Slovenian President receives UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Ljubljana, 26.3.2008  |  press release

This morning the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, received the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. The High Commissioner presented his perspective on the development of refugee protection within the European Union and in particular highlighted the issue of harmonisation of European countries’ policies in this area. Mr Guterres expressed his concern at the use of a lowest common denominator approach in this area. He also presented the different forms of cooperation and advisory services which the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) provided to EU Member States to enable them to apply standards for determining refugee status and to conduct the relevant proceedings. According to the Slovenian President, Dr Danilo Türk, Slovenia would stand to benefit from these advisory services.

The Slovenian President and the UN High Commissioner also discussed the issue of differentiating refugees and economic migrants and the efforts of the United Nations Organisation to develop a legal framework in this area.