NEWS
Press conference of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia
At today's 86th regular session, the Slovenian Government, alongside other resolutions, adopted the proposed supplementary budget of the Republic of Slovenia, defined the text of the Loan to the Hellenic Republic Act and adopted the amended Administrative Dispute Act. The responsible ministers presented the major resolutions, and Mr Pahor then answered a number of topical questions.
The ministerial corps adopted the Proposed Supplementary Budget of the Republic of Slovenia for 2010. When preparing the budget for 2010, the current data and estimates referring to the global macroeconomic situation were taken into consideration, however, the estimates and data recorded in the first half of 2010 deviate from the originally considered estimates. During the current year, the situation in the Eurozone changed as well and could not have been envisaged when preparing the budget for 2010. The Government is aware of the importance of the fiscal policy stability of the entire Europe, which is also a guarantee for the fiscal stability of Slovenia. This is also one of the reasons that the budget deficit will not increase and will remain at 5% of GDP. Through the supplementary budget, public revenues lower than those originally planned are taken into account and the amount of public expenditure is adjusted in a manner that does not increase the deficit level.
Today, the Government also laid down the text of the Loan to the Hellenic Republic (Greece) Act that defines the loan to be given to Greece by the Republic of Slovenia in the form of pooled bilateral loans together with other Eurozone Member States, in order to compensate for the loss of financing resources on financial markets and for the protection of financial stability in Eurozone. The Act contains key elements or terms of the loan while its particular terms are defined in more detail in the loan contract to be concluded by the European Commission on behalf and for the account of the Eurozone Member States.
At the press conference after the regular Government’s session, Prime Minister Pahor said that the Government instructed the Ministry of Transport and the crisis group of ministers to prepare the best financial intervention proposal for completing the rehabilitation and launching the modernisation of Slovenske železnice (The Slovenian Railways) by the next session of the Government or by its session in the second half of June. “If I were to decide again whether to visit the railways or not, I would again decide to do it. This important shift in the Government’s attention to the issue was decisive in preventing the Slovenian Railways from being declared bankrupt,” emphasized Prime Minister Pahor. He also remarked that successful completing of the rehabilitation project and launching of modernisation project require an investment form not classified as state aid. Mr Pahor said that he would also like Hartmut Mehdorn’s cooperation in the project of railways modernisation. “I want the rehabilitation project to be completed in order to increase the market value of a foreign partner’s entry, which will take the form of an investment into the Slovenian Railways, or, if accepted, into the logistics holding,” added the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister also said that the Government would soon organise a meeting of large and small players in the construction industry. The Government has not adopted any special sectoral measures to-date, but the problems faced by the construction industry are so specific that the crisis ministers decided to examine the possibilities of state aid. “As it used to overheat the economic growth during the conjuncture, so the construction sector is freezing it during the recession time,” emphasized Mr Pahor. The idea of a meeting with representatives of the construction industry is not new and because the issue of the construction sector is so specific, a decision on the meeting was adopted, “in order to examine where, from the state perspective, the opportunities and responsibilities for assistance lie, insofar as this is permitted within a free market and within the statutory framework," added the Prime Minister.