Slovenia’s membership of international organisations and regional initiatives:
United Nations (UN), 1992
OSCE, 1992
World Health Organisation (WHO), 1992
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 1992
International Monetary Fund, 1993
World Trade Organisation (WTO), 1995
NATO, 2004
EU, 2004
Fore more, please check the pdf document on the right.
Slovenia strives for the preservation of its national identity and a simultaneous openness to the world. In international relations it advocates peaceful conflict resolution, stronger co-operation and trust and respect for human rights.
Slovenia lies at the heart of one of Europe's ethnic crossroads. Throughout history the territory of present-day Slovenia has been an important transitional zone in Europe, and thus continually subject to cultural, economic and political domination by centres of civilization outside its ethnic territory. From the time of their earliest settlement here in the 6th century, the Slovenes have had to struggle for living space and to safeguard their cultural, political and economic existence with more populous Germanic, Latin, Magyar and Slavic peoples. In this struggle the Slovenes lost nearly two-thirds of the territory they originally settled.
After the independence the Government recognised EU membership as one of the country's priorities. Membership negotiations began in March 1998 and were concluded in December 2002. A referendum was held in Slovenia on 23 March 2003, at which 89% voted in favour of the country entering the EU. Slovenia joined the European Union on 1st May 2004. Slovenia has one Commissioner in the European Commission, and seven Slovenian parliamentarians were elected to the European parliament at the elections on 13 June 2004.
Slovenia pays special attention to the position of the Hungarian and Italian minorities in Slovenia as well as to the Slovenian minorities living in the neighbouring countries. The Slovenian Constitution, adopted in 1992, guarantees special rights to members of the Italian and Hungarian minorities living in Slovenia.
Today Slovenian minorities live in most of the neighbouring countries: Italy, Austria and Hungary. The rights of the Slovenian ethnic minority in Austria are set forth in the Federal Contract on the Restructuring of an Independent and Democratic Austria. The rights of the Slovenian minority in Italy and of Italians in Slovenia are set forth in a Special Status, included in the London Memorandum of Agreement (accepted in 1954), as well as in the Osimo Agreements (signed in 1974).
/More information in the background information: 25th Anniversary of the Osimo Agreements, November 2000/
The question of the Slovenian ethnic minority in Hungary and of Hungarians in Slovenia is dealt with in the 1992 accredited agreement on ensuring the special rights of the Slovenian ethnic minority and of the Hungarian ethnic population in Slovenia.
Slovenia co-operates with its neighbours within the framework of quadrilateral links; it also works alongside other Central European states within the Central European Initiative (CEI) and Regional Partnership and contributes to stabilisation of South Eastern Europe within the Stability Pact.
On 16 May 2007 the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) invited Slovenia to start the process of its accession to the OECD.