NEWS

Prime Minister’s press conference

At today’s press conference, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, presented the key resolutions and decisions adopted at the 29th regular Government session.  In his introduction, Prime Minister Pahor welcomed the initiative by the President of the Republic, Dr Danilo Türk, who is working to encourage debates on constitutional changes and to co-ordinate the views of individual parliamentary parties; at the same time, Prime Minister Pahor stressed that every initiative requires a prudent approach, the necessary time and the examination of expert opinion in order to achieve the required political agreement.

 

(Foto: Tina Kosec/Bobo)

 

At today's regular session, the Government adopted the text of the draft Act Amending the Public Sector Wage System Act. The objective of the draft Act is to save public funding earmarked for wages of officials. With this draft Act, the Government wishes in particular to follow the principle of equal treatment of officials and public servants regarding dynamics in eliminating discrepancies in the existing pay system. Today, the Government also took note of the report on reducing public administration costs in awarding public contracts. The report reveals that public procurement operating costs for the existing contracts and future contracts in 2009 could be reduced with money-saving measures by over EUR 24,500,000.

 

Today, the ministers also adopted the draft Act Amending the Higher Education Act and submitted it to regular parliamentary procedure. The proposed amendments introduce into the Act a quality assurance regime in higher education, which is more transparent and comparable to European standards. The major changes have been undertaken regarding provisions on the competencies of the Council for Higher Education, which will preserve the role of an advisory body. By appropriately upgrading the system, and establishing a national higher education quality agency, the Government wishes to achieve better quality in higher education in Slovenia and to raise interest in education in Slovenia as well as internationally.

     

Prime Minister Pahor also explained that Foreign Minister Žbogar today briefed the Government on the course of his meeting yesterday with the Croatian Foreign Minister, Gordan Jandroković, and EU Commissioner Olli Rehn. In this context, Mr Pahor again emphasised the importance of considering Slovenia’s national interests in the text of the proposal by the EU Commissioner.

   

Prime Minister Pahor also spoke about the new Supervisory Board members of the bank NLB and gave assurances that the Government has been paying great attention to their appointment. He added that a final decision on this matter requires more time and further consideration.