Experiences of the Slovenian Council Presidency

Dimitrij Rupel, born in 1946, studied sociology in his native Ljubljana and, from the late 1970s, embarked on an academic career as a university professor in the social sciences. This made it possible for him to spend time in Canada and the United States for research and teaching. Rupel became known in politics in 1989, when he founded the Slovenian Democratic Union (SDZ), and when, from 1990 to 1993, he became the first foreign minister of the independent Slovenia. Rupel subsequently served a three-year term as mayor of Ljubljana, before being appointed Slovenian ambassador to Washington in 1997. In early 2000, he returned to Slovenia, where he again assumed the post of foreign minister, which he held under different governments until the summer of 2004. Since the end of 2004, Rupel has served as foreign minister in Janez Janša’s center-right coalition government.

Slovenia was the first of the new member states of the European Union to hold the EU Council presidency during the first half of 2008. The political objectives pursued by Foreign Minister Rupel during the Slovenian presidency included the continuation of the Lisbon Strategy, the EU climate and energy policy, and the stabilization of the Western Balkan.

Some 150 guests from the fields of business, politics, academia and the media gathered for a lecture by the Slovenian foreign minister, Dr. Dimitrij Rubel, in the ballroom of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich on July 3. In his speech on “Experiences of the Slovenian Council Presidency: The Importance of the European Union for Southeast Europe,” Foreign Minister Rupel took stock of the last six months.

Especially regarding the countries of the Western Balkan, Rupel drew positive conclusions: According to the Slovenian foreign minister, the tight network of stabilization and association agreements in the region could be completed through agreements with Serbia and with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Initiatives on economic development and regional cooperation such as the liberalization of visa policies were also successfully pushed forward. In addition, Rupel noted that, during the Slovenian Council presidency, the European Union has enhanced its protective presence in independent Kosovo and continued accession negotiations with Croatia and Turkey.