Govt Sets Up EU Presidency Working Group

Ljubljana, 6 January

The government on Thursday created a working group put in charge of preparations for Slovenia's EU presidency in the first half of 2008. Chaired by PM Janez Jansa, the group includes Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk, Public Administration Minister Gregor Virant and head of the Government Office for European Affairs (SVEZ) Marcel Koprol.

The group will make sure that the project is managed consistently, Rupel said after the government session. It will draft general political guidelines and set priorities, oversee the preparations undertaken by public administrations bodies and name a broader working group that will manage operational tasks.
The first EU newcomer to be entrusted with presiding the EU, Slovenia will have the sole responsibility for the presidency if the constitutional treaty is not implemented.
Yet if the treaty enters into force - it changes the current system of six-month rotating presidencies and introduces presiding troikas - Slovenia will be joined by Germany and Portugal. The trio would be in charge from the beginning of 2007 to mid-2008.
Informal preparations have been underway since the presidency line-up was confirmed in December. According to Jansa, Slovenia has already started gathering information from "old" members which had chaired the Council before.
Ambassador to the EU Ciril Stokelj told a recent meeting of Slovenian diplomats that preparations are underway on two levels: talks are conducted between permanent representations in Brussels and the governments of Slovenia, Germany and Portugal.
It is too early to speculate about detailed priorities of the presidency, although Stokelj has noted that this will probably be a time when Croatia wraps up membership negotiations. The closing part of negotiations is the toughest, as it is mostly about financial aspects of membership.
The presidency is a huge burden on any country that is put in charge, from the point of view of staff required as well as the financial resources. Stokelj told diplomats yesterday that costs could exceed 60 million euros.

Govt Sets Up EU Presidency Working Group

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