This Review of Corporate Governance in Slovenia is part of a series of reviews of national policies undertaken for the OECD Corporate Governance Committee. It was prepared as part of the process of Slovenia’s accession to OECD membership.

Slovenia has made a rapid progression from a state controlled economy. After independence in 1991, Slovenia quickly sought to develop its capital markets and the legal, regulatory and institutional structures that underpin these markets.

From its independence in 1991, Slovenia has quickly sought to develop its capital markets and the legal, regulatory and institutional structures that underpin these markets. This process commenced in 1992 with a mass-privatisation programme that established private ownership of capital and was reinforced with the passage of the first framework Companies Act in 1993. Post-independence, Slovenia has rapidly pursued political and economic integration with Europe, joining the EU in May 2004, and the European Monetary Union in January 2007. Since joining the EU, the government has also pursued a comprehensive strategy to amend its capital markets and corporations’ law architecture to ensure consistency with EU directives. Notwithstanding this, capital markets in Slovenia are not well developed by OECD standards, are extremely limited in both depth and liquidity, and have a narrow (and domestically focused) investor base.

As noted in the Foreword, the Corporate Governance Committee (then known as the Steering Group on Corporate Governance) was requested to examine Slovenia’s position with respect to core corporate governance features and to provide the OECD Council with a formal opinion on Slovenia’s willingness and ability to implement the recommendations laid down in the Principles of Corporate Governance and the Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises. At the same time, Council requested the Committee to carry out accession reviews on the same basis for four other countries – Chile, Estonia, Israel, and the Russian Federation.