The Euro to Be Celebrated with Fanfare

The event "A Welcome to the Euro", which is organised by the Slovenian government and central bank, is being billed as an opportunity for EU member states to celebrate the expansion of the eurozone to 13 members and stress the symbolic commitment to further expansion.

Prime Minister Janez Jansa has therefore invited all EU heads of government to Ljubljana, while Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk invited his counterparts from all 27 member states as well as European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquim Almunia, who monitored Slovenia's accession to the eurozone over the past two years.

Attendance has also been confirmed by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, Greece's Kostas Karamanlis, Hungary's Ferenc Gyurcsany, Italy's Romano Prodi, Latvia's Aigars Kalvitis, and Slovakia's Robert Fico. Some of them will use the opportunity for bilateral meetings with their Slovenian host.

This will be one of the biggest high-level events Slovenia has ever hosted and it is seen as an important test in organisation as the country prepares for the presidency of the EU in the first half of 2008. The last political events on such a scale were the informal NATO meeting in Portoroz in September 2006 and the OSCE ministerial meeting in December 2005.

Proceedings will start Monday afternoon when PM Jansa hosts a lunch for his counterparts at Bled and Minister Bajuk entertains finance ministers at Brdo pri Kranju. Thereupon the proceedings will move to Ljubljana, where an exhibition on the history of Slovenian money titled "The Tolar Is Leaving - the Euro Is Coming" is to be opened.

This will be followed by the central ceremony in the evening, when the officials will be joined by the governors of European central banks, who will be attending a conference on the euro organised by Banka Slovenije and the European Central Bank. The conference is designed as a presentation of experience with the introduction of the single European currency in 2002, the adoption of the euro by Slovenia and challenges that Slovenia faces in the eurozone.

Meanwhile, the keynote speakers at the ceremony will include Chancellor Merkel, whose country took over the EU presidency on 1 January, as well as Barroso and Trichet and prime ministers Junker and Jansa. Merkel and Jansa are expected to address the press after the ceremony.

Slovenia adopted the euro on 1 January, when the two-week period of dual euro-tolar circulation began. The changeover went smoothly and all banking and transaction systems were back online after a brief intermission soon after champagne started flowing in celebration of New Year's.