NEWS
Prime Minister Bratušek at the conference on the EU challenges in the light of the 10th anniversary of Slovenia's EU membership
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, participated in the conference on the EU challenges in the light of the 10th anniversary of Slovenia's EU membership, attended also by Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, and members of the former core negotiating team for Slovenia's accession to the EU. "Anniversaries are a time for reflection to assess the past and set targets for the future," the Prime Minister said in her opening address, highlighting the advantages of Slovenian EU membership and the vision of our European future.
Upon its accession to the EU, the excellence of Slovenia was boosted by the "unity of politics and the general public that Slovenia's membership in the EU is crucial to our future," on the one hand, and "good organisation, a desire for cooperation, high level of expertise and dedication of the people, who brought the negotiation process to its successful conclusion, on the other hand. These are the values to which we must return," stressed the Prime Minister, adding that unfortunately, we took our initial success for granted and so the crisis caught us off guard. Considerable effort and sacrifice have been made during the last year to restore the confidence of foreign countries and to revive economic growth, which is expected to be reinforced further in the future, and despite it all, we also managed to preserve the foundations of the welfare state, said the Prime Minister, warning, however, that this was not enough. She expressed her belief that we will manage to go beyond the egotism of individuals despite the current political situation and step together once again, returning to the values that distinguished us at the time of our accession to the European Union, and jointly make use of our potentials. It is therefore important that we express our will on the kind of Europe and Slovenia we want to live in "by taking part in the elections, to vote for those who believe in a strong, equal, open and progress-oriented European Union, for those who are able to admit their own mistakes and do not just blame others for them, and for those who do not forget the people and the environment in which we live," said the Prime Minister and stressed that in this way, we will also vote for Slovenia.
"We must not forget the original reasons for the formation of the European Union and its values. We are not sufficiently aware that Europe continues to be more secure, more democratic, more social and, in a way, also greener than other continents. Events in our neighbourhood remind us that Europe is worth fighting for," concluded the Prime Minister.
