A Slovenian presidency of the EU, very radioactive!
(B2) The end of the Slovenian presidency will not bring us many tears. Not that Slovenia failed in its mission. She was able to carry out certain issues such as the headquarters of the European Institute of Technology, the return directive or the working time directive (1).
More this presidency was above all that of an 'honest broker', without makeup or luxury. We felt how much the Slovenians were afraid of missing out. And suddenly, they were afraid of their shadow. Testimonies: "At the Council, the Slovenian representative turned to his German counterpart to check that it was good". In agriculture, "the Slovenian position faithfully reflected the British position".
Result: where usual, the presidencies of small countries are both effective and pleasant (yes! it is possible to combine the two, example with Belgium in 2001 or Portugal in 2007). Where usually, the first presidency of the Union leaves a memory of success (cf. Finland in 1999). Here, there is no question of one or the other.
The Slovenian presidency was laborious, hesitant, even at times very arrogant ("more so than France or Germany", a diplomat told me, that is to say...) and gave lessons (on the referendum in Portugal, on the deficit to the French...), but above all boring. The boredom was so palpable that certain diplomats and civil servants of the institutions (non-French I specify) came to hope as soon as possible (yes!) the French presidency, even highly touted or noisy... "Anything rather than this gloom"...
Maybe the current Slovenian government is not the best that Slovenia has known? Perhaps also that the country sinned by pride, believing that it could seize this "first presidency" of a new country to mark its feeling of national pride: to have been the first country of the former Yugoslavia to be independent, the first to enter the Union, the first of the twelve new countries to adopt the Euro, etc.? Perhaps also that he did not master all the community mechanics, subtle and complex, which requires time to be tamed, and probably did not have all the adequate manpower?...
This presidency will have made us laugh all the same, announcing very seriously an agreement on the "return" directive with all the groups of the European Parliament to then take a scathing denial from the PSE, the GUE (Communists) and the Greens (that is to say all the same three groups representing 4 MPs out of 10). Or when they triggered the European nuclear alert for a leak in their plant, before saying: Sorry, it was nothing... A Slovenian joke no doubt!
An achievement: independent Kosovo without damage
More seriously, this presidency will have at least an acquired... In the Balkans, this semester, Kosovo was able to become independent and Serbia to acquire a new pro-European government, without the explosion feared and put forward by certain 'experts'. Allowing today to be a little more optimistic than yesterday. If this is the result that I would remember from this Slovenian presidency, then this is it.
And, on a personal level, I have only one thing to recommend to you: go to Slovenia, its inhabitants are welcoming, and in winter, its ski slopes await you (in Krvavec, for example, it's easy the station is opposite the airport, 10 km away, you take a gray tipper, and here you are in white paradise! ).
(NGV)
(1) On working time, the Slovenian presidency has above all benefited from a big boost from the British who, having signed an agreement on the interim at home, have completely changed their minds on the matter and accepted a text almost in its entirety where they were upwind a few years earlier.
© Photos: NGV (above: Janez Jansa, Prime Minister, and JM Barroso, President of the Commission - below our Slovenian montages)
