Economic issues of Slovenia`s accession to the EU

Slovenia obtained its independence in 1991, after the break-up of Yugoslavia, and embarked on the road to its membership in the EU. After more than a decade of transition and preparations for the accession, Slovenia, along with nine other accession countries, in 2004 became a new EU member state. This paper aims at overviewing various dimensions of the Slovenian "story" of integration in the EU. The emphasis is on economic aspects of EU accession, and the focus is on those Slovenian specifics, which make its process of EU accession somewhat different, when compared to other transition economies in the Central and Eastern European region. There were many arguments for Slovenia's inclusion in the EU, historical, geographic, cultural, political, economic, social and security related. However, potential economic gains from the EU accession were decisive in the case of Slovenia. An undisputed overall assessment in Slovenia was that expected benefits exceed the costs of the accession and that net benefits are particularly to be expected in the longer run. Of course, the overall effects are not proportionally distributed, there are some economic or social groups which may be at risk after the EU accession. This should perhaps be taken into account in designing economic and social policies, in order to sustain economic, social and political stability and cohesion in the country. One year after the entry in the EU, it can be said that not much has changed in Slovenia. Most of the adjustments have been done before, in the period of preparations for the EU. Most people felt practically no difference in their everyday life. Macroeconomic overall effect was positive, but negligible, and sectoral effects were in the expected direction, in fact in line with the previous trends. There was certainly no "EU shock" in Slovenia, and no potential risks of the EU membership were realized.

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