THALER Zoran
Member of the European Parliament
Zoran Thaler is a member of the European Parliament in the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. He is a member of the committee on foreign affairs and the committee on economic and monetary affairs.
Mr Thaler graduated in political sciences and international relations from the faculty of social sciences at the University of Ljubljana. Starting out in the student political movement, he was elected to national parliament in the first multi-party elections in Slovenia in spring 1990 at an early age of 28. He spent several years as deputy foreign minister and, in 1992, was re-elected to the national parliament and chaired the parliamentary foreign relations committee. In 1995, he became foreign minister of Slovenia.
In 1996, he was elected MP for a third time, and a year later he became the minister of foreign affairs for a second time. During this period, he orchestrated a deal with neighbouring Italy that enabled Slovenia to sign its Europe Agreement, a milestone on Slovenia's path to EU membership.
After eleven years in politics, he took up a new challenge as an entrepreneur in the private sector. He ran an international consulting firm that dealt with foreign investors and headed a profitable mobile phone company.
Mr Thaler is dedicated to making Slovenia and the EU a better place to live. He is doing his part by opening an agro-tourism estate in a village promoted as Slovenia's Tuscany. With a passion for gardening, guests at his farm enjoy home-grown vegetables!
