| By H.E. Mr. Franc But, Ambassador of Slovenia in Germany For the second time since becoming a member of the EU in 2004, Slovenia has taken over the presidency of the Council of the European Union. This time, we are part of the presiding trio together with Germany and Portugal. Program starting points have been prepared together for the span of 18 months. One of key projects has been the formation of a strong European Health Union; the founding of which is linked to desire to make the EU more coordinated and less dependant on third countries when it comes to vaccines and medicines. We are not talking about creating a whole new institution, we want to take steps towards better and more successful coordination of the already-existing institutions. When we speak of enhancing EU’s resilience to major crises, we need to address new industrial policies as well as resistance to potential cyber attacks. Green transition and digitalization are key issues when addressing economic, social and especially environmental future of our planet. As part of the Slovene presidency, we have been preparing implementing acts for the operationalization of ‘Fit for 55’ package. We all wonder, which direction the EU will take in the future. Due to that we decided to carry out an enquiry amongst the inhabitants of the EU and asked them to make some predictions of their own. In the context of many events that are happening presently as a part of ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’ we are trying to bring the EU closer to the European citizens. Slovenian presidency has already dedicated this year’s Bled Strategic Forum (BSF) to the above-mentioned topic and we are carefully monitoring the responses on the digital platform. Special focus has been placed on the questions relating to the rule of law, as one of the EU’s core values. Important challenges of the future are linked to the questions of security. We need to find a consensus on The New Pact on Migration and Asylum, agree on a shared responsibility and solidarity as well as on finding solutions, acceptable to all. EU’s enlargement to the Western Balkans is a challenge as well as a great opportunity to complete the EU’s space by including the countries from the region, we share our future goals and ambitions with. We are confident that the EU-Western Balkans Summit (October 6th) will bring about a new momentum for the enlargement process. For further information: Slovenian Presidency of the European Council: https://slovenian-presidency.consilium.europa.eu/en/ |
