Slovenia, along with Greece, Kosovo and Macedonia, have been granted EU membership. Membership was anticipated, but initially was believed to be unlikely due to the fact that member states differed on the merits of Slovenian independence and primarily on the issue of membership.
Fast forward ten years and Slovenia is now one of the newly-created institutional members of the union.
In January 2003, it declared its independence from Yugoslavia, a country comprised at the time of only 12 sovereign states: Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia, Kosovo, Kosovo, Montenegro, Slovenia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Macedonia.
Under the terms of the secession, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia had the option of remaining within the federal structures that they have always had, or choosing to go their own way.
As is often the case with secession, there were competing visions for the future of the newly independent nations – Yugoslavism and Westernisation.
Slovenia took to a more amicable option: future Westernisation.