Schedule of Events from 18 to 24 November

MONDAY, 18 November

BRUSSELS - A meeting of foreign affairs ministers from the EU member states and the ten acceding countries, including Slovenia, is to be held. Slovenian Foreign Affairs Minister Dimitrij Rupel and European Affairs Minister Janez Potocnik are to be on hand to present Slovenia's standpoints on the financial aspects of enlargement.

STRASBOURG - Seven Slovenian lawmakers are to attend the three-day plenary session of the European Parliament, the first session at which lawmakers from the EU candidate countries are to join their counterparts from the EU member states. The EP plenary session is seen as a kind of a "dress-rehearsal" for EU enlargement as it will offer a glimpse of the EP situation after new members join the Union. Legislators from candidate countries will have the right to speak in their mother tongue, but they will not be allowed to vote.

LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian central bank is to present its monthly data on the country's balance of payments.

LJUBLJANA - A group of civil society representatives, as well as members of peace and other social movements are to present a declaration demanding the staging of a referendum on NATO membership if Slovenia should get an invitation from the Alliance.

LJUBLJANA - The Government Office for Drugs is to stage a conference on the medical use of marijuana. Due to attend are experts from the Netherlands, Great Britain and Portugal.

TUESDAY, 19 November

BRUSSELS - Ministers of foreign affairs from the EU member states are to meet with their counterparts from the EU applicant countries, Norway and Iceland as part of the regular half-yearly dialogue on the construction of the European defence system, EU+15. Slovenia is to be represented by Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel.

LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary finance and monetary policy committee is scheduled to begin discussing the implementation bill for the 2003 and 2004 budgets.

LJUBLJANA - The council of the People's Party (SLS) is to hold a session to analyse the results of this year's elections and form the party's strategy for the second round of presidential and mayoral elections.

MARIBOR - The Maribor Faculty of Economics and Business is to put on a press conference to present the results of the Global Economic Model (GEM) survey. Slovenian Economics Minister Tea Petrin and the head of the project GEM Slovenia 2002 Miroslav Rebernik are to comment on the results.

LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, British Embassy in Ljubljana and British Department of Trade and Industry are to put on a two-day seminar on trade relations with SE Europe after Slovenia's membership of the EU.

LJUBLJANA - The management board of the Steel Industry Association at the Chamber of Commerce is to discuss three-quarterly results in the industry and the chief aims for 2003.

WEDNESDAY, 20 November

STRASBOURG - The adoption of reports on the progress made by EU candidate countries - among them Slovenia - towards membership and the umbrella enlargement strategy is to mark the end of the European Parliament sitting.

LJUBLJANA - Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel is due to receive a copy of the credentials from the new non-resident Mexican Ambassador to Slovenia Patricia Espinosa Cantellano.

THURSDAY, 21 November

PRAGUE - The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is to open its two-day summit meeting at which Slovenia hopes to receive a membership invitation. The Slovenian delegation to the summit is to be headed by Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek, Foreign Affairs Minister Dimitrij Rupel and Defence Minister Anton Grizold.

BRUSSELS - Slovenian Finance Minister Anton Rop is to meet with the European Commissioner for the Budget Michaele Schreyer. Discussions between the two are to focus on the open issues in the final phase of EU accession negotiations that deal with financial issues.

LJUBLJANA - The weekly cabinet session of the Slovenian government.

PORTOROZ - The Fourth Slovenian Business Conference, entitled "Competing and Co-operating with Foreign Companies - Compare With the Best", is to be launched. The two-day event is to be staged by the Association of Slovenian Economists and the business daily Finance.

LJUBLJANA - Sociologist, political expert and doctor of social sciences Jeet Liuzzi is to deliver a lecture on the role of Slovenia in Europe in the light of EU accession processes. The lecture is to be staged by the National Council.

LJUBLJANA - The council of the public television and radio service, RTV Slovenija, is to hold its regular session to review results in the first three-quarters of the year. Guidelines for restructuring and the drafting of the 2003 programming and business plan are to be discussed.

FRIDAY, 22 November

LJUBLJANA - Foreign Ministry State Secretary Samuel Zbogar is to receive a delegation of the Slovak Foreign Ministry, headed by the general director for bilateral relations Maros Sefcovic.

KRSKO - Emergency services in SE Slovenia are to stage a 24 hour exercise designed to test and improve the readiness of emergency services in dealing with an accident at the Nuclear Power Plant Krsko (NEK).