Overview of the week's top stories
since 4 November 2002

Early this week, the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the United States is disappointed with three of the more likely candidates for Nato membership, among them Slovenia. It remains likely that seven countries will be invited; however, it now looks likely that Slovenia, Lithuania and Bulgaria will run into problems when their candidature is debated in the US Senate.

The decision on which countries will be offered membership in Nato is expected to be made on 12 November, ten days before the start of the alliance’s summit in Prague. But even if Slovenia makes it onto that list, the US Senate could still choose to only ratify membership for Lithuania, Estonia, Romania and Slovakia.

According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the United States may demand that the three countries are denied Nato membership since "their presence could weaken the alliance, make necessary reforms difficult and financially weaken current alliance members."

The primary problem with Slovenia, according to Gazeta Wyborcza sources at the Pentagon, is the "arrogance" of the Slovene government. The controversial purchase of a hugely expensive government airplane earlier this year was cited as an example. A Pentagon source commented that the money spent on that plane came from money earmarked for military reforms required in preparation for Nato membership.

In this week’s Mladina, journalist Sebastijan Ozmec spoke to young people in towns and villages around the country about this weekend’s local elections. What he found is a large degree of disappointment and disillusionment.

While Velenje also reported a high level of political apathy, the situation is somewhat better in Krško, center of the Posavje region. In the 1998 local elections, a candidate of the Independent List of Young People managed to win a seat on the city council with the support of an influential local youth organization. In this weekend’s elections, young activists are supporting the List for the Future of Young People.

Although most parties in Nova Gorica are discussing youth issues, the situation is far from ideal. Marko Rusjan told Mladina that "…understanding young people as a homogenous social group with the same desires is an ideological construction and quite far removed from the actual situation. Political parties and independent candidates do not attempt to understand this, since they are only interested in the marketing niche called ‘young people’."

On Friday, STA reported on the election of national minority representatives to city councils in this weekend’s local elections. In various localities, the Italian, Hungarian and Roma communities are entitled to political representation.

Italians in Primorska and Hungarians in Prekmurje have exercised this right in local elections in 1994 and 1998, but Roma have only done so in 1998 in Murska Sobota. This year’s elections will see Roma representation extended to thirteen other towns across the country, primarily in the Prekmurje, Dolenjska and Bela Krajina regions.

Nearly 3000 Italians will vote for their representatives in the Primorska region. Both Koper and Piran provide three seats for local Italians, while Izola provides two. Italian voters will also elect an administrative council.

Slovenia’s more than 8000 Hungarians in Prekmurje will elect city councilmen representatives in five towns: Lendava, Dobrovnik, Moravske Toplice, Hodoš in Šalovci. They will also elect an administrative council.

The biggest innovation in minority representation this year is the election of Roma representatives in fourteen towns across the country. The 1991 census recorded 2293 Roma, although official estimates put the figure between 7000 and 8000, primarily in the Prekmurje, Dolenjska and Bela Krajina regions. There are 19 Roma associations registered in Slovenia.

The 1994 Law on Local Self-Administration gives the Roma the right to representation in towns where they are autochthonously settled, but until now that has only been put into practice in Murska Sobota. The Constitutional Court required amendments to the Law on Local Self-Administration, and further ruled that twenty towns across the country must change their statutes to allow for Roma representation. The National Assembly passed the required amendments this year.

However, six of the towns refused to amend their statutes. Grosuplje leaders took their protests to the Constitutional Court, but the Court ruled against them. The government then asked the Constitutional Court to rule over whether the statutes of the six towns refusing to allow Roma representation are in line with the constitution. There has been no ruling as of yet.

Until now, only Murska Sobota has had a Roma representative on its city council. With this weekend’s elections, thirteen more towns are set to elect Roma representatives. Roma candidates are also running for regular political city councilmen seats in Semic, Murska Sobota and Maribor.

Any voter of Roma nationality can campaign for the post of Roma representative if he is registered to vote for the Roma representative. Roma associations can also put forward candidates. Roma have put forward candidates for city councilmen in the 14 towns prepared for the election, but they have not done so in the six towns which have refused to change their statutes.

On Wednesday, the Open Society Institute released a report on corruption in the states acceding to the European Union, among them Slovenia. The report states that corruption is not a significant problem in the country, though it does seem to be on the rise.

The report states that "…there is little direct evidence that corruption is serious in any particular area of public life, institutions of prosecution and enforcement appear to be weak, the effectiveness of several other institutions of oversight is questionable, and conflicts of interest appear to be a widespread phenomenon."

"These problems may be exacerbated by the small size of the country, a long history of close interaction between the public and private sectors, and the predominance of personal contacts as the means by which institutions function in practice," it continues.

The report makes just two recommendations for Slovenia in its fight against corruption. It suggests that the government sponsor "detailed research on corruption in Slovenia, with particular emphasis on the role of the State in the economy and the effect of intertwining political, business and personal connections." It also suggests that the government promote "civil society involvement in anti-corruption efforts as part of a broader public awareness campaign."

Slovenia was rated on the last Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index as being the least corrupt of all of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, and even less corrupt than two EU member states.

The director of the government’s Office for the Prevention of Corruption, Boštjan Penko, responded to the report positively. His office believes that the OSI report is an accurate presentation of the situation of corruption within the country. In an STA report published on Wednesday by Finance, Penko said that his office is hard at work, and that it will complete an anti-corruption strategy and special anti-corruption draft legislation in the coming days. The documents will mark the end of the first phase in the battle against corruption.