Slovenia Likely to Complete Accession Negotiations in First Half of 2002, Lombardero Says

Brussels, 25 April - Slovenia's EU accession negotiations are well under way, agreed the head of Slovenia's negotiating team Janez Potocnik and EU's chief negotiator for Slovenia Jaime Garcia Lombardero at the meeting of a joint committee of the Slovene and the European Parliaments in Brussels on Wednesday. According to Lombardero, Slovenia, as one of the most progressive candidate countries, is very likely to complete the negotiations in 2002. Potocnik expressed hope for this to take place in the first half of 2002 at the latest.