“Congratulations to Slovenia for a successful presidency! The Slovenian Presidency ended with the beginning of the French Presidency. Thank you to Prime Minister Janez Janša and his government for their hard work over the past six months,” said Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, at the end of the Slovenian presidency.
Slovenia continues to receive congratulations even after the end of its presidency of the EU Council. European officials are sending messages that are far from what we have been hearing in Slovenia’s mainstream media for months. They are also in complete contrast to what the KUL members have been telling us. This is proof that false news about Slovenia’s foreign policy image originate from the transitional left.
For the second time, Slovenia successfully concluded its presidency of the Council of the EU in 2021, under the leadership of Janez Janša. It held the presidency for the first time in the first half of 2008, as the first of the ten member states to join the EU in 2004, when Janša led the Slovenian government.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has praised Slovenia several times, and at the end of the Presidency she thanked in Slovene. “You have done much to move our European agenda forward, from coordinating covid-19 actions to important initiatives for our sustainable and digital transitions.”
Congratulations are still coming from the EU, only Luka Mesec, Alenka Bratušek, Marjan Šarec, and Tanja Fajon are ashamed. So they said in a conversation with the opposition. Probably ashamed because they themselves could not give Slovenia another success story.
At the end of the year, the Slovenian Prime Minister also thanked Von der Leyen, Charles Michel and Josep Borrell. “Dear colleagues and friends, the year 2021 is coming to an end. It was full of challenges that we managed to successfully overcome. I would like to thank everyone for their valuable support and cooperation during the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU. We really appreciate that,” Janša wrote, and encouraged France and their Emmanuel Macron in French, “good luck to Emmanuel and the French Presidency”.
Sara Kovač
