Guest speech of the Ambassador of Slovenia; H.E. Dr. Ernest Petric

On the occasion of the forthcoming EU presidency, the IMC Export Department, under the auspices of the Chair for International, Legal and Global Political Studies, was inviting the residential Ambassador of Republic of Slovenia to Austria H.E. Univ. Prof. Dr. Ernest PETRIC for a visit and guest lecture on 11th December 2007. The Ambassador gave an excellent presentation on Slovenia and its forthcoming tasks. His remarks were followed by nearly two hours of discussions with students and professors, and by a small cocktail reception.

Ambassador Petric remarks offered the IMC Export Fellows an opportunity to learn about the new Treaty (so called the Reform Treaty, to be signed in Rome on 13th December), planned meetings: 2 of Council, 30 ministerials, 50 COREPER meetings, around 3.000 WG meetings as well as 5 larger meetings, such as with LaAm, USA, Russia, Canada and with Japan; Future of Europe (Enlargement, Turkey and Western Balkans); Lisbon Strategy; Climate Change and Energy; Freedom, Security and Justice, External Role of the EU; 2008 as the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue ; EU Budget Reform; and the CAP Health Check. Ambassador has answered several question being particularly extensive on position of the Slovenian government towards the situation with the Slovenian minority in Italy and Austria, as well as on the current negotiations about the future status of Kosovo (and Serbia). Finally, Ambassador referred to the bilateral Austro-Slovenian relations, complimenting them as excellent (volume of trade has reached nearly 4 billion Euros).

An extraordinarily eloquent senior researcher and career diplomat, Ambassador PETRIC has over 40 years of teaching experience (Intl. Law and Intl. Relations). His academic career took him to Colombia, Iraq and Ethiopia (970s & ‘980s). Closing his academic assignments with the post of Director of the Research Institute in Ljubljana, he served as the last Yugoslav Ambassador to India and Nepal, first Slovenian ambassador to the USA and Mexico, than to Brazil, chief of Mission to the UN New York and to the OSCE Vienna, was the State Secretary of the Foreign Ministry and also served as the Deputy Foreign Minister before coming to Vienna in September 2002. H.E. holds the PhD degree in International law from the Law Faculty of Ljubljana.

Summing up after this content-intensive and extremely valuable event with Mr. Ernst Fietz, the EXP Program Director, and Mr. Anis H. Bajrektarevic, EXP Chair and principal host of the event, Ambassador Ernest Petric stated that he has been very impressed by our faculty’s continued interest in EU affairs. The Ambassador also complimented the commitment and knowledge of our students as demonstrated in the questions and discussion with him as well as with the overall achievements of our young institution. He promised to return to our university for the Presidency de-briefing.

Text: Mr. Bajrektarevic

The presentation of Dr. Ernest Petric can be found here.