How Long Duty Free Shops?

Ljubljana, 7 November - SLOVENIA/EU/DUTY/FREE/SHOPS
An outstanding problem in relations between Slovenia and the EU for years, duty free shops have reemerged as a major issue in recent weeks. The reason is not just that in the Accession Partnership the European Commission ordered Slovenia to close down duty free shops in the year 2000, but also that a fresh analysis of the effects of their closure was made in late October by the Economic Research Institute for the Government Office for European Affairs (SVEZ). The analysis has not been presented in public, neither does the office plan to do so until the government holds a session on this issue in about a months' time. This is one of the reasons why no date has been named officially although unofficial sources suggest a potential date could be 1 July 2000, exactly two years after Slovenia should have done away with all duty free shops according to the European Commission's interpretations.