Jambrek was honoured for his personal contribution to the founding of the Slovenian state and development of constitutional law, and Busek for his contribution to the efforts for Slovenia's international recognition and inclusion of the Slovenian economy into European and global economic flows.

Jambrek, a distinguished professor, is one of the most respectable legal experts and academics in the country, the president's office said.

He is currently a professor of constitutional law and human rights law at the European Faculty of Law and the Faculty for State and European Studies of the private Nova Gorica-based New University.

Jambrek has lectured at several acclaimed universities abroad and was a member of the scientific committee of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and a member of the Commission for Democracy through Law.

He served as a Constitutional Court judge and was also the court's president between 1991 and 1993. Between 1993 and 1998 he was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Jambrek is the author and editor of numerous books, monographs and articles, and was a member of many Slovenian and international scientific and university associations.

He is the author or co-author of the most important documents that provided the foundation of the Slovenia's constitutional architecture. "Thanks to his extraordinary contribution, the democratisation and independence [of Slovenia] were based on international law and carried out legally," Pahor's office said.

Busek, the vice-chancellor of Austria between 1991 and 1995, opened an exhibition on Slovenians at the Austrian ethnographic museum as science minister in 1989, which was a major recognition of Slovenian culture.

His actions and statements significantly contributed to the internationalisation of Slovenia's democratic efforts even before the breakup of Yugoslavia.

As chair of the European Forum Alpbach between 2000 and 2012 he actively participated in the development of the civil society in Slovenia, and he is still encouraging youth to be active in civil, cultural and intellectual affairs.

As chairman of the Erste Foundation, he included Slovenian NGOs, artists, cultural workers and scientists in the foundation's initiatives and projects.

Busek has been striving for inclusion of the Slovenian economy into European and global trade flows also as chair of the Vienna Economic Forum.

In the last decade, he has also been successfully chairing the supervisory board of the Bled School of Management.

In his acceptance speech, Jambrek said that Slovenia had been filled with energy and optimism 30 years ago, while establishing that "both have petered out since, and Slovenia as a state is hollowed out and disintegrated."

According to him, public healthcare system is declining, public higher education is dropping on international rankings, economy is less and less competitive and productive, and public finances transfer the burden of debt on the future generations.

"But the problem is actually much worse - the energy and optimism of the initial value core of the nation have been almost fully exhausted," Jambrek was critical.

Busek meanwhile said as he addressed the ceremony in Presidential Palace that the key independence events had convinced him of what he had later advocated in life - "that we need democracy, that we need good neighbourly relations."

Unlike Jambrek, Busek believes that the recent developments inspire hope that things will go for the better in the future. "But we need a good Europe in the future, because this is important also from the aspect of Slovenian democracy."