene steelmakers could find themselves in a difficult position. Also, Brussels could expect Ljubljana to align itself with any EU countermeasures, as a candidate country for EU membership, which could further complicate the situation for Slovene steelmakers.

Slovene steelmakers sold some five thousand tons of steel in the United States last year. The largest, Metal Ravne, exported 11 percent of its total production to the US and hoped to raise that figure to 17 percent in 2002.

On 5 March, the American State Department released its annual country reports on human rights, including one dealing with Slovenia. The report is positive overall, though points to several problem areas.

Echoing international observers’ comments from last year, the report mentions an increase in police brutality. It also points out that, while there were instances where the police did not intervene to assist Roma, "unlike the previous year, there were no reported incidents of police abuse against Roma."

The report also expresses concern about violence against women, and self-censorship and indirect political pressure on the media. Last year’s unsolved attack on journalist Miro Petek is also mentioned.

The major problem the report discusses is trafficking in persons. Slovenia is both a transit country and a destination country for the trafficking of women from Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Moldova, Russia, Romania, and Bulgaria. According to police, about 1000 women are trafficked through Slovenia annually, while 400 are trafficked into the country.

• More than 4.5 million people visited Maribor's Europark last year, according to the shopping center's director Vlado Vedlin. "A direct comparison between the final quarter of 2000 and the same period last year shows that the number of visitors grew form 30 to 35 percent." Europark is home to an Interspar hypermarket and 63 other stores. According to Vedlin, the majority of shoppers came from the Podravska region and northeastern Slovenia, though increasingly more came from Croatia and Austria as well.

• GetWork, a project of the Union of Student Unions and the KOMISP society for international cooperation and education, will present a job fair at Cankarjev Dom on 27 and 28 March. GetWork is not an employment agency, but a program designed to connect young people and employers. This year’s job fair will have 57 exhibitors, 56 lectures and four workshops. The majority of the exhibitors will offer employment opportunities in the fields of information science, electronics, computer science and economics. The getWork project has expanded onto the European level this year, and among the exhibitors will be the European Commission’s Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci and Youth programs, as well as special lectures and workshops to inform Slovene young people about educational opportunities throughout Europe.