Vecer Comments on Slovene Negotiations for EU Membership

Maribor, 29 March - PRESS/EU/SLOVENIA/NEGOTIATIONS
When the European Commissioner on Enlargement Guenter Verheugen talks about demanding talks which will present the beginning of "serious negotiations", the Slovene government, negotiators and MPs listen prudently. However, they do not learn anything. Slovene negotiators took the government's plan for the abolishment of duty-free shops to Brussels. The government says one thing, the MPs another as Brussels hands out their reproaches on the slowness of property restitution, something which is not even a topic of negotiations. No decisive words can be heard from the "negotiators", who diligently bear every order from Brussels. They keep quiet even on the principle of reciprocity (what about similar Greek and Czech shops?) or the call for a complication or dispute between the EU and a candidate country to be resolved by the international court in Strasbourg.