Although his first visit to Slovenia focused on the need for initiating a debate on the reasons of lack of confidence in European institutions, as shown in negative referendums on the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands, at a joint press conference with Slovene Prime Minister Janez Jansa and later in the Slovene Parliament Barroso spoke of the European Commission's expectations of Slovenia regarding the European perspective of the Western Balkans and Slovenia's relations with Croatia in the context of a dispute over the sea border.
Jansa pledged that the policy towards the neighbours and Southeast Europe would remain one of Slovenia's priorities when the country assumes the EU presidency in the first half of 2008.
Slovenia knows the region the best and can make its contribution to collective European diplomacy, Barroso said, noting that the Western Balkan countries would become full members of the EU only after they fulfilled all economic and political conditions.
Asked to comment on the border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia, Barroso reiterated that it was a bilateral issue that should be resolved by the countries themselves through constructive dialogue and in the spirit of good neighbourliness.
He noted that any interference of the European Commission would not be good for Slovenia as an independent and sovereign member of the EU.
On the subject of fisheries in the Adriatic Sea, Barroso said that the European Commission had certain powers, but that it could use them provided that the two parties cooperated.