Slovenia has reluctantly inherited the thorny issue of the future status of Kosovo, the breakaway Serb province, one of the greatest foreign policy challenges the bloc has faced in recent years.

EU member states are only slowly working themselves towards a unified approach on what to do when confronted with Kosovo's likely future bid for independence.

Matters are likely to come to a political head after the Serbian presidential elections on 20 January and 3 February. Kosovo indicated in December it would wait until February to make any independence declaration.

This will also give the EU time to work out what it means by "coordinated procedure" - the process by which Pristina is to seek independence, in theory allowing each member state the option of choosing whether to recognise it or not.

Ljubljana has also indicated that it is to put special focus on the Western Balkans more generally, hoping to devote the traditional summer gathering of EU leaders to the issue as well as pursuing other ways of tying the region more strongly to the 27-nation union, such as involving them in European research or infrastructure projects.

On the internal front, the EU is set to be thoroughly preoccupied with its 2020 targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the commission due on 23 January to publish legislation on how each member state should contribute to the overall target.

The issue is highly controversial with each government trying to make sure it assumes the least burden as possible. It will be Slovenia's job to steer the package through the council, the member states' chamber as well as co-ordinate with the European Parliament.

On this dossier there is the added pressure of a tight timetable as the package should go through the Brussels legislative channel in just one go in order to ensure that it has a chance of being approved before the end of the current term of the European Commission in 2009.

In addition, the EU should have the legislation agreed if it is to maintain the moral high ground when it comes to talks in 2009 on a new international climate change agreement.

Turkey and EU treaty

Aside from the planned summits with Japan, Russia and the US, the Alpine Republic with its 2-million strong population, will also have to deal with Turkey's EU membership bid and the pending EU treaty.

Slovene officials have already said that they hope to open two more areas of membership negotiation with Ankara's EU hopes sharply undermined by opposition both in Paris and Berlin as well as its own slow pace of reform.

During the six-month presidency, it will also steer discussions on the new EU treaty. The recently-agreed set of institutional rules leaves several open questions concerning the division of power in the bloc. These need to be cleared up before the treaty comes into force, probably in 2009.

Finally, it will also oversee the final step of the expansion of the bloc's passport-free zone when it is extended to apply to airports in March. Sea and land borders were relaxed in December.

Although officials will be looking to see how Slovenia fares as the first of the 2004 member states to take on the EU presidency, small countries have a reputation for being committed to the task at hand and therefore doing presidencies well.

Slovenia, which expanded its personnel in its representation in Brussels to 166 people - up from around 50 two years ago – says it is basing its presidency on Ireland's model. Dublin held a highly successful presidency in 2004.