While challenges to the European Union have spread throughout Europe, Slovenia remains firmly committed to it, Slovenia’s ambassador to the U.S. told Global Atlanta.
“For us our future is in Europe and the euro is part and parcel of Europe,” Ambassador Bozo Cerar said during his visit to Atlanta in mid-May. “The European Union is a huge achievement with the free movement of people, ideas, produce and the euro as a common currency.”
To underscore his conviction, he added that “If the project fails, we’ll be going back into the time that nation states went to war against each other. We’re lucky to have it and we will do whatever is necessary to preserve it.”
Surprisingly, there is a political consensus in Slovenia to his view, he said, extending even to the far right unlike in other European countries where right-wing, populist parties are anxious to pull the union apart into independent states. “Even the most right-wing parties are pro-European because we all are very much aware of our future survival and identity depends on the EU.”
Since the country of 2 million people between Italy and Austria was part of the Habsburg empire and then the Austro-Hungarian for centuries, it’s not surprising that it considers itself European.
And it’s objective as soon as it claimed to be an independent state in 1991 — the first to breakaway from Yugoslavia — was to join the union as a democratic country, based on the rule of law and a market economy. Two years later in 1993 a referendum on EU membership was held with 89 percent of Slovenians voting in favor of entering.
In 2004 it became a full member and then in 2007 it phased out its national currency, the tolar, to be admitted as the 13th member country in the eurozone.
A career diplomat who held several posts in Slovenia’s foreign ministry and who served as former ambassador to Poland (2004), to Canada (1997-2007); and minister plenipotentiary at the Slovenian Embassy in London (1991-92) as well permanent representative to NATO (2007-11), it’s not that Dr. Cerar isn’t aware of the problems that Europe faces.
“In 2004 we met all the requirements for entry,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean we haven’t had our share of problems.”
The global economic crunch that began in 2008 hurt Slovenia. “We are a country that depends on its exports. During the recession in the EU, we suffered quite a lot,” he said. “When there are problems in our export markets, we have problems at home.”
Slovenia had enjoyed full employment even during the years it was part of Yugoslavia due to state planning, and then in the 1990s and at the beginning of the 21st century, it did as well.
But in 2008 it experienced unemployment above 10 percent, he said, “10 percent in a country not aware of the problem. In the past we always had employees coming from Bavaria or the Czech Republic, but now there were no jobs for the younger generation, a phenomenon that we weren’t used to.”
More recently, he said Slovenians were overwhelmed by what he called a “tsunami of migrants and refugees.” He described how Slovenian farmers would look across their fields and see as many as 1,200 coming out of wooded areas and crossing creeks and rivers to stomp over their fields.
In four to five months, the lines of displaced people were equivalent to at least a quarter of Slovenia’s population, he said. “They were coming for a better life,” he added, many from as far away as Egypt, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“On one hand we wanted to be helpful, but on the other hand there was a security component. It put tremendous pressure on our services and presented a great burden,” he said, leading the country to implement measures to exert some kind of control.
“We never closed our borders even at the peak, but we began to register and check them and generally kept them for two days providing shelter in barracks formerly used by the army or school and sport facilities, even fair grounds.”
“We didn’t have tent cities,” he said. “We provided food and medical assistance and kept many for at least two days” before releasing them to go further into Europe.
“Sometimes we were on the brink of collapse, but today we are better prepared,” he added.
He was supportive of last year’s deal in March between Turkey and the EU to address the overwhelming flow of smuggled migrants and asylum seekers traveling across the Aegean.
In addition, to the migrant issue and the economy, he said that he is concerned about relations with Russia, which is an important trading partner for his country. “We should try to reach a dialogue with the Russians. We need a better relationship even though we are a rigorous supporter of NATO.”
Even though Slovenian soldiers are about to join Canadians in Latvia as part of a NATO initiative to bolster defenses against the Russians and he opposes Russian actions in the Ukraine, he would like to see improved relations.
Mr. Cerar’s stop in Atlanta was probably his last foray out of Washington as he comes to the end of his term as ambassador. Upon assuming the post in 2013, he promised to visit all of Slovenia’s honorary consuls throughout the U.S., and he made this trip to visit Paul Steinfeld, who serves as the honorary consul based in Atlanta.
He was accompanied by Metka Erbas, Slovenia’s economic consular official based at the embassy in Washington.
His tour of Atlanta included stops with city and state officials including Gov. Nathan Deal and Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development to discuss the possibility of a Slovenian auto supplier investing in Georgia, and Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Dan Gordon and Atlanta Director of Sustainability John R. Seydel on best practices in urban resiliency and sustainability.
They also went to the headquarters of United Parcel Service Inc. to discuss Slovenia’s future as a logistics hub, the Center for Civil and Human Rights and the Carter Center.
Although Dr. Cerar is on the verge of retirement, he said that Ms. Erbas had seen the potential for increasing ties with Georgia and anticipated a return by his replacement at least for ceremonies to be held next year celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
For more information about Slovenia, Mr. Steinfeld may be reached by sending an email to steinfeldpaul@gmail.com
The Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia is the presenting sponsor of Global Atlanta's Diplomacy Channel. Subscribe here for monthly Diplomacy newsletters.