Weekly Review of Events Involving Slovenia from 20 to 26 October

Ljubljana, 27 October - Swiss Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss, Turkish Defence Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, and Chief-of-Staff of the Hungarian Armed Forces Lajos Fodor paid official visits to Slovenia last week, while President Milan Kucan received new U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia Johnny Young. Justice Minister Ivan Bizjak paid a working visit to Greece.

NATO and Slovenia in Brussels for the first time together reviewed the national programme on the implementation of the Membership Action Plan (MAP) for 2001/2002, which was passed by government in September. At the end of the week, a fresh round of talks was held with candidate countries, including with Slovenia. Slovenia, who negotiated on the chapter of judiciary and home affairs, pointed out that the enlargement strategy is not being implemented efficiently and satisfactorily.

The Slovene minority living in Italy protested last week as it did not receive census forms in the Slovene language but only in Italian, which violates the minority protection act.