2008 EU Presidency

 

 

In the first half of 2008, Slovenia carried out one of its most challenging projects to date: the EU presidency of the EU Council. Given that a country of two million people held the presidency of the European Union with its 490 million residents, it is obvious that this was a demanding project for a country – and its diplomacy – that is only gained its independence in 1991 and became a member of the EU in 2004.

However, Slovenia has shown on numerous occasions that its youth and size are not obstacles when facing big challenges; it can often be an advantage. The fact that we were the first among the new Member States to hold the presidency of the enlarged European Union is therefore not intimidating us; rather we regarded this as a recognition of our achievements so far and were eager to take up the challenge.