Country profile/Slovenia: As one of the smallest countries in the European Union, Slovenia is concerned about how it can possibly make its voice heard in Brussels or in Strasbourg.
In the particular context of the European Parliament, Slovenes ask how seven deputies out of 732 can make a difference. Should they work together, as a Slovenian bloc, or separately in their European political families?
The most striking aspect of the current campaign in Slovenia, however, is the almost total absence of Euroscepticism, let alone Europhobia. An attempt by journalism academic Prof Manca Kosir to set up a critical left-wing "June list" similar to those running in Sweden and Denmark failed to garner the required 3,000 signatures.
"We cannot go on sending neo-liberal politicians to Brussels," Prof Kosir argued. It would seem Slovenes do not agree with her.
This is not to say that the electorate regards EU membership as an unalloyed blessing. There is an awareness that things may become difficult for small farmers, but agriculture accounts for a relatively small proportion of the Slovenian economy.
With EU accession, the country's free trade agreements with the states of the former Yugoslavia have lapsed and this will cause serious problems for exporters. Ljubljana is now likely to press for an all-EU trade agreement with its southern neighbours.
Slovenes expect some benefits and some costs from their EU membership and the question of what these costs will be and how severe will be their impact is being debated on the hustings. Food prices are expected to drop slightly but accommodation costs will increase. Housing could well become a major issue in the future as young Slovenes experience considerably more difficulty than did their parents in securing a home of their own.
Industrial relocations are also an issue as capital moves out to lower-wage destinations. The inevitability of such movements is generally accepted, but the opposition argues that the government might have been better prepared to replace such losses with new value-added industries.
The question of movement of labour within the EU has also surfaced in debate, and some argue that the government should have secured a better deal for its citizens in entry negotiations. But this is more a symbolic than a practical matter. Few Slovenes want to leave their country for work but they resent being portrayed as a threat to prosperous western Europe.
Beyond the specifically European issues the Strasbourg poll, the country's first, will also provide a useful snapshot of the balance of political forces in the country, though there is little evidence that it will be used, as in some other countries, to "punish" the incumbent government. There are general elections due in October to decide on that matter.
An opinion poll taken for POPTV shows the ruling liberal democrats (LDS) and pensioners' party (DeSus) on 18.5 per cent, with their social democratic (former communist) ally, the ZLSD, on 8.3 per cent The centre-right parties, New Slovenia and the Slovenian Democratic Party, are on 9.3 per cent and 9.8 per cent and the People's Party, representing farmers, on 5.5 per cent.