It is a pleasure to be in Ljubljana today to discuss “the road already travelled and contemporary challenges”. Europe can learn a great deal from the journey of Slovenia in recent decades. The country has faced and overcome serious challenges over the years: its independence from Yugoslavia; joining the EU; adopting the euro; overcoming the crisis that erupted in 2013; and now the pandemic overlayered with Russian war against Ukraine. But time and again, Slovenia has risen to the challenge and excelled. It has become an integral part of European value chains, with intra-EU trade accounting for over two-thirds of ... (full story)