Country name: Republic of Slovenia
Location: Central Europe, eastern Alps bordering the Adriatic Sea, between Austria and Croatia
Area: 20,273 sq km
Population: 2,009,245 (July 2007 est.)
Capital: Ljubljana
Language: Slovenian 91.1%, Serbo-Croatian 4.5%, other or unspecified 4.4% (2002 census)
Natural resources: lignite coal, lead, zinc, mercury, uranium, silver, hydropower, forests
Government type: parliamentary republic
Legal system: based on civil law system; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Currency: euro (EUR)
note: on 1 January 2007, the euro became Slovenia’s currency; both the tolar and the euro were in circulation from 1 January until 15 January 2007
The Republic of Slovenia is a relatively small country that is located in Central Europe with a diverse geography. Its total area is 20,273 square kilometers and the population is approximately 2,080,000 people. The country shares borders with four countries: Croatia to the South and Southeast, Hungary to the Northeast, Austria to the North and Italy to the West. It has a coastline on the Gulf of Venice. Its capital city is Ljubljana. The country has a very diverse relief; from a coastline to high mountains on the borders with Austria and Italy, valleys and plateaus among the high elevations. The climate is also mixed: from Mediterranean on the Sea coast to continental in the central and northern part of the country. Summers are relatively hot while winter temperatures depend on the region- winter in the mountain region often goes below zero, but overall winters are mild.
Slovenia became a republic after the end of WW II and subsequently became part of Yugoslavia. Before this, the lands that now comprise the country used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but after the collapse the empire after WW I, Slovenes, Croats and Serbs joined to form Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia distanced itself from Russia and the Serbs were exercising a lot of their power on the union without taking into consideration Slovenes. As a result, in 1991 after a short war, Slovenia gained its independence and started the transformation to a market-based economy. It joined NATO and the EU in 2004.
Around 90% of the population of Slovenia is comprised of ethnic Slovenes. The rest of the populace is different minorities such as Serbs, Croats, Roma(gypsy). What is remarkable about Slovenian language is that it has about 47 dialects excluding the official language. Slovenian is part of the South Slavic language group but it has also been influenced By Czech, Hungarian, even German due to history ties. The religions that are affiliated in the country are diverse but the majority of the Slovenes are adherent to the Roman Catholic. Due to immigration waves after the collapse of Yugoslavia, Muslim and Christian Orthodox are also visible.
Slovenia is a parliamentary republic. Its currency is Euro that was introduced on January 1st 2007 in order to replace the previous currency, tolar.
Slovenia is the first country from those who joined the EU in 2004 to introduce the Euro as its currency. It is a model country of how successful a transition from socialism to market economy can be. Slovenia has a stable infrastructure, the highest GDP per capita in central Europe ( 16,600 euros), lower levels of unemployment ( less than 5%), and is regarded as one of the least risky countries in the EU. The privatization of state enterprises has been put on a hold since 2002 and now the country’s economy is one with the highest levels of state ownership in the EU. At the end of 2007, Slovenia was officially invited to begin negotiations over its future accession in to the OECD( Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). Corruption has been the reason that many former socialist countries still do not attract much FDI. However, this is not the case with Slovenia since the country has less corruption than Italy and Greece.
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