Europe, What's next? - A Journey through Slovenia | In Focus

Slovenia joined NATO and the European Union in 2004, introduced the euro in 2007 and became a member of the OECD in 2010. It's widely viewed as a model for the new Europe. Ten years ago, DW-TV took a trip through Slovenia. Now we've been back to talk to the ambitious wine grower, the hopeful married couple, the optimistic plant manager and others we met the first time and asked what has changed.

[@LadyZora90]

The most beautiful and peaceful country I know! I'm there once a year, sometimes twice a year. It can't be compared with germany (where I'm from) - more lovely and lovable! Slovenija - Slovenia - Slowenien

[@dejan923]

we even invented shtrudel.The pastry that most germans love to eat.

[@ponosenslovenec]

Štrudel/Strudel

[@cashcrop70]

@@dejan923 Austrian apparently.

[@dejan923]

@@cashcrop70 Damn. 3years later xd Ye I already realized it by now

[@EArockerful]

I have been to Slovenia 5 months ago.... I am in love with that country. I visited to so many places in Europe but my heart Stayed in Slovenia. I will be back!

[@matjazwinkler1864]

It is 2019 now... come and visit Slovenia again:)

[@prasanthalpha]

Wow!! It is commendable you still maintain a distinct identity. Respect from India

[@bojanstare8667]

And our vocabular (Slovene language) has 30% of roots similar with Sanskrt. And also dulaverb forms. It is unique.

[@Viddharto]

This is a rare case of a channel which actually gives completely neutral reports on the EU.

[@michaelmaus2857]

Ich bin sehr begeistert dass die Leute auf dises Video so gut Deutsch sprechen. Sehr nette Leute und eine wunderschoene Natur - das ist in kurz der Slovenien, Viele herzliche Gruesse aus Bulgarien!

[@bojanstare8667]

Nicht nur Deutsche Sprache aber auch Englische, Italienische und Serbo-Croatische Sprache.

[@tgamble1000]

Interesting documentary on Slovenia and it's economy. The violinist was awesome.The countryside is beautiful. Too bad more people don't know about this amazing little gem! I would love to visit it some day...

[@skylineking722]

Found the song for those who wanted it. It's the Hidalgo Suite and she is Anja Bukovec.

[@Aggie98bqn]

+Connor Leach: Thank you.

[@snazzysailor]

its nice to live in Slovenia if you're a foreigner

[@Arnusson]

Super zemlja i super ljudi, a imam 20 km do nje.Nemre bolje.

[@bojanstare8667]

Da si mi zdrav zemljak.

[@el_naif]

Slovenians, do not despair or get bored, your next project might be Direct Democracy (Switzerland style). You've got every tool to suceed.

[@bojanstare8667]

That will be my dreams!

[@supersecularboypants]

i am from slovenia and it really is nice i especially like the lake bled

[@prasanthalpha]

Been to Slovenia. Beautiful place and warm people. Enjoyed the trip to lake Bled and also some cave complexes. Also came to know that it was part of Hungary once.

[@MrConhobar]

It was part of the Austro-hungarian empire. Never just Hungary :D

[@Denis19912]

Jeah Slovenia is a beautiful country to live in, but it would be amazing if our politics and income would be as in Switzerland ;)

[@Unbeginner]

Slovenia has always had great potential to be well developed. The reason it isn't is mainly loosing strategic land and assets that it already developed to neighbour countries in the past. Namely we lost our center of education to Austria via Carinthian Plebiscite because of fear of Yugoslavia and we lost our most economically important city Trst (now called Trieste) to Italy due to Italian immigrants becoming a majority there and a whole chaos of political manipulations during the world wars.

[@MihaiRUdeRO]

Italian immigrants in Trieste?? Lets not forget who the entire region belonged to, the Venetian Republic. Also, it was Hapsburg land anyway, Slovenes didn't lose anything...

[@Unbeginner]

MihaiRUdeRO Sure, that's why Slovenians live outside their borders and consider themselves Slovenians. OF COURSE WE LOST TRIESTE, I'm not stupid! Look at the weird borders between Italy and Slovenia, they are bullshit; they were an attempt to landlock Slovenia so it would easier to conquer it. It's military tactics. During the two world wars, there was plenty of very believable motives to be a big mean bully to Slovenia and so Italy was!

[@SloveintzWend]

MihaiRUdeRO Triest was in Hapsburg private hands most of the time (99%), therefore remark Italian immigrants is correct if we don't count Romance speaking population which derived their language directly from vulgar Latin.

[@1Fireskull]

True European nationalism will fix all of the issues, for a Europe of real nationalists would be a people who love their own nations and love all nations. To love one's own country, the Italians should return to Italy and increase their birthrates. Immigration = invasion. Visitors are welcome, but immigrant invaders are not.

[@Unbeginner]

1Fireskull Yeah, the worst are missionaries and political immigrants. I think spreading religion and foreign nationalism should be illegal for non-citizens. I'd like to go further than that, but baby steps.

[@janileskovsek7975]

SLOVENIJA !!!!!!!

[@maribor007]

The end of melancholy for just about 5 years... Slavic melancholy is striking at it's fullest nowadays.

[@podgurje100]

Yes it is true that we are the one of the most safe countries on the world...I am not really satisfied with EU, cause when we came in to this union our contry become not so rich. But I fault our politics for all our troubles. We would be much better than Switz

[@1Fireskull]

Only nationalism can give a nation its own full sovereignty and self-determination.

[@podgurje100]

fuck racism and nationalism

[@BigSirZebras]

Matic Murn I am in Ljubljana right now and was in Maribor for a few days before here and it truly does feel completely safe. I watched a travel blogger's video today and he said he was scared and nervous about visiting a dangerous country when he came here. Funny how some people do absolutely no research before going to a new country.

[@movingshapes]

So do not blame the EU. Blame your own fellow citizens for choosing bad politicians. Blaming the EU only distracts from the real problem and delays the necessary solutions. Good luck :)

[@podgurje100]

@@movingshapes Indeed it is fault of politicians, but even EU it self makes me sick, not because things gone bad after the enter in the EU, but i hate everything what EU represent.

[@Hitman-tk6en]

wow im so surprise i never heard of Slovenia

[@Atreadis]

what's that song the violinist plays at the start?

Lep prispevek! / Nice!

[@T0m0zuki]

Fact is, that this country has much more potential than most of others in EU. On the other hand, much of this potential is left unused due to too much paperwork and bureaucracy. For instance, there are lots of woods but almost no sawmills. Even if the wood is in your keeping, you still need a woodcutter who can decide what do cut. And in most cases, there are no trees to be brought down and sold. It is not the only area of such nonsense. Only 1 among other 100000 cases.

[@maverickgood5204]

The EU is just another acronym for USSR style bureaucracy. That sounds bad. Do you need a license to be a sawmill? I know the EU thinks it is supposed to regulate every little part of someone's life.

[@tillykelp9744]

I am a Slovene and love Slovenia, but I think my fellow Slovenes whinge too much most of the time.

[@RaniVeluNachar-kx4lu]

It's nice to view and travel too, and to try to appreciate. It is especially difficult coming from vastly different places. It first requires that one tries to turn off the self point of view. My appreciation for this place comes with a warning. I have seen my country change, America, and it has been difficult in many ways; stratification and marginalization and homogenization of culture. I see it happening to in Easter Europe. It is so easy for big countries and their big multinational business to come in and take market share, and strip a place of it's identity. I have seen here in America, that many towns and cities are becoming alike, very corporate façade, so as it is difficult to say where one is at a moment. I see that to in East. Europe countries. I started with BG in 2000, still very isolated then, suffering from decoupling from the USSR. Now big companies, German like BILA and LIDL swoop in and set up distribution centers and large (Hypermarkets) full of goods from all over, especially China. Yes they employ local workers. But the profits go back to Germany. And the manufacturing is Asia. So how did BG prosper?

[@musiclover86931]

welcome:)

[@0000thief]

I dont remember ever being under Hungary, only a very small part of the country was before 1918. Anyway to honest i dont really care if we re under Hungary, Austria, Yugoslavia, EU or whatever. Just want to have good conditions for living.

[@1Fireskull]

Slovenians are a good people with many virtues. If native Europeans do not deal with the immigrant invasion, then this precious nation and noble values will perish with all the other nations of Europe into the black Abyss forever.

[@1Fireskull]

aviomaster Population replacement by mass immigration is a crime against humanity and it must stop!

[@1Fireskull]

aviomaster Only nationalists have the dedication to restore Europe and secure liberty for future generations of our children. We are growing everywhere in Europe now and you must have noticed that we have nearly control of some nations in the next election. Join us and be active in the liberation movement of Europe so we can stop the traitor political parties and invasions.

[@1Fireskull]

aviomaster The European Union is a puppet of The New World Order beast. The USA is already in the belly of the beast. Europe is next unless the liberators of Europe get busy.

[@1Fireskull]

***** There will always be alliances.

[@1Fireskull]

***** There are a number of possibilities for alliances.

[@Adsabs12]

Slovenija

[@tanov101]

Where is the video from 2000?

[@TheSpliskan]

nice but a lot of places are missing

[@potatoO0o]

erm no it wasnt? It was under Austro-Hungarian empire, a part of the Austrian crown lands and another part was under Italy.

[@user-jc3vy6tc1n]

Let me clarify 100% of names were butchered.

[@anjimills1426]

i am moving there this year !!! XD soooo much better than south africa

[@zanseinofan01]

Trst is ours! Trst belongs to Slovenia! Trst will be ours!

[@pompei1968]

its Trieste football team Triestina

[@zanseinofan01]

pompei1968 "Trieste" is Slovenian ancestral land. It was stolen from us in a desperate ploy to landlock Slovenia from the Adriatic, in fear of Yugoslavia.

[@BigSirZebras]

***** I'm not arguing with you but I have a question. If it was an attempt to land lock Slovenia, which it obviously didn't do, how could it also be done out of fear of Yugoslavia which had huge access to the Adriatic? In other words, if it was in fear of Yugoslavia having access to the Adriatic how, in anyway did it hinder Yugoslavia's access to the Adriatic?

[@zanseinofan01]

BigSirZebras I honestly can't answer that. Though, perhaps it was because Italy was promised Slovenia and controlled Istra for some time. They wanted to keep as much as they could. Plus, Yugoslavia wasn't really a stable country. Should it break apart, as it did, landlocking Slovenia completely would eliminate competition in the Adriatic. Though, while we do complain about it, I suppose we're friends now. We even lended aid to them stopping illegal immigration with our only military ship.

[@BigSirZebras]

Ok, I am reading about a lot of this right now because I am on vacation visiting a lot of cities in central Europe, currently in Ljubljana and going to Trieste in a couple days. Trieste was a part of the Habsburg empire and then Austria-Hungary since about 1300 until WWI when it was annexed by Italy in agreement that they would join the allies. In 1911 only 12% of the city spoke Slovenian. I think it probably looks more Slovenian and has more of a Slovene feel than Italian but I think that is based on the whole area being under Habsburg and Austrian rule for so long.

[@poisoninyourcoffeewolvesof5182]

How beautiful and elegant Eastern Europeans countries seem to me! I have to visit them!

[@EurovisionSlovenia]

slovenia is not eastern europe.

[@MrBurns-im6ou]

​@@EurovisionSloveniaYes, it is!.

[@EurovisionSlovenia]

@@MrBurns-im6ou no. It is not. Use your brain

[@MrBurns-im6ou]

@@EurovisionSlovenia Non-paper!.

[@kuisingal850]

Welcome my friend :) You are going to hate it.

[@potatoO0o]

If it wasn't for the EU and Euro, Slovenia would be skyrocketing over Croatia. Which they already are.

[@kevindugdale5663]

Yes the wages are so low and have not got better.Many Employees will have you working for under the minimum wage.

[@homergee8943]

slovenia is a proud, and yet a very beautiful country.. the people are good, and its very much unspoiled by multricultrilism... yes there are patriots who will not stand by and allow the influx of non nationals in, its best tp keep away..these people will offer you a glass of expensive wine or two..and then when you take the last drop...will lunge at you like a tiger and razor blade your arterie in your neck...this happened to me 6 years ago....i swear i was lucky to live, i was on easy jet within the hour of leaving the hospital and could only relax when i got back to wales....even now im petrified of slovenians..they are the mafia...they done me because of my welsh accent, ans also warned me to keep away from the rear ends of sheep !! ....scary place, still have nightmares from that place...so my afvice woukd be to the man down below, keep well away !!!

[@mtomislava]

would love to..and as you see my first posts were not insulting towards no one..on the contrary,.. till the greeks joined the conversation and started insulting for no reason whatsoever..

[@tomaud]

Get rid of the Euro currency.

[@GabrielRevan]

Slovenia, one of the very few non backwards eastern european countries.

[@Born782]

STUDY STUDY STUDY~~~~

[@Born782]

Slavish just like russian , slovak , serb etc , Create or find a better language it might help.

[@maverickgood5204]

This I'd like to see. Eastern Europe is more backwards than people can imagine.

[@JustMe-uc8wj]

@@Born782 Are you saying you Hunnish is better?

[@bojanstare8667]

@@Born782 Better language? You mean like english or hungaruian? English is vry poore language. And your language has a lot of our words. Also word for thousand is Slavic!

[@MilatovichFamily]

Kranj is NOT north but wastern Slovenia...

[@slovenc88]

haha:D Right, you bought droga kolinska and mercator. You always were and always will lagging behind us, the sooner you realize that, the better it will be for you.

[@mtomislava]

serbeti i am Macedonian and at least for Croatia i assure you that you are wrong..and just because few idiots on internet insulted you on a racial level you cant brand a country as a racist..but i'll give it to you for greece..now that is a country not worth existing..

[@Zanislav100]

Oh! Not only of Hungary, but of Italy, Nazi Germany (in WW2 of, course), Yugoslavia,...

[@baller84milw]

Europe =/= E.U.

[@Zanislav100]

saj a ga niso samo delno kupili, ne celega?

[@photo20d]

It always makes me laugh hearing English speakers struggle with/butcer pronouncing Slovenian names :)

[@janpeternelj2309]

It always makes me sad when people judge other peoples pronunciation but themselves can't write in English. NB: it's butcher not butcer

[@6slava9]

National language of Slovenia is Slovenian. It's a Slavic language, not Germanic.

[@urossagadin1165]

proud slovenians. half of them speak germany. bravo naci

[@Oetti]

tako je, ili govoriš srpski ili si nacist... bravo genijalče!

[@podgurje100]

I think thistimes were passed out.

[@serbetli100]

CONTINUE We open border for people in EU with no visa, but nowadays, many of them coming here for dishonorable reason, not for cultural exchange, understanding or sight-seeing, they came here for money, often involving with crimes such as drug smuggling, new EU members are disgracing name of EU.

[@fireboy15000]

prepiramo se kdo je bolj imamo pa isto politiko

[@slehernik]

The end of melancholy, the start of depression. 😁🤣😂 - I live here. 😉

[@slehernik]

3:52 "Mislim, da je posledica tega tudi evro" ??? Vzrok:posledica ---> cause:effect While the translation translated, what she probably intended... it was not what she said... she said that the euro was the consequence of the hardships... and not viceversa 😉😁 Not that catastrophic... but funny nevertheless. 😁

[@MrVarl1]

Mal smo zajebal :D lol

[@AlexanderNovak0]

bože kje so najdl ta folk

[@zoisII]

We are so fu--cke--d here cus of freakin politicions.

[@k0m1kk]

Ahm no, your private companies did, which means you won't get shit out of it.

[@fffreakhc]

croatia didn't buy anything. todorić bought it

[@dersuuzala4017]

dežela janeza janše in njegovih butalcev

[@CrystallizeJelly]

This is a pointless documentary.

[@homergee8943]

slovenia is a proud, and yet a very beautiful country.. the people are good, and its very much unspoiled by multricultrilism... yes there are patriots who will not stand by and allow the influx of non nationals in, its best tp keep away..these people will offer you a glass of expensive wine or two..and then when you take the last drop...will lunge at you like a tiger and razor blade your arterie in your neck...this happened to me 6 years ago....i swear i was lucky to live, i was on easy jet within the hour of leaving the hospital and could only relax when i got back to wales....even now im petrified of slovenians..they are the mafia...they done me because of my welsh accent, ans also warned me to keep away from the rear ends of sheep !! ....scary place, still have nightmares from that place...so my advice would be to the man down below, keep well away !!!

[@MitjaC]

I can't imagine that this happened to you in Slovenia! These people aren't Slovenians FOR SURE, there are many people from ex-Yugoslavia who cause a lot of crimes there. I don't think Slovenians would ever do that, really.

[@Userius1]

Homer Gee "they done me because of my welsh accent, ans also warned me to keep away from the rear ends of sheep !!" I laughed so hard.

[@maverickgood5204]

Hahaha. I think you are mistaking a Slovene for um, a Somali? LOL.