In 2030, I wish to see the EU enlarged, engaged and empowered, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, Tanja Fajon, at the conference on the EU enlargement issue in Berlin.

“In 2030, I wish to see the EU enlarged, engaged and empowered. I mentioned that before, but just allow me one short comment, because I didn’t have the opportunity. I, in the last few days, asked of myself following the situation in the Middle East. What is to be on the right side of history? And I answer to myself it’s to argue for peace. And I’m looking from the perspective of Slovenia and the development in the security council.

We are currently an observer in the security council and we will take two years from 1st of January. For us, being a small country is extremely important to stick to multilateralism and make it feat to today. It’s not something that will happen over the night. But it’s extremely important.

We have today a security council where you see that the rules don’t work and it’s very difficult to find a consensus on why we didn’t manage to find a common voice as regards to the Middle East crisis. We were among those countries that, there were nuances, but for us was now important to protect civilians on all sides, to release hostages, to ensure humanitarian poses.

That is why we supported the resolution. But at the same time, we supported Canadian efforts with strong condemnation of brutal terrorist attacks. And I think, following the situation, we all want to see peace and that the conflict doesn’t spill over to the region.

I wish that we find consistency in our foreign affairs and policies when we not only try to make Europe strong and United together with our partners, but also be consistent to global partners around the world. In the short term, the December EU summit, opening accession talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina, the same with Ukraine, sending strong messages to Moldova, Georgia, also move forward with North Macedonia, Albania, visa liberalization for Kosovo. So we have a lot on the plate and we did last year quite some significant steps, but this December summit is extremely important,” Slovenian FM stated.