Slovenia in the Spotlight

‘Slovenia – Europe’s hidden pearl.’ Hard to argue with that tourist T-shirt slogan. This central European country of two million people is blessed with the sort of scenery that makes it an adventure playground for lovers of the great outdoors. Although only the size of Wales or Israel, it boasts cascading rivers, spectacular caves, Alpine peaks with world-class ski runs and a Mediterranean coastline dotted with Venetian harbour towns like Piran. No wonder the Lonely Planet’s guide to the country gushes: “Slovenia has it all.”

Then there is Ljubljana, or ‘The World’s Greatest Small Capital’ as the T-shirts trumpet. Again, difficult to disagree. Estonia’s Tallinn and Lithuania’s Vilnius come close in the cute capital stakes, but neither is as lovely as Ljubljana, a city with only 275,000 people that is 90 minutes from the shores of the Adriatic and 90 minutes from the slopes of the Alps.

On a recent visit, locals sipped mulled wine on the heated terraces of trendy cafes hugging the Ljubljanica river that snakes through the old town, old ladies sold wild mushrooms and hand-knit sweaters on the famous Dragon Bridge, while Italian tourists hoovered up wooden toys and trinkets from the dozens of Christmas stalls flanking the river. Soaring above the baroque old town, Ljubljana Castle was illuminated by thousands of tiny lights, creating the effect of a fortress floating in the night sky.

If Disney ever created a central European theme park they would probably model it on Ljubljana, which is a double-handed compliment. On the one hand, the capital is perfectly compact and picturesque. On the other, it is has an Austro-Hungarian air of smugness about it and its must-see sights can be ticked off in a day.

Welcome to Slovakia

Despite Slovenia’s attractions, tourist numbers have only recently reached pre-1991 levels -- largely as a result of the fall-out from the Balkan wars -- and the country remains almost unknown to outsiders

Part of the problem is the country’s name, which is often confused with a similar-sounding new EU state several hundred kilometres to the north. At a news conference during the 2000 election campaign, U.S President George W. Bush told a Slovak reporter that he had “a great visit” with “your foreign minister” in Texas. Actually, he met with the prime minister of Slovenia, not the foreign minister of Slovakia.

Despite the fact that Bush held his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia in 2001, the Republican administration made the same mistake when it listed the country as a member of the “coalition of the willing” in the war against Iraq -- again appearing to confuse it with Slovakia, which backed the U.S.-led attack.

Even people who know what and where Slovenia is are likely to think of it as war-scarred (its skirmish with the former Yugoslavia lasted 10 days and was 17 years ago,) Balkan (geographically, historically and culturally it is closer to Vienna than Sarajevo,) and east European (despite being further ‘west’ than western European countries such as Greece and Finland.)

Central Europe's star pupil

In recent years Slovenia has been slowly emerging from obscurity. It joined the European Union, along with seven other former communist states and Malta and Cyprus, in 2004. It became the first new member state to adopt the euro at the start of 2007. Last month, its frontiers with Italy and Hungary were torn down as it joined the 25-nation Schengen zone of countries. And on January 1, 2008 it became the first of the 10 states that recently joined the EU to take over the club’s six-month rotating presidency.

Slovenia now has the biggest chance it has ever had to place itself on the world map. Over the next six months, it will chair meetings of EU ministers and represent the bloc of 500 million on the global stage. When Bush meets with his European counterparts in June, Slovenian premier Janez Jansa will lead the EU delegation.

Slovenia’s presidency priorities will be ensuring a smooth ratification of the Lisbon reform treaty, boosting growth and jobs in the EU and dealing with the fall-out from a probable declaration of independence by Kosovo.

Some commentators have questioned whether tiny Slovenia is capable of leading the 27-state European Union given its diminutive size. But officials in Ljubljana answer that Slovenia’s smallness is an advantage because big countries do not always have the EU’s best interests at heart and are often saddled with the baggage of history.

“I am sure our presidency will succeed,” Mojca Kucler Dolinar, the 35-year old Μinister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, told me. “Preparations have been constant during the last months and we are excited and honoured to hold the presidency just three years after joining.”

Given Slovenia’s impressive recent record – in both economic and political terms – it is unlikely to trip up during its six months at the EU helm. “We are a model central European country,” says Dolinar. “We have made huge progress in the 15 years since independence, maybe because we are an ambitious country and an ambitious people.”

Sun shines on Slovenia

Slovenia was always the richest republic in the former Yugoslavia, producing one fifth of the country’s wealth and exporting a quarter of its goods, despite having only 8 percent of the population. In fact, a favourite saying during the reign of former Yugoslav leader Josep Tito was: “The laws are written in Belgrade, read in Zagreb and carried out in Slovenia.”

Recent history has been even kinder to Slovenia. It broke free from Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic’s grasp without much blood being spilt, played no part in the series of wars that decimated Croatia, Bosnia-Herzigovina and Kosovo during the 1990s and made a smooth and successful transition from communism to capitalism after it declared independence in 1991.

Seventeen years of political stability and steady growth has made Slovenia by far the richest of the ten former communist states that have joined the Brussels-based club since 2004. Ιn 1989 gross national product, measured in terms of purchasing power, stood at $5,000 a head. Now it is $34,000, slightly higher than Greece and Portugal.

On most other indices, Slovenia compares favourably with the Union’s old member states. At over 5%, economic growth is double the EU average, while unemployment is several percentage points below the European mean. Government debt is low and the country has roughly as many cars, mobile phones, personal computers and internet users per person as the club’s present members.

Not everything is rosy however. Inflation has soared to over 5% since the introduction of the euro, leading to unpopular price hikes. The centre-right government is unpopular, the country has a nagging border disputes with neighbouring Croatia and there have been noisy complaints from journalists that free expression is being stifled.

Despite these failings, few Slovenes would prefer to wind the clock back two decades, when the country was part of an authoritarian socialist state marooned behind the Iron Curtain. “Things are quiet and normal here now,” a 70-year old taxi driver told me. “And that’s just the way we like it.”