Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel symbolically handed over the EU presidency to his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner on Monday, the last day of Slovenia's six-month stint as the EU's rotating president.

France marks the start of its six-month presidency of the European Union by lighting up the Eiffel Tower in Paris June 30, 2008. [Agencies]

"Today Slovenians hand over the European Union to the French. I have to say that the EU, in the moment when I hand it over to you, is in good shape," Rupel told Kouchner at a ceremony in the square joining Slovenia's Nova Gorica and Italy's Gorizia, the Slovenian news agency STA reported.

According to Rupel, the Slovenian presidency might have seemed now as a series of small steps, but when more time passes it will be clear that it had made progress.

"Bringing down walls and opening doors and windows of opportunity was and will be a policy of the EU," he said.

Kouchner said that Slovenia had done a good job in the past six months.

"It is true that Slovenia is not a large country and that its population is small, but it had done a great job with its foreign minister and his team," he said.

According to Slovenia's member of the European Commission Janez Potocnik, Slovenia steered the EU "in a time of turmoil in the global economy, financial instability and rising prices of food and energy."