Brussels, 11/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - In an address to the European Parliament's plenary on Tuesday 11 June, the president of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, called for a new convention on the future of Europe.
Pahor said he wanted a new convention on the future of Europe to provide a vision for the European integration project and meet the needs of people in Europe. At a press conference, he said the vision would be of a United States of Europe. The idea of such a convention is to tackle the rise of Euroscepticism across Europe and now being seen for the first time in Slovenia, where he said it could become a damaging force if it makes a breakthrough in the European elections in May 2014. Pahor disagrees with people who say that transferring powers to Europe will necessarily amount in a loss of national sovereignty.
Pahor, a former MEP, said he was certain that Slovenia will be able to get over its current economic problems and set an example in the EU. He praised the work of Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn, saying that people should not be afraid of the troika, but should democratically legitimise its action. The president of the EP, Martin Schulz, said he was confident that Slovenia could resolve its domestic problems and tensions.
Narrowly escaping the launch of proceedings for excessive macroeconomic imbalances, Ljubljana is to be given two more years, until 2015, to bring its public deficit below the 3% of GDP cut-off point (see EUROPE 10855). The country will have to clean up its banking system, organising an independent assessment of its banks and setting up a 'bad bank' to which toxic assets will be transferred. The European Commission says Slovenia's economy will shrink by 2% in 2013, following a 2.3% shrinkage in 2012.
FYROM. Quizzed about the European future of other Balkans nations, Pahor said it was important to give the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia a date for the launch of EU accession negotiations as long as a deadline is given for finding a final settlement to the question of what exactly the country's name should be (Greece says that the name Macedonia belongs to Greece). If we don't do that, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will be ignored, he warned. (MB/transl.fl)