SLOVENIA: MOE HELPS MAKE INTERNAL CONTROL PROGRAM

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000074 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR INS/ECC - AMAGOULAS AND EUR/NCE - VTRIM ZAGREB FOR EXBS - DJOHNSTON USDOC FOR BIS/OIP E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2016 TAGS: KSTC PARM PREL ETTC SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA: MOE HELPS MAKE INTERNAL CONTROL PROGRAM A SUCCESS Classified By: Ambassador Thomas B. Robertson for Reasons 1.4 (B,D) ¶1. (U) As part of the Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) program, Department of Commerce (DOC) subcontractor Arctur conducted a very successful two-day Internal Control Program (ICP) workshop January 31 -- February 1 in Ljubljana for Slovenian industry representatives. The workshop was supported by a DOC Export Control Specialist and attended by regional EXBS Advisor and PolMiloff. Approximately 21 industry representatives participated, in addition to representatives from the Slovenian Ministry of Economy (MOE),Office of Chemicals, National Nuclear Safety Administration, and Customs Administration. The workshop also featured a presentation on EU export control regulations by Toomas Raba, a former Estonian MFA export control official and currently a consultant to the EU for UK-based Interexport Management Systems. ¶2. (C) The success of the workshop came after months of stonewalling from MOE Export Control Director Peter Stavanja and MOE Director General Mojca Jazbinsek-Vovk, who had previously indicated to Emboffs that MOE had little interest in participating in the ICP program. COM's intervention with Slovenian Ambassador to the U.S. Samuel Zbogar and PolMiloff's interventions with MFA Security Policy staffer Bostjan Jerman and North American Affairs Director Vojislav Suc apparently paid off, as MOE changed its tune and came to the workshop fully prepared to cooperate. (NOTE: Post learned just prior to the workshop that Director General Jazbinsek-Vovk resigned from the MOE in January to take a job in the private sector. END NOTE.) At the conclusion, several industry representatives thanked DOC Export Control Specialist for helping to organize the workshop and indicated how important it was for them to have the opportunity to engage with the MOE on export licensing regulations. ¶3. (C) Because of the MOE,s history of stonewalling with the EXBS program, post has designed a strategy to build on the recent success of the ICP workshop and further engage the GOS in export control and border security cooperation. First, COM will send a letter to the Minister of Economy laying out how our cooperation can be further strengthened through continued industry outreach, adoption of the Risk Report Database and Tracker software program, and by working together to strengthen prosecutorial capacity in the area of strategic trade violations. Second, we will continue to engage our MOE interlocutors at the working level and actively seek to dispel any misconceptions about supposed incompatibility between EXBS programs and EU regulations. Third, we will continue to engage experts from EU member states to inform the Slovenes about the complementarity between our export control programs and those of the EU. ROBERTSON