POLAND AND SLOVENIA CAPABLE OF FULFILLING EU STRATEGIC AMBITIONS
President Kucan at the joint konference with President Kwasniewski
On the occasion of the working visit of President of Poland to Slovenia

Ljubljana, 16 March 2001

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MILAN KUCAN
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great satisfaction that I welcome here in Ljubljana our friend the President of the Republic of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, arriving on an unofficial visit. There are two motives behind this visit. The first is the opportunity to continue the well-functioning political dialogue between the countries, while the other, better motive is the expectation for the Polsih ski jumper and flyer Malysz to conquer the greatest prize in this sport awarded every year in Planica. We also hope that he will jump as far as he himself would wish to and as we would wish, too, hoping that it will bring satisfaction to him, to our guest, the people of Poland and the sporting public at large.

The President and I mainly discussed two issues, which, from the perspective of Slovenia's strategic interests, are most topical at this time. The first is EU membership or EU accession while the second strategic issue is NATO enlargement. Of course, we also touched upon such topical issues as cooperation in Central Europe and the situation in SE Europe, particularly in the western Balkans and its new hot spots in Bosnia-Herzegovina and particularly Macedonia and southern Serbia. Regarding the EU, we found our positions to be almost identical, the interest of both countries being to participate in the 'post-Nice' process in order for the decisions that the EU must adopt regarding institutional reform not to slow the pace of enlargement and for both countries to be able to fulfil their strategic ambitions and elect European MPs in 2004. We believe that both countries will be ready by that time. We also agree about the principle that bilateral issues cannot block EU enlargement and that individual treatment is required for every candidate country. We also found to have similar views about two other current issues, namely that internal political issues – elections in individual countries – shouldn't bring about a postponement or a slowdown in the pace of enlargement, and that certain proposals, requirements or transitional periods are out of place and provide no result because they are not realistic.

I am mainly referring to the free movement of persons and to the labour market. Neither Slovenia nor Poland see any real danger of a great tidal wave of workers and people in general from Poland or Slovenia in the direction of the current EU states upon the opening of the labour market. It is not normal for people in countries with a sound pace of development, as is the case of Poland and Slovenia, to seek opportunities for success elsewhere.

Regarding NATO, there is of course a difference in Poland's and Slovenia's position. Poland, of course, is a NATO member state and its voice has considerable bearing in the family of NATO states. Poland has and will continue to support Slovenia's endeavours. It is right, in my opinion, for the next round of enlargement to take place in 2002 at the summit to be held in Prague. This is naturally also in Slovenia's interest. We believe Slovenia's membership in NATO to be one of the important conditions for enhancing peace and security in the entire region bordering SE Europe and the Balkans. That is also why I am particularly grateful to President Kwasniewski and to all others responsible for Poland's support. President Kwasniewski is also scheduled to hold talks with Foreign Minister Dr Rupel and, tomorrow, with Prime Minister Dr Drnovsek.



REPORTER
Could you provide an assessment of the Austrian Foreign Minister's initiative for a strategic partnership of Central European states?

MILAN KUCAN
We have not yet discussed this initiative with the President of Poland so we are unable to provide you with an assessment. This will be discussed tomorrow.

REPORTER
How did both Presidents assess the developments in Macedonia?

MILAN KUCAN
We discussed the situation in the Balkans and in SE Europe in general. The comparison to a volcano with multiple craters and the unsuccessful approach of trying to plug one crater at a time because a new one erupts every time has proven that one needs to take a more comprehensive look at what is truly happening in the Balkans and where the reasons for its continued destabilisation lie. These are, of course, sensitive issues. We also believe that this is an issue that requires thorough political discussion in international fora, including NATO since it already intervened once. We agreed that Slovenia's initiative for NATO member states, i.e. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and at least two states that are serious contenders for NATO, Slovakia and Slovenia, to discuss and perhaps come up with a proposal for a common position on what is to be done in the Balkans prior to the meeting of Presidents of Central European states to take place in Italy this year.