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News
14.06.2006
Decision on the Enlargement of Eurozone at the EU Summit

At today’s press conference before the beginning of tomorrow’s European Council meeting in Brussels, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Janša, said that this meeting would probably go down in history above all because of a decision the main proponent of which is Slovenia. During the European Council meeting, a special EU council will also meet to decide on the enlargement of the Eurozone. According to Mr Janša, we can expect with certainty that the Council will confirm the Convergence Reports of the European Commission and the European Central Bank, and that it will adopt the decision to admit Slovenia as the 13th member of the Eurozone, i.e. allow Slovenia to adopt the euro as the national currency as of 1 January 2007.

 

Photo: Office of the Prime Minister

 

The Prime Minister Janez Janša said that the European Council will consider decisions from three important areas, first, in the area of the so-called approaching the EU citizens. There has come to a realisation that EU institutions are somewhat too far removed from the citizens of EU member states and that a number of measures have to be adopted to bridge this gap. These are above all the measures which will make the EU more open and friendly towards EU citizens, and those that will ensure a greater level of transparency in the operation of EU institutions and thereby provide greater efficiency. The European Council will also consider the work on current policies and orientations. A number of decisions have been prepared on the questions of freedom, security and justice as well as on the progress in implementing the Hague Programme, the question of illegal migrations, terrorism and criminal. For Slovenia it is of the utmost importance that in these decisions April 2007 remains the deadline for the implementation of the Schengen Information System must come to life.

 

The Prime Minister also pointed out that Slovenia is, together with other members, very interested in entering the Schengen area as soon as possible. We will continue to carry out the required preparations, but we do not wish for a postponement of this date due to certain technical difficulties in implementing the system.   

 

In the area of neighbourhood and foreign policy, several resolutions or special declarations have been proposed. The Prime Minister said that the main point of discussions in this section would be a discussion on the absorption capabilities of the EU, related to the enlargement and neighbourhood policy.  “If the rules of the game are set and very clear criteria are determined in advance, and if a certain candidate country meets these, then it would be unjust to reject its membership for different reasons that can be hidden in the concept of absorption capability,” explained Mr Janša.

 

The PM also announced that the European Council will welcome some improvements in particular cases also in the Western Balkans region, call on Macedonia to conduct fair elections in July of this year and welcome the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, led by former Finish president Ahtisaari. “The discussion on EU capabilities to admit new member states will not lead to the adoption or revision of the stands adopted at the Thessaloniki summit. At the end of this chapter the Council will acknowledge and adopt the report with regard to Croatia and Turkey starting accession negotiations, which means that this story has really began,” concluded the PM.
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