“They are so well coordinated, aren’t they? A user poses a question to the 8th of March Institute (Inštitut 8. marec) under their post, and the European Commission in Slovenia answers!” is one of the very telling comments on the social network X, which, in agreement with many others, suggests that the European Commission in Slovenia is just a branch of the 8th of March Institute.
The 8th of March Institute recently announced its upcoming goal on Facebook. “The next goal of the 8th of March Institute: to wait for the European Commission to support our civil initiative for safe and accessible abortion and to collect one million signatures for it. All over Europe. Together with the most wonderful movements,” they pointed out, adding that they are “continuing to fight for what is right.”
When one of the Institute’s followers asked what will follow or what their next steps will be if they manage to collect one million signatures, many were surprised. Instead of the Institute or any of the specific activists answering the question, the European Commission in Slovenia itself stepped in to answer.
“If the initiative meets all the conditions, the initiators meet with European Union representatives within one month, followed by a presentation in the European Parliament within three months, and then the European Commission issues a formal reply explaining whether the initiative will be the basis for a proposed regulation,” wrote the European Commission in Slovenia, providing a link to a website with more information on the procedure and the rules to be followed when registering a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI).
The European Commission in Slovenia’s response sparked a wave of reactions on the social network X, as one would rightly expect the Commission to keep as neutral a stance as possible: “They didn’t even need to be tagged”; “This is vomit-inducing. The whole thing is totally messed up, including the EU”; “They’re all the same …”; “Just means that someone inside the European Commission in Slovenia is part of the 8th of March Institute. It’s just a question of who it is”; “They didn’t have to wait at all – the European Commission has already endorsed them”; “They are probably all sitting at the same table. Well, at least in the same room.”
Their behaviour is often surprising
This was not the first time that the European Commission in Slovenia has negatively surprised people. Many people were quite bothered by its actions when, for example, they organised individual events and failed to ensure that the speakers were at least politically balanced. Most recently, on the day when the President of the Republic signed a decree calling for the election of Slovenian MEPs to the European Parliament. The event at the European Union House, which brings together the European Parliament Office in Slovenia and the Representation of the European Commission in Slovenia, included a discussion called “100 days to the European elections”, to which, in addition to one of the representatives of the Centre for International Relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Director of the State Election Commission (DVK), they invited the President of the left-wing “NGO” ONA VE – SHE KNOWS Association, Marta Kos, and Andraž Zorko, a so-called opinion-maker who is considered by many to be a left-wing political propagandist.
Since decisions are taken in Brussels that affect all EU Member States and thus EU citizens, we can only hope that such events will no longer be a constant and that they will be as balanced as possible. After all, they contribute to a higher turnout in the European elections, which will be all the more important this time if we want to see a turnaround in the European Union.
S. K.
