Country Profile

History

6th century	The Slavic ancestors of present-day Slovenia first settle in the area.
7th century	The Slavic Duchy of Carantania, the first Slovene state.
745	Carantania becomes part of the Frankish empire; the Slavs convert to Christianity and gradually lose their independence.
c. 1000	The Freising Manuscripts, the first known writing in the Slovene and Slavic languages in Latin script.
14th century to 1918	All the Slovene regions pass into the possession of the Habsburgs, later the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1550 and 1584	The Reformation brings literacy, the first printed book in 1550 and the first Slovene translation of the Bibla in 1584.
1918	Formation of the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
1943	Federal Peoples' Republic of Yugoslavia (officially declared on the 29th November of 1934).
April 1990	First democratic elections.
23 December 1990	88.5% of voters at the referendum vote in favour of an independent Slovenia.
25 June 1991	Slovenia officially declares its independence.
15 January 1992	The EU officially recognises Slovenia's independence.
22 may 1992	Slovenia becomes a founding member of the UN.
29 March 2004	Slovenia became a NATO member.
1 May 2004	Slovenia became an EU Member State.
1 January 2007	Slovenia adopted single European currency - Euro.
1 January 2008	Slovenia was the 1st new Member State to assume the Presidency of the Council in the first half of 2008.
July 2010	Slovenia became an OECD member.

25th anniversary of Slovenia's independence

Slovenia is celebrating a quarter of a century of statehood. Get an overview of the two and a half decades since Slovenia gained its independence.