IN FOCUS

Legal Issues

• Slovenia is willing and able to accept the obligations stemming from the Washington Treaty and from the full legal acquis of the Alliance.

• Upon invitation by the North Atlantic Council (and after depositing the Instrument of Accession to the North Atlantic Treaty), Slovenia will immediately accede to the Agreement between the Parties to the North Atlantic Treaty regarding the Status of Their Forces (London SOFA) and to the Protocol on the Status of International Military Headquarters Set Up Pursuant to the North Atlantic Treaty (Paris Protocol).

• Slovenia will accede to or ratify all other NATO Agreements associated with membership in the Alliance, for which no special invitation is needed, within a period of six months after accession to the North Atlantic Treaty.

• The competent bodies of the Government have already started the necessary preparatory work to accede to the legal documents associated with membership in the Alliance. To this end, the Government adopted the initiative on the 23 January 2003 to accede to the North Atlantic Treaty and submitted it to the competent bodies of the National Assembly, which discussed and agreed with the initiative on 29 January 2003.

• The fundamental aim was to inform the National Assembly about the necessary steps to be taken within the accession process.

• Slovenia will accede to the Treaty as soon as it receives the formal invitation of the Secretary General to do so.

• Slovenia is committed to ratify Further Additional Protocol to the Agreement among the States Parties to the North Atlantic Treaty and the other States participating in the Partnership for Peace regarding the Status of their Forces (Brussels, 19 December 1997) by the end of 2003.

• There are no impediments to Slovenia's accession to the NATO acquis, as Slovenia has already adopted or amended appropriate laws as part of the process of harmonisation with the NATO acquis.