The Government of the Republic of Slovenia has just paid a return visit to Posavje, where it examined new development opportunities in the region and the progress achieved in implementing the agreements reached at the time of its first visit, almost two years ago. This was the main focus of this morning’s working consultation held by the Prime Minister, Government Ministers, and State Secretaries at Mokrice Castle; overall, in the course of the two-day visit, Government representatives held around 60 meetings with stakeholders in the development of this Slovenian region. “We have found that the great majority of the agreements, promises and commitments have been honoured,” said Prime Minister Janez Janša.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
At a press conference held in Kostanjevica na Krki, the Prime Minister said that Posavje ranked ninth of the twelve statistical regions of Slovenia; despite the region’s still lagging behind in terms of development to some extent, it is encouraging to see that the region has steadily decreased the developmental gap over recent years. The economic power of the region’s inhabitants and net pay per employee have indeed increased in the two years since the Government’s previous visit. In the Prime Minister’s view, this is largely due to higher work productivity in this part of Slovenia, exceeding Slovenia’s average by around 5%. Moreover, the number of businesses has increased, while unemployment – one of the chief problems two years ago – has fallen significantly. “Compared to March 2006, unemployment has been reduced by more than 20%. At meetings with businessmen today, we heard of the shortage of workers in certain branches,” said the Prime Minister, adding that the combination of the relocation of production capacity to the region and the emergence of new business entities there justified expectations that more new jobs would be created in the future too.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
Posavje is the location, either wholly or in part, of six of the 35 projects under the Resolution on National Development Projects, namely the Phoenix Economic Growth Centre, the hydroelectric power plant chain on the River Sava, the possible construction of a second nuclear power plant unit, the construction of a gas storage facility near Brestanica, modernisation of the electric power supply network and the third development axis (high-speed road). These and other projects under the above Resolution, in PM Janša’s judgement, will be beneficial for the future development of the region.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
The Prime Minister also stressed the importance of European funds for the development of the region. The current financial perspective will make available several times the amount offered in the previous financial period. “Let me seize this opportunity to urge municipalities and other stakeholders in the development of the region at the earliest opportunity to identify and frame programmes that can be submitted in response to calls for proposals,” said PM Janša. An additional development opportunity is provided by the Financing of the Municipalities Act, adopted in the period between the two visits, which has increased the amount of funding available to the municipalities in the region by 22%. The Prime Minister stated that this had significantly strengthened in particular the investment side of the formerly-underfunded municipal budgets. It was in 2006 that municipalities for the first time received additional development funds for investing in local public infrastructure.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
The Prime Minister expressed regret that the opposition had had a last-minute change of mind and had decided not to vote in favour of the regionalisation project recently when the vote on new legislation on the Slovenian regions came up in the National Assembly. “This despite the enthusiastic support here and the solid support throughout Slovenia – 90% of municipalities supported the proposal. The project was supported by almost all mayors, without exception and regardless of their political complexion. Furthermore, it was also supported by the National Council, which represents local interests at the national level,” stressed the Prime Minister, remarking on the fact that the Government’s proposal provided for the Posavje region as a region with around 75 000 inhabitants, its seat of administration in Krško, the seat of the regional council in Brežice, and laid down all the conditions necessary for its functioning as a rapidly-developing region. To secure the performance of ongoing development tasks in the region, the law provided for EUR 32.5 million and an additional EUR 9 million. “Unfortunately, this was not enough when it came to the vote in the National Assembly. We were four votes short of adopting the law and so the law, which needed to be adopted by a two-thirds majority, was not adopted because the opposition changed its mind at the last moment. That is why this development instrument, which was virtually within our grasp, will, for now, not materialise,” pointed out the Prime Minister.
PM Janez Janša and Stane Rožman, President of the Management Board of the Nuclear Power Plant (Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
In the context of the visit, the Prime Minister, together with the Minister for Economy and the Minister for Growth, visited the Krško Nuclear Power Plant. The management presented the power plant’s operation and strategic objectives to PM Janša and also discussed Slovenia’s long-term nuclear energy strategy. The Prime Minister commended the good and effective operation of the power plant thus far and, especially, the continuous concern for the safe operation of the plant. The nuclear power plant operates in a safe and reliable manner; since the Government’s last visit two years ago, it has been modernised in many respects and no unscheduled outages have occurred, denoting that safety standards have improved considerably.
One of the major challenges for the future operation of the nuclear power plant is the need for a permanent repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. Waste disposal is carried out in compliance with the required procedures, the hardest task is negotiating social acceptability. The Slovenian Government is committed to the fair and effective treatment of each and every initiative put forward by the locality, ensuring that they are included in the solutions which are developed. Here an important role is played by the Government Decree providing for compensation for local communities due to the limited use of the environment in the area of a nuclear facility. The Prime Minister stressed that the location of the disposal site must be confirmed by the end of this year and that the Government would do its utmost to achieve a broad consensus.
It was generally agreed that another major challenge is the construction of the second power plant unit. It is becoming common practice in most EU Member States to modernise nuclear capacities for the production of electricity. Similarly, Slovenia has, by establishing the second energy pillar – Gen Energija, set in place the organisational, financial and human-resources basis to support planning of this kind.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
In the afternoon, the Prime Minister, Ministers and State Secretaries held a working consultation with mayors, businessmen, elected representatives and National Council members from Posavje. The consultation focused on development opportunities as well as on specific problems encountered by the region. By way of concluding the visit to Posavje, as per the tradition, politicians and Posavje businessmen took part in a charity football match.
On the first day of the visit, the Prime Minister Janez Janša and Ministers Zofija Mazej Kukovič and Marjeta Cotman visited the therapeutic community “Skupnost srečanje” (‘Encounter’ Community) in Razbor nad Sevnico. [more]
