Parliament to Discuss Govt Plan of EU Activities on Tuesday
Continuing its monthly session for March, the National Assembly is set to debate the government's draft declaration on guidelines for Slovenia's EU activities in 2005 on Tuesday.
The main priorities as set by the government include the revival of the Lisbon Strategy, 2007-2013 budget negotiations, EU enlargement and preparations for EU presidency in the first half of 2008.
Designed to reinforce the promotion of Slovenia's national interests in the EU, the 85-page document will be used mainly for the government's participation in the EU Council, the Union's chief law-drafting body.
In 2007-2013 budget negotiations, the country will continue to pursue the same goals: spending that enables the Union to tackle the challenges of internal cohesion, competitiveness and development, and ensuring that Slovenia remains a net receiver of budget funds.
It is crucial for Slovenia that negotiations are wrapped up before the end of June as this would mean the country is sure to be entitled to Objective 1 regional development funds.
The next strategic priority - continued eligibility for cohesion funds - is directly related to the budget talks. The government will endeavour to ensure eligibility in light of the statistical effect of further rounds of enlargement. The budget talks will also determine the country's division into statistical regions.
For the Lisbon Strategy, the government agrees with reform proposals put forward by the European Commission, which focuses on bolstering productivity and employment growth. At the same time, however, social cohesion and environmental objectives must be implemented as much as possible.
In a set of priorities dubbed enlargement, the document stresses the start of membership negotiations with Croatia. In the negotiating process, the government will advocate the principle of differentiation that has applied to all previous rounds of enlargement - "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed" - and the fulfillment of all objective membership criteria.
The government also intends to push for EU accession of all countries in the Western Balkans, provided that they fulfil membership criteria.
As Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel explained recently, Slovenian believes all countries in the region should join the EU by 2015. "This should be our political objective, but only by taking account of the other 24 members' views and objective circumstances," he said.
The 85-page document furthermore lists priorities in agriculture policy (more money for rural development), trade policy (focus on SE Europe where favourable free-trade deals were phased out with accession), asylum policy (support for efforts to unify asylum policy), and activities related to the implementation of the EU constitution, which the parliament ratified in February.
A special section is dedicated to the protection of the EU's external borders. The government will continue to push for a distribution of the financial burden for the management of the Schengen border among EU members. At the same time, it opposes the formation of a European border police.
Parliament is reviewing the document in accordance with the act on government-parliament cooperation on EU matters.
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