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30.06.2008

Slovenian EU Council Presidency 2008 in Figures

Holding the EU Council Presidency is a responsible task involving managing and representing the Community of 27 Member States and about 500 million citizens.

In this important task, performed by the Republic of Slovenia in the first half of 2008, 2,720 Slovenian civil servants, 133 independent experts and 245 students participated.

In total, more than 8,000 events were held during the Slovenian EU CouncilPresidency: 283 events took place in Slovenia, 3,285 in Brussels and 4,242 elsewhere in the world.

The most significant events were the following:

  • Meeting between the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament(December 2007, Brdo pri Kranju)
  • Meeting of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and members of the European Commission in Slovenia(8 January 2008, Brdo pri Kranju)
  • Both meetings of the European Council (13–14 March and 19–20 June, Brussels)
  • Opening event of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (8 January 2008, Ljubljana)
  • 33 formal meetings of the Council of Ministers (Brussels and Luxembourg)
  • 16 informal meetings and conferences at the ministerial level (Brdo pri Kranju, Oslo and Brussels)
  • 66 meetings between the EU and third countries, among the most important being the EU-USA Summit, the EU-Russia Summit, the EU-Japan Summit and the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) Summit

A total of 260 cultural promotion events were organised, both in Slovenia and abroad. One of the most notable events was the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra concert on the eve ofthespring European Council meeting in Brussels.

Slovenia also contributed lasting commemorations of its Presidency: at the EU Council headquarters in Brussels we installed a replica of Plečnik’s long-case clock, and in front of the headquarters of the institution we erected a monolith, made of dark Pohorje tonalite, bearing the quotation from the Slovenian national anthem "May all peoples thrive and prosper" in all 23 official languages of the European Union.

In all, 27,597 delegates participated in 166 official Presidency meetings in Slovenia, at which 847 interpreters worked for a total of 12,800 hours. During the Presidency, Slovenia provided translations of 21,181 pages of material.

We presented participants with 1,003 protocol gifts, 30,000 ties and scarves bearing the symbol of the Presidency, and 27,000 promotional gifts.

Representatives of the press covered 26 meetings,attended in total by 1,583 Slovenian and 928 foreign journalists. Both meetings of the European Council in Brussels were attended by more than 3,000 journalists.

During the Presidency, 122 events took place at Brdo pri Kranju, where 16,000 guests were served:

  • 32,000 lunches, dinners and snacks, and 16,000 sandwiches;
  • 98,600 non-alcoholic beverages and 7,000 bottles of Slovenian wines;
  • 57,000 hot and cold beverages.

Within the framework of the Presidency, transport providers, with 80 limousines and 80 minivans, drove more than 1 million kilometres and used approximately 10.1 million litres of fuel.

The Slovenian Presidency website www.eu2008.si was visited by 765,000 visitors, whoover a period of six months visited 3,765,000 pages.

Twenty-three companies participated in the context of the Presidency and in total contributed approximately EUR 500,000. Presidency partners were: ACH, Adria Airways, Aerodrom Ljubljana, Droga Kolinska, Fructal, Gorenje, Hoja, Istenič, Kompas, Lenovo, Microsoft, Mura, Pekarna Pečjak, Petrol, Radeče papir, Mobitel, Radenska, Rogaška, Telekom, Tom, Video produkcija Kregar, Zavarovalnica Triglav and Žito.

In total, Slovenia used EUR 62,374,158 in carrying out the Presidency.

 

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Date: 04.07.2008