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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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After almost a year within the Eurozone, and almost twenty years after beginning its journey away from the communism and from the Yugoslav federation, Slovenia is no doubt among the best success stories of the Central and East European transitions. Within the 'club' of rich nations, it spared its population of economic 'shock therapies'. Lagging behind some other transitional countries in terms of economic growth and reforms, Slovenia however isn't predisposed now to apply unpopular measures in order to push ahead the economy. A strong indicator of the popular discontent with economic measures considered to be too 'pro-market' is the recent election of the Left-supported president. Unless the current or any further government takes seriously some alarming facts from the economic situation of the country, Slovenia will gradually loose its status of envy among the post-communist nations in Europe.

Among the post-communist countries in Europe, Slovenia occupies a special place. It's the richest nation among them, as rich as the poorest 'old' EU countries; at the same time it's among these few that had to fight for their independence after the communism; at the same time it never applied any radical economic "shock' measure suggested by the 'West'; in fact, the post-communist and post-Yugoslav period for most Slovenians is an endless march from good to better life. Slovenia didn't become a rich nation only recently. In fact, it was among the richest regions in Europe a century ago too. If the statistics are to be trusted, the level of literacy (a good indicator of social progress) in what's today Slovenia was higher by the end of the 19th century than in many today's Third World countries. So, the question why Slovenia does so well shouldn't be asked in the first place. The real question is does Slovenia do as well as it could do? The answer, this time, unfortunately isn't as rosy.

Slovenia is doing fine, but comparatively speaking, some other transitional countries (e.g. Estonia), are doing much better. The reason why these other countries lag behind Slovenia is the much lower starting position at the beginning of the post-communist transition. The facts show that much of the economy remains in state hands and foreign direct investments are still among the lowest in the EU on a per capita basis. Despite the tax reforms since 2006, the taxes are still relatively high. The labor market is inflexible, and some traditional industries because of the lack of foreign investments and know-how are losing ground to more competitive firms in some newly industrializing nations.

But Slovenia is a rich country, and as any rich country, it has the luxury of postponing the necessary but sour medication for a quite long time; for a while, but not indefinitely. There are some examples showing that some rich nations have fallen down from their pedestal within couple of generations of economic mismanagement (e.g. Argentina). The introduction of the common European currency in Slovenia at the beginning of 2007 was a bubble of fresh air into the economy, but this exogenous factor shouldn't replace more consistent domestic policies in a long term. The credit anchor of the Euro can push up the cheap credits, but the price for this is the higher inflation, the erosion of the purchasing power, and at the end, the erosion of the economic competitiveness vis-à-vis the emerging industrial producers. The recent presidential election shows that the Slovenians aren't ready for unpopular economic reforms. The future will say whether they've made the right choice, not only for them, but also for their children.

Slovenia country profile:

• Area: 20,273 sq km
• Population: 2 million (July 2007 est.)
• Population growth rate: -0.065% (2007 est.)
• Life expectancy at birth: 76.53 years
• Ethnic groups: Slovene 83%, Croat 2%, Serb 2%, Hungarian 0.4% (2002)
• Languages: Slovenian 92%, Serbo-Croatian 4.5% (2002)
• GDP per capita: purchasing power parity $23,400 (2006 est.)
• Main trading partners: Germany, Italy, Austria, France, and some former Yugoslav republics.
• Internet users: 1.25 million (2006)

(Sources: CIA World Factbook 2007, Reuters)

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Slovenia.