The EU officially recognised Slovenia as an independent state in January 1992 and a Co-operation Agreement entered into force in September 1993.

Since it was founded, Slovenia's politics have been focused on EU accession. It signed an Association Agreement with the EU in 1996 covering trade issues, political dialogue and co-operation in a number of areas. An Interim Agreement implementing the trade provisions of the Europe Agreement entered into force in January 1997. The Europe Agreement entered into force in February 1999.

Slovenia applied for EU membership in June 1996. The Commission Opinion was issued in 1997 and Slovenia started negotiations in March 1998.

The EC has been providing Slovenia substantial assistance for reforms and for preparing for accession to the EU. From 2000 onwards, the Community has been providing a combined total of around € 65 million of Pre-accession assistance to Slovenia on an annual basis from the three Community instruments.

The PHARE programme that has been providing support to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 allocated to Slovenia € 191 million during the period 1992 to 1999, € 33.3 million in 2000, € 28.5 million in 2001 and € 41.9 million in 2002. In 2003, Slovenia will be entitled to € 41.9 million. 2000 funds were fully contracted by the end of December 2002. 2003 programming will be completed in April. The Financing Memorandum will be presented to the Phare management Committee in June 2003.

Slovenia received € 19.6 million from ISPA (Instrument for structural policies for pre-accession) in 2000 and € 16 million in 2001. The 2002 allocation amounts at € 17 million. About 60% of the support was provided to environmental projects and about 40% to transport projects. During the first year of its operation 100% of the ISPA allocation has been committed.

The Slovenian SAPARD programme (Special Accession Programme for Agricultural and Rural Development) was adopted by the Commission in October 2000. It foresees the improvement of the competitiveness of the agricultural sector and processing industry focusing on environmental protection and seeks to enhance the adaptation capabilities of rural areas. The average annual support will be about € 6.6 Million. Slovenia signed the Multi-annual Financing Agreement and the Annual Financing Agreement for 2000 in March 2001 and the Annual Financing Agreement for 2001 in March 2002. In November 2001, the Commission adopted the decision conferring management of the programme to Slovenia's SAPARD Agency.

In the negotiations Slovenia requested and was granted a very limited number of transitional periods - this proves that Slovenia is already well prepared for implementing the acquis. Negotiations with Slovenia were concluded in December 2002 in the Copenhagen Summit.

A referendum on EU accession was held on March 23, 2003, and 90% voted in favour of accession to the EU (the turnout was 60%). A referendum on membership in NATO was held at the same time, and 66% voted in favour.

The Commission issued its latest Regular Report on Slovenia's preparations for accession in October 2002. (link) In these reports, the Commission assess the state of preparations of each of the candidate countries and identify remaining short-comings and tasks to be completed before accession.

In year 2003 the Commission experts will carry out a series of assessments (called peer reviews) on Slovenia's accession preparations in specific areas. It is also regularly monitoring the implementation by Slovenia of the commitments undertaken in the accession negotiations. A Comprehensive Monitoring report will be issued in November 2003.