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The capital of Slovenia is Lubiana, its area measures 20,273 square kilometres, the population is made up of 1,995,033 inhabitants, the gross domestic product is 24.4 billion Euros. The inflation is 3.9%, its unemployment rate is 6.3%, the deficit is –2.3% and its National debt is 30.9%. Slovenia proclaimed its indipendence from Jugoslavia in 1991 and it passed its own the constitution by a referendum on 23rd December of the same year, giving itself a republican organisation. Slovenia has a form of parliamentary government, the Parliament is a bicameral one and it is made up of two Chambers: the National Chamber and the Council of State. The National Chamber is a legislative organ elected every 4 years, including 90 deputies, 2 of them elected by the Italian and Hungarian minorities. The electoral system is a proportional one with a blocking clause fixed at 4%, i.e. the parties that don’t achieve such a percentage, cannot enter the parliamentary representance. The Council of State is a chiefly consultive organ, elected every 5years, made up of 40 representatives of the local councils and of the professional and economic interests. The Government, responsible towards the National Chamber, is made up of the Prime Minister, elected by the Chamber itself according to the President of Republic’s proposal, and of 16 Ministers, elected by the Chamber according to the Prime Minister’s proposal. The President of Republic is elected by universal direct suffrage, his mandate lasts for 5 years and he can be elected just once. The last presidential elections took place in December 2002, the present President of Republic is Janez Drnovšek. The last political elections, held on 3rd October 2002 brought to the Government Janez Jansa. He leads a centre-rightist coalition, the Slovenia coalition, made up of 4 parties, and he substituted the former Prime Minister, Anton Rop, who had been governing for more than 12 years, leading a centre-leftist coalition. Slovenia is a new adhesion- country and it joined the Union on 1st May 2004. The adhesion referendum was held in March 2003, the electoral participation was 55% and “Yes” won with the 89% of the votes. Slovenia has 7 deputies within the European Parliament and its territory is made up of just 1 electoral district. The European elections were held in June 2004 and just the 28.3% of the voters went to the polls. The two centre-rightist parties, New Slovenia and the Slovenian Democratic Party, gained 2 seats for each and their representatives joined the Popular party. The Liberal-Democratic party get 2 seats as well, and its deputies joined the Liberal and Democratic alliance for Europe. The last seat was awarded to the Social-Democratic United List, whose deputy joined the European Socialist Party. Within Barroso’s commission the Slovenian commissary is Janez Potocnik, responsible for Science and research.
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