Weekly Review of Events Involving Slovenia from 8 to 14 December

Ljubljana, 15 December - The signing of an agreement between Slovenia and the Holy See, President Milan Kucan's visit to Great Britain and the ruling of the Austrian Constitutional Court in favour of the Slovene minority were the main events on Slovenia's foreign political scene in the past week. The Austrian court ruled that bilingual signposts have to be set up in areas in Carinthia where the share of Slovene population is at least ten percent, and not 25 as stipulated by the Austrian State Treaty. The move irritated Carinthian Governor Joerg Haider, who said he would not respect the ruling and would call a referendum on the issue. Slovenia took the lead among the EU candidate countries last week by the number of closed chapters in the accession negotiations, as the country closed three more chapters.

The week also brought answers to questions appearing in the recent months about the leadership and the makeup of the government. Prime Minister and LDS President Janez Drnovsek announced to run for re-election as party president in January, and Minister of European Affairs Igor Bavcar said he accepted the offer to become the head of petrol trader Istrabenz. Slovenia's chief negotiator with the EU Janez Potocnik is seen by the media as his most likely successor.