9th Meeting of Presidents of Central European Countries
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Republic of Slovenia - Republic of Poland


 

Slovenia and Poland enjoy an established friendship that developed before the international recognition of Slovenia, in a period that saw both countries working towards the victory of democracy, human rights, respect for diversity, solidarity, peace and freedom in Europe. The two countries are today united by their common foreign policy objectives, especially EU membership, cooperation in security structures and regional cooperation in CEFTA, the Central European Initiative and the annual meeting of Central European presidents. Mutual cooperation, exchanging of opinions and support unites the countries' efforts to join the European Union. Since 1999 Poland has been a NATO member and strongly supports Slovenia's membership of the alliance.

The countries enjoy well-developed dialogue at the highest level. The President of the Republic Milan Kucan has visited Poland three times over his two terms in office, while the President of Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski has visited Slovenia on two occasions. Prime Minister Drnovsek visited Poland in 1999 accompanied by a large business delegation, while the Polish prime minister Leszek Miller has visited Slovenia twice - the first time on coming to office in 1998 and the second time in March of this year. Regular contact takes place between foreign ministries and inter-parliamentary cooperation is also well developed.

After establishing diplomatic relations, Slovenia and Poland signed all major agreements creating an excellent basis for cooperation at various areas. Agreements have been signed on the succession of agreements between Poland and the former Yugoslavia as well as agreements on economic cooperation, the reciprocal promotion and protection of investments, defence cooperation, a culture and education agreement and a convention on the avoidance of double taxation.

Poland is an important economic partner for Slovenia. Trade between the two countries shows promising growth. In 2001 it totalled USD 386 million, of which USD 242 million were Slovenian exports and USD 144 million were Slovenian imports. In comparison with 2000 exports were up by 7 percent and imports by 4.5 percent. Slovenia has had a constant trade surplus with Poland - in 2001 it totalled USD 98 million. The Polish market is gaining in importance for Slovenian companies which are increasing their investments there every year. In 1997 Slovenian direct investment in Poland was worth USD 4 million. At the end of 2000 that had increased to over USD 55 million, ranking Poland as the fifth highest recipient of Slovenian investments, the most important of which are in the pharmaceutical industry. More than 20 Slovenian companies are currently registered in Poland. The Port of Koper has a special role in the strengthening of economic relations. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia is successfully cooperating with the Polish Chamber of Commerce. A number of presentations have been organised in Slovenia and in various regions of Poland - Katowice, Cracow, Warsaw and Poznan.

In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in Polish tourists visiting Slovenia. In 2001 there was a 23 percent increase in the number of Polish visitors.

Cooperation in the spheres of education, culture and science stems from an umbrella agreement from 1994 and several cooperation programmes. It largely takes place in the form of direct cooperation between cultural institutions and the hosting of music and theatre groups. In the field of education, inter-university cooperation is very well developed with reciprocal lectureships in the Slovene language in three Polish universities (at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, the University of Warsaw and the Silesian University in Katowice) and in the Polish language at the Arts Faculty of the University of Ljubljana. Slovenian students and professors have participated in courses in Polish at Polish universities, while there have been Polish participants in the annual Slovene language seminars organised by the Arts Faculty of the University of Ljubljana.

Cooperation in the sphere of science and technology takes place on the basis of the agreement on scientific and technological cooperation signed in 1996. Cooperation has also developed between the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Polish Academy of Science in Warsaw and the Polish Academy of Arts and Science in Cracow as well as between research institutes and other scientific organisations in both countries.

GOVERNMENT PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MEDIA OFFICE © 2002


Republic of Austria
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Republic of Bulgaria
Republic of Croatia
Czech Republic
Federal Republic of Germany
Republic of Hungary
Republic of Italy
Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Moldova
Republic of Poland
Romania
Slovak Republic
Ukraine
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia