The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Janša, today, within the framework of the working visit in Finland, has met the Prime Minister of the Republic of Finalnd and EU-Council President Matti Vanhanen and President of the Finnish Parliament Paavo Lipponen. At the meeting with Finnish statesmen, the main emphasis was placed on the issues concerning the European Union, notably the enlargement to new Member States.
FOTO: BOBO
Prime Minister Janez Janša assessed the performance of the Finnish Presidency of the EU in highly positive terms, especially considering the fact that EU has to face a variety of most demanding issues. Finnish experience would, according to the Prime Minister, be of valuable assistance to the Slovenian presidency in the first half of 2008. "This is a good reason why we should strengthen the cooperation in this field after the end of the Finnish presidency," he added.
At the meeting, Prime Minister Janez Janša and his Finnish counterpart Vanhanen focused their attention on preparations for European Council meeting to be held in December in Brussels, where the enlargement of the EU will be one of the central topics addressed. Slovenia has been paying particular attention to this issue since, according to Prime Minister Janša, it is in the strategic interest of our country, notably concerning the West Balkans. Long-term stability and development of the region is to be achieved only through the European perspective of the West Balkan countries, which places this issue at the top of priorities to be addressed during the Slovenian presidency. At this occasion, the Slovenian Prime Minister also informed the Finnish statesmen of the recent visits of the Prime Minister of the Kosovo temporary government, Agim Ceku, and Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Vuk Draškovič in Ljubljana.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Janez Janša drew particular attention to Slovenia's entry into the Schengen Information System in view of the fact that our country has made substantial efforts to meet the set criteria, which also required considerable financial resources. "Should the agreement on the enlargement to new Member States within the EU fail, new ways will have to be found to provide for common security, " is convinced Prime Minister Janša.
FOTO: BOBO
On this occasion Prime Minister Janša also presented the candidacy of the Republic of Slovenia for the seat of the supervisory authority of Galileo and pointed out that Slovenia would stand by the 2003 European Council agreement according to which the new Member States have priority in hosting the seats of the future European institutions. "We are aware that the competition is strong and the decision will not be reached easily, nevertheless, we believe in Slovenia's convincing arguments upholding its candidacy," said the Prime Minister.
In talks with Prime Minister Vanhanen and President of the Parliament Lipponen, attention was also given to the development of bilateral relations. The statesmen agreed that the trading volume was not among the highest but the encouraging positive trends in this field could be noted. Considerable new opportunities would arise with the launch of scheduled flights between Ljubljana and Helsinki in the near future, which would increase tourist traffic between the two countries and also facilitate contacts between businessmen.
At the press conference held by both Prime Ministers, answering a journalist's question about the reasons for success of Slovenia to be the first new Member State adopting the euro and presiding over the EU, Janša underlined the fact that transition processes in our country were relatively swift and with no considerable difficulties and, as a result, conditions for the EU membership, entrance to the Schengen Information System and adoption of the common European currency were met. In relation to the latter, Janša stressed that Slovenia was aware of the challenges posed by the adoption of the euro. Consequently, preparations started early enough and no significant difficulties are anticipated.
