Cultural Agreement between Slovenia and Austria to be Signed After Over Three Years of Negotiations

Ljubljana, 29 April - A bilateral agreement on co-operation in culture, education and science between Slovenia and Austria is to be signed on Monday by the Slovene and Austrian Foreign Ministers, Dimitrij Rupel and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, as part of Ferrero-Waldner's visit to Ljubljana. The cultural agreement also includes a special article on a German-speaking group in Slovenia. The implementation of the document, which is to be supervised by a special mixed commission, is to be enforced for a period of five years, and should be automatically extended by another five years unless one side notifies the other six months before the expiration of a five-year about its wish to break the agreement off.