The Government is already preparing for the EU Presidency in the first half of 2008

Ljubljana, 28 July

The Presidency of the EU in the first half of 2008 is a big challenge for Slovenia, which will become the first of the new Member States to assume this duty. Assuming the Presidency of the EU is an extremely demanding national project in terms of content, organisational structure and the allocation of financial resources, and one that requires the collaboration of a large number of state officials. For this reason, the Government began its preparations immediately after the Council of Ministers took its decision on the Slovenian Presidency.

At the beginning of the year the Government set up the Core Working Group for Preparations for the EU Presidency. The Core Working Group, which is headed by Prime Minister Janez Janša and which ensures consistent management of the project, formulates the general political guidelines and priorities of Slovenia’s Presidency and monitors the progress of preparations for the Presidency within the national administration. For the operational management of preparations and the implementation of the Presidency project, and for the coordination, direction and supervision of the work of all those taking part in the Presidency project, the Core Working Group has set up an Operational Group for the EU Presidency headed by the State Secretary for European Affairs, Marcel Koprol. The Operational Group coordinates, directs and supervises the work of the individual sub-groups, ministries and other bodies involved in the Presidency preparations.

The Core Working Group has identified five basic sets of tasks that need to be accomplished within the context of Presidency preparations. For the implementation of individual groups of tasks, five sub-groups have been set up within the Operational Group. These are: the Presidency Programme Sub-Group, the Human Resources Sub-Group, the Public Relations and Promotion Sub-Group, the Presidency Logistics Sub-Group and the Presidency Budget Sub-Group. The Core Working Group has also specified the bodies responsible for the implementation of individual tasks and appointed the heads of the sub-groups. The state bodies responsible for carrying out individual tasks collaborate in the sub-groups via their representatives. Other ministries also collaborate as necessary.

With the adoption of the material "Preparations for Slovenia’s Presidency of the EU" at the Government session at the end of July, the first phase of Slovenia’s preparations for the EU Presidency has concluded. Simultaneously with intensive work on project tasks and coordination among sub-groups, some tasks have already begun to be implemented in individual fields.

Prime Minister Janez Janša spoke about the preparations for the Presidency at a press conference. He pointed out that Slovenia has begun preparations very early – considerably earlier than those countries that already have experience in this field and therefore prepare differently for such a project. "We have studied the experiences of most other EU Member States relating to preparations and also to the actual implementation of the Presidency. We are aware that this is a big challenge for Slovenia, and therefore the Government has organised itself appropriately."

The Prime Minister also mentioned three key fields: the first set relates to content, since a detailed timetable has already been made for the elaboration of the programme of the Presidency, although this will continue to be supplemented as preparations progress. In this regard Slovenia is in permanent contact with the other members of the troika. The next set of preparations relates to human resources. A detailed estimate of additional staffing needs in this period has been carried out, and a figure of approximately 300 additional staff on fixed-term contracts has been arrived at. The third set relates to the estimate of the costs of the Presidency. "The figure is somewhere around 15 billion tolars, or approximately 60 million euros," said Janša. "Compared to the money spent by other comparable countries, we are somewhere at the lower end of the scale."

The Government is already preparing for the EU Presidency in the first half of 2008

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