News

State Secretary Marko Štucin and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Josip Brkić held bilateral political consultations in Ljubljana. The consultations focused on Bosnia and Herzegovina's path towards Europe and the necessity to implement reforms to open accession negotiations with the EU.

Minister Tanja Fajon received Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina Staša Košarac during his working visit to Slovenia. Their talks focused on bilateral relations.

On 13 March, Prime Minister Dr Robert Golob paid an official bilateral visit to Sarajevo. The Prime Minister’s visit follows the European Council’s decision in December to grant Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) candidate status for membership of the European Union. It was Slovenia, including Prime Minister Golob, which actively endeavoured to confirm the geostrategic decision of the European Council last year.

Slovenian Minister of Defence Marjan Šarec attended the two-day NATO Defence Ministers' Meeting in Brussels. The discussions focused on the war in Ukraine, strengthening the Alliance's deterrence and defence posture, and the upgrading of the commitment on defence spending to be adopted at the NATO Summit in Vilnius in July.

The Prime Minister, Dr Robert Golob, attended the 26th Consultation of Slovenian Diplomats at Brdo pri Kranju and addressed the heads of diplomatic and consular missions. He highlighted Slovenia's foreign policy priorities and called for unity in re-establishing Slovenia as a full-fledged country of core Europe. We must turn our foreign policy focus towards the world.

During her working visit to Sarajevo, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tanja Fajon met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr Bisera Turković, Chairwoman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željka Cvijanović, and Presidency members Željko Komšić and Dr Denis Bećirović. This was also the first political visit from Slovenia since BiH was granted candidate status.

After yesterday’s historic decision of the European Council to grant the status of candidate country to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Prime Minister Robert Golob announced that he would visit Sarajevo and pledged technical and development assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prime Minister Golob and President Pahor agree that the adoption of the Slovenian initiative is above all an important message of hope for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is very pleased that EU leaders at the European Council on 15 December took the important political decision to grant EU candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Today's agreement by the leaders of the EU member states on granting the EU candidate status to Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the most important geostrategic and political decisions made by the EU in the recent period.

Today, on 15 December 2022, Prime Minister Robert Golob is attending the European Council meeting in Brussels. In the discussion, EU leaders are focusing on further assistance to Ukraine, energy, the EU's global competitiveness and its enlargement policy.

State Secretary Marko Štucin attended the regular meeting of the General Affairs Council in Brussels on the preparations for the European Council meeting and the conclusions on enlargement and stabilisation and association process.

As part of the enlargement package, the European Commission today issued a recommendation that Bosnia and Herzegovina be awarded EU candidate status but will have to meet additional requirements before making further steps on the path to the Union. This is the same formula that the Commission has already applied in the case of Ukraine. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomes the recommendation as an important step towards the granting of EU candidate status. In the next stage, this will be decided on by the EU heads of state and government at the European Council.

Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon attended a regular meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg. The main topics on the agenda were the Russian aggression against Ukraine and its impact on food security, Egypt and the Horn of Africa. Prior to the EU Council meeting, at the invitation of Italy and Finland, ministers held an informal meeting with Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Political consultations between Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were held in Sarajevo, headed by State Secretary Stanislav Raščan from the Slovenian side and Josip Brkić, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the host’s side.

From 23 to 25 November, Minister Anže Logar attended the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg as Slovenia's high representative for relations between the Council and the Parliament.

The Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs today attended a regional ministerial conference entitled "Sarajevo Migration Dialogue" in Sarajevo. The Minister focused on strengthening cooperation and partnership in the region in managing migration and maintaining security.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Anže Logar today hosted Deputy Chairperson of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bisera Turković on a working visit to Slovenia. Their discussion focused on bilateral cooperation in various areas, particularly the economy, and on Slovenia’s support for the European perspective of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Srebrenica Memorial Day on 11 July is a day to remember and preserve the memory of the victims of the massacre in Srebrenica and the horrors that took place during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will not and must not ever forget Srebrenica – reconciliation is only possible if we remember and acknowledge the suffering and pain of the people. Any denial or relativisation of these tragic events is unacceptable. The Western Balkans region is still heavily burdened with these memories and the painful historical experience. The processes of reconciliation must be accelerated, since this is the only way for all generations to realise their potential and contribute to the region’s well-being, stability and security.

State Secretary Gašper Dovžan today spoke with the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bakir Sadović, via video conference. He briefed his counterpart on the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with a special emphasis on the Western Balkans. He also updated him on the planned EU-Western Balkans Summit scheduled for October this year.

Today, the final event of the development cooperation project “School and Peer Mediation in Bosnia and Herzegovina” took place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Carried out in 2019–2020, the project involved primary schools from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the Brčko District, and the Republika Srpska.