STA, 10 December 2021 - Slovenia could have left a better impression during its EU presidency - while work has been good at technical level, political divisions and the government's action about the European delegated prosecutors (EDP) and the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) has cast the country in a poor light, three of Slovenia's eight MEPs said on Friday.
Franc Bogovič (EPP), Tanja Fajon (S&D) and Ljudmila Novak (EPP) took part in the Coffee with MEPs talk in Brussels, which focused on Slovenia's EU presidency.
As most critical of the three, Fajon said the presidency has been largely a missed opportunity while admitting that work at technical level in Brussels has been good.
Fajon, a member of the opposition Social Democrats (SD), believes too much focus was on the rule of law in Slovenia, which has cast a shadow on the presidency.
Novak, a member of the coalition New Slovenia (NSi), regrets the image the government projected with its action regarding the EDP and STA has been more seen that the good and intensive work and the progress made.
She highlighted among the presidency's achievements the agreement reached on the minimum wage, saying it was a very tough issue and nobody had expected a breakthrough.
Bogovič stressed the excellent work of many Slovenian representatives while criticising Fajon and some other Slovenian MEPs, including Klemen Grošelj (Renew), for what he said was exporting internal political topics to the European Parliament.
"Our internal divisions will not be solved by European newspapers, but by us," said Bogovič, a member of the non-parliamentary People's Party (SLS).
The MEPs also touched on some other topics, including the Western Balkans and EU enlargement, foremost North Macedonia and Albania.
Fajon regretted there has been no breakthrough for accession talks with the two countries to be launched, but admitted the Slovenian presidency could not be blamed for it.
All three MEPs also commented on a resolution on the rule of law in Slovenia that has been submitted to the European Parliament by the Social-Democrats, Liberals, Greens and the Left and on which the MEPs will vote in Thursday.
Fajon said the document is very critical, Novak said the EPP had tried very hard for it to be balanced, while Bogovič said it does not treat Slovenia negatively because it says that the fundamental mechanisms of the rule of law work and that there are no such flaws as there are in Poland and Hungary, or in Malta and Slovakia, where journalists are being killed.
