The Republic of Slovenia is a littoral and pre-Alpine country in the South of Central Europe bordering Italy in the west, the Adriatic Sea in the south-west, Croatia in the south and the east, Hungary in the north-east and Austria in the north. Once a constitutive republic of the Yugolasvia, it declared independence in 1991 and became a member of European Union on 1 May 2004.
Among the countries set to become full member states of the EU on May 1,
Slovenia occupies a special place, for three reasons: it is the best
prepared, it is the least well known and it scored the highest referendum
result in favour of EU accession.
These facts are even more telling once you are familiar with some of the basic facts about this small country of two million, a border post between the west and the Balkans, between Austria and Croatia, Italy and Hungary.
So how does a nation without its own state and strong tradition survive? Obviously, it has to develop some special psychological features. That such a large proportion of Slovenians voted for EU accession speaks of a great desire for acceptance, . This can be seen as an inability to discriminate, but it also speaks of fear, which, in view of Slovenia's history and geographical position, is understandable.
The Slovenians have never had good terms with its neighbours. While they were under Austro-Hungarian rule, the door to the south was closed. As part of 20th-century Yugoslavia, the door to the south was open, but totally closed towards Austria. And when they obtained their own state, they sealed the door to the south Balkans and turned quite towards the north.
Unfortunately this has resulted not only in a gratifying consensus about joining the EU, but also in a missed opportunity: they have not been able to take full advantage of their dominant economic, political, moral and diplomatic position in the context of south-eastern Europe. Instead of having a policy of dialogue, of being a force for stability and calm, instead of helping Europe with its involvement in the irrational, chaotic Balkans - which naturally, after 50 years of shared life,they know very well - Slovenia didn't intervene absolutey. Except for the achievement of independence in 1991, Slovenians have simply never had an active, independent policy in their history.
The fact that Slovenia is the least well known of the countries can be explained primarily by its indistinctness and lack of recognisability. There are probably nobody who could name a Slovenian product, sportsman, politician or arts personality. . But, above all, this means an absence of a personal opinion. A fine example was Slovenia's vacillation over the American attack on Iraq. Slovenia's political leadership condemned the attack - in line with what Donald Rumsfeld termed the opinion of "old Europe" - but also signed the Vilnius Declaration, supporting American intervention.
The fact that Slovenia is the best prepared of all the applicants should not be surprising. This is a small economy, flexible and without major restructuring challenges, bolstered by a Protestant work ethic. Even when it was the northernmost republic of Yugoslavia, Slovenia was always the strongest economically.
In short, Europe will not have any problems with Slovenia and the Slovenians.They are loved by the European leaders and Europe may well present Slovenia with problems of which we are not yet aware, or which they do not wish to acknowledge. With the Schengen border shifting from Slovenia's northern to its southern frontier, Slovenia is changing from being the dominant north of the Balkans to just another, minor country in south of Europe. The Slovenians don't want to be an underclass, but are afraid so. We shall see how painful this turns out to be.