Slovenia

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

Slovenia is focusing on culture to open up to the outside world. France was one of the most active partners in celebrating major events which marked cultural life in Slovenia: Ljubljana’s World Book Capital programme in 2010-2011, and Maribor, European Capital of Culture 2012.

France is one of Slovenia’s leading scientific partners. France is the sixth most popular destination for young Slovenians studying abroad. There are 79 bilateral agreements between Slovenian universities and higher education institutions in France. The creation of France Alumni Slovenia in December 2016 helped to strengthen these links.

The position of the French language in the education system was strengthened by Slovenia’s entry into the European Union in 2004 (due to the working language status of French within European institutions) and by the Barcelona guidelines for the teaching of a second foreign language. In secondary school, French as a second language is studied by a little less than 1% of students, far behind German, but on par with Spanish, and ahead of Italian and Croatian. However, French remains the language of the elite.

The Memorandum signed with the International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF) in 2005, which was renewed in 2010, enables almost 300 Slovenian civil servants to receive lessons in French, the language of diplomacy. The programme, which is financed equally by Slovenia and the OIF, testifies to the political commitment of the Slovenian authorities and the importance Slovenia has placed on our language and Francophony in general since its accession to the Organization as an observer member in 1999.