Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Members of the European Parliament, Slovenian Ambassador, Representatives from the European Commission, Members of Slovenian Democratic Party, Assistants, scientists, entrepreneurs.
1. Zdravljica
God’s blessing on all nations,
Who long and work for that bright day,
When o’er earth’s habitations
No war, no strife shall hold its sway;
Who long to see
That all men free
No more shall foes, but neighbours be.
That’s how almost 200 years ago wrote the greatest Slovenian poet dr. France Prešern.
Growth and new work places are still the first priority of the EU. We as politicians have a duty to create an environment for a creative society and small and medium enterprises. In Slovenia, it is the pureness of the air we breathe, freshness of the water we drink and the richness of the soil that grows us healthy food. It is a place where highly recognized experts and researchers can grow and create global best practices. Altogether ranking the country on the European map as the land of health.
So you can experience my country Slovenia, where in this moment it is the peak of the European Basketball Championship.
Of course, Slovenia is facing and feeling the effects of the crisis, too. The crisis also leads to low trust in policy and politicians like almost everywhere in the EU. Unfortunately, today we are the only country in the enlarged Europe in addition to Ukraine, where the opposition leader is sentenced to prison. Of course it is being appealed. This is a man who has been crucial for the independence of Slovenia and in 2008 successfully led the Slovenian Presidency of the EU.
On the basis of my former experience and on the basis of my work in the European Parliament I encourage the project Food for Health and Work places, which has high visibility in Slovenia. The project has already presented the results of research and enterprise products that support health. Concern for human health can also be an opportunity for healthy growth.
Today we present my homeland Slovenia – The land of health with world-class scientists. Institute Jožef Stefan, named after Jožef Stefan, who is most famous for the law that relates the total radiation from a black body to the 4th power of its absolute temperature. Universally known as the Stefan Boltzmann law which is the basic for determinating Sun’s temperature. The biggest results in Institute in the field of health today are: Plasma in medical applications, which can apply to very actual Directive for medical devices (we will be voting about the directive tomorrow), Soft Photonics for Therapy, Surgery and Diagnosis, Space Life Sciences: Planetary habitat simulation ?PlanHab? and others.
Then the other representative institute, the National Institute of Chemistry Slovenia. They opened the Pregl Research Centre, named after Friderik Pregl, who was a chemist and physician, born in Ljubljana. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1923 for making important contributions to quantitative organic microanalysis. In Slovenia, Pregl Awards have been bestowed annually since 2007 by the National Institute of Chemistry for the research work and for outstanding doctorates. They granted the Pregl Award for extraordinary achievements to prof. dr. Gregor Anderluh this year. He is here with us today. They work with novel compounds for biological drugs, Synthetic Biology for Bioengineering and other. Many of their research is implemented in Industry. They have been many times awarded in iGEM competition (MIT, Harvard).
The greatest art is the transfer of knowledge into practice and creating new start-ups. Today we have here a couple of them which made business from haelthy food. But we still have to create more opportunities especially for young unemployed people. This role is still waiting for improvement, as Horizon 2020, Cosme, the Health for Growth, Europe’s future financial perspectives are waiting and can be a source of new scientific and economic progress.
Today you will taste vintage wines from the oldest winery from the oldest Slovenian town, Ptuj, home of traditional mascote kurenti. And milk and cheese that come from the Soča Valley, where the greatest battles of the World War I took places.
Throughout the crisis in Europe which is slowly losing its wings, we have peace here today. Peace, in which we can create, despite the crisis, and maintain a healthy lifestyle for the future employment of young people and the safety of those in older age.
Welcome to Slovenia, which will surprise you with the beauty of culture, which has a touch of the Mediterranean, with its Plečnik architectural heritage, health and medical tourism and healthy food out of the mountains of Slovenia.
I would like to thank you all, especially MEPS for coming and all of you who organised this event very well.
You are all welcome to reception and hopefully to Slovenia in the near future.
Zofija Mazej Kukovič
