Information on the report on the state of readiness of the Slovenian Army
Ljubljana, 05/10/2007 | press release
Today Minister of Defence, Karl Erjavec, and General Lieutenant-Colonel, Albin Gutman, Chief-of-Staff of the Slovenian Army, presented the annual report on the readiness of the Slovenian Army as of 16 February 2007 to Dr Janez Drnovšek, President of the Republic of Slovenia and Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces.
In the introductory part, Minister of Defence, Karl Erjavec, stated that 10 out of 39 military units under evaluation were graded as distinction, 26 as merit and 3 as pass. No unit was given a negative grade, which is a great progress in comparison with the results a year ago. The Minister of Defence drew attention to the fact that the grades could decline in the future due to the working conditions of those employed in the Slovenian Army. According to plans, 300 candidates for the performance of military profession are required at the moment. The Minister of Defence also informed the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Janez Drnovšek, on the planned short-term and long-term measures aimed at stopping the negative trends of new employment in the Slovenian Army.
Chief-of-Staff of the Slovenian Army, Albin Gutman, presented and explained in more detail to the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Janez Drnovšek, the evaluation method applied to military units, which forms the basis for drawing up the report and for the evaluation of integration of the Slovenian Army into the NATO system. He emphasized the high grades awarded to the Slovenian Army in Kosovo by NATO representatives and he also pointed out the fact that during the presence of our unit, the number of incidents in this territory has decreased. He also informed the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Drnovšek, on the non-military activities of Slovenian soldiers, aimed at reinforcing cooperation and mutual trust with the civilian population of Kosovo.
President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Janez Drnovšek, expressed his satisfaction over the progress made in the development of the Slovenian Army. Dr Drnovšek is monitoring the situation continuously; therefore he was not surprised by the good grades in the report. He expressed his expectation that both the Ministry of Defence and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia would do everything in their power to improve the situation of the military and to make the military profession more attractive in the future. He also emphasized that the aim of the development of the Slovenian Army should be a small but well-equipped and capacitated army.