EU is Europe's Biggest Success Story, Rupel Says

Ljubljana, 23 March

The EU is the biggest European success story, Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel has told the STA on the 50th anniversary of the Rome Treaty. According to him, the biggest challenge facing the bloc in the coming months and years is the adoption of a constitution.

Before the EU there had been several attempts to merge European nations, but all of them were based on the prevalence of one nation over the rest. The EU, however, is the first case of European integration based on equality, Rupel said.
According to him, the spontaneous creation of a European identity is a major achievement. "The extensive enlargement in 2004 turned the EU into a bud for a united states of Europe," said Rupel.
However, Rupel points out that the EU is fundamentally different to the US, which is one nation divided into many states. "Europe, I hope, is turning into a state-like organisation that is made up of many nations," Rupel told STA.
Europe has been living in peace in the last half a century, promoting values like cooperation and trust and having a single foreign and agriculture policy, said Rupel. Moreover, efforts are underway to form a common energy policy, it already has an internal market, while the Schengen system is making borders irrelevant.
"If I compare the EU to other organisations made up of many countries, I have to say that the Union is one of the most successful," said Rupel.
He added that one of the great paradoxes of the EU was that it is based on diversity and that it allowed variety. "As its bonding matter the Union has opted for diversity, which allows its parts to remain autonomous."
The European constitution draft from 2004 aims to increase the extent of integration, but it seems that some countries have a problem with this, said Rupel.
He is convinced that the constitution will not be confirmed in its current form, which is why he supports efforts of the current German presidency team to pick out the most important parts of the constitution that are not disputed by anybody.
Although Slovenia has already ratified the constitution, it will have to repeat the process for a new version, since it will not be the same as that confirmed by the National Assembly in 2005 even if it contains some of the points from the original document, Rupel added.
Adopting the EU constitution is a great challenge faced by the block on its 50th anniversary, others include the building of a common energy policy. The EU has made a great leap in recent times in this respect despite the differences between the members, Rupel said.
Another important issue facing the EU in the coming years is migration. Immigration cannot be tackled with barriers but with investment in source countries, Rupel said. He added that Europe should welcome some migrational pressures given its ageing population.
Asked about Slovenia's preparations to hold the EU presidency in the first half of 2008, Rupel said that this would be "a great challenge and major responsibility for a small and relatively inexperienced country like Slovenia".
Building consensus among 27 countries is not an easy task. It will be a major success and proof of the success of 2004 enlargement if Slovenia manages to keep the EU27 running like a well-oiled machine, Rupel says.
Meanwhile, Rupel is convinced that Slovenia's stint as EU president will not have a major impact on Slovenian-Croatian relations. "Slovenia is not the one needing to sort out its problems, since it is already a member of the EU," he said.
If Slovenia's role as the president will be contentious as far as solving open issues with Croatia goes, there would be no major damage if these issues are left up to the next presidency, he added.
During its stint as president, Slovenia will have to be extremely cautious and make sure it remains neutral, Rupel said. Meanwhile, Croatia will have to accept the code of conduct in force in the EU, which requires credibility and the implementation of given promises, he added.
"If Croatia fulfills European standards, this will by no means be bad for Slovenia, as a number of issues will be fixed on their own. Slovenia stands to gain from Croatia's accession talks with the EU," Rupel told STA.

EU is Europe's Biggest Success Story, Rupel Says

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