Leading former Yugoslavia into EU
By CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney
LAKE BLED, Slovenia (CNN) -- It is picture-postcard perfect. Slovenia, home to just 2 million people, has it all: To the north, snow-covered mountains, fairytale castles and magical lakes. A couple of hours to the south, the Adriatic coastline.
Just under 50 kilometers (30 miles) of coastline, as it turns out -- which means that property here is not cheap.
Real estate agent Gaspar Gaspar-Misic says foreigners have already been making enquiries well ahead of Slovenia's entry to the European Union. Bargain hunters, he claims, will be disappointed.
"On this side apartments cost more than 3,000 euros per square meter, and in the future after May 1 when we enter the European Union, the prices are going to go up," says Gaspar-Misic.
Slovenia's transition from a socialist economy to free-market capitalism has been smoother than most other former Yugoslavian countries.
Politically, too, the country has changed gears from communism to independence with relative ease.
All of which enabled Slovenia to be the only member of the former Yugoslavia to be included in the first wave of candidates for EU membership.
Perhaps Slovenia's position as it enters the European Union can best be reflected by its geographic location, wedged between Italy, one of EU's more established members, and Croatia -- also part of the former Yugoslavia and one day hoping to join the EU.
Janez Drnovsek has been president of Slovenia for just over a year. A former prime minister, he negotiated the Yugoslav army's withdrawal from the country in 1991.
"The last federation, the Yugoslav Federation, is still in our memory, in our minds, and we certainly hope that this one will be better than the last one," says Drnovsek, an ardent supporter of EU membership.
Slovenians may not be exactly Euroskeptics, but they are resigned to the realities of EU membership.
Opposition leader and possible future prime minister Janez Jansa says that while Slovenians need foreign investment, attitudes towards EU membership are mixed.
"A large part of the Slovenian population is afraid of foreign investment, that multinational companies will come in and they will lose their jobs, that there will be only profit that will create the future," says Jansa.
Says President Drnovsek: "I think we need this kind of pressure, competition, and then we will give much more of ourselves."
Perhaps the final word should go to former Olympic rower Berc Yozef. He's been ferrying tourists across Slovenia's stunning Lake Bled for more than 30 years.
"We are a small country. We can offer to Europe just our land, our country, our beauty," he says. "And you can find better country I think nowhere in Europe."
