NEWS
Prime Minister Borut Pahor at the 30th extraordinary session of the Slovenian National Assembly: “All restrictive measures are of temporary nature.”
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, today attended the 30th extraordinary session of the Slovenian National Assembly and in his opening address, presented two budget documents for 2011 and 2012. Mr Pahor emphasised that both budget proposals are addressing the issue of immediate stabilisation of public finances and the establishment of conditions for keeping up the economic recovery and reaching the envisaged goals. He went on to say that since the very beginning of its mandate, the Government has been pursuing the goal of strengthening competitiveness and social cohesion, meaning that as a community, Slovenia will emerge from this crisis, the worst since World War II, stronger. According to the Prime Minister, for stabilization to succeed, public finance discipline is, however, fundamental.
“One of the key criteria, both at home and among out partners throughout Europe, relates to the reduction of deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2013. Slovenia is doing relatively well. Obviously, all leaders would like that things went even better, but presently, the world is still in a certain period of instability. The worst is behind us, both globally and at the national level. However, there is no guarantee that the path to economic recovery will be without any difficulties”, said Prime Minister Pahor. The areas that are firm pillars of future stability must be maintained strong. The budget proposals are in line with the principles of the Slovenian exit strategy Slovenia is among the first countries to launch the implementation of the exit strategy. Among other things, the Government has succeeded to do away with the implementation deficit. “One third of proposals and regulations under the exit strategy have already been adopted, which places Slovenia among the best EU Member States", emphasised Prime Minister Pahor and added that certain Member States have not even started implementing their exit strategy and continue to rely on fiscal aid, in the absence of which they would hardly survive. Through a combination of economic policy measures and structural reforms incorporated in both budget proposals, the Government intends to strengthen the competitiveness of the Slovenian corporate sector.
“We have already consolidated social cohesion, so we may now move on and strengthen our competitiveness. This will be the Government’s primary objective in the 2010-2012 period”, said the Prime Minister and went on to say that the envisaged goal is to keep the level of public finance debt below 45% of GDP and to reduce the budget deficit to less than 3%. As far as public deficit is concerned, Slovenia is far below the average of EU Member States. “What causes concern, however, is the dynamics of growth of this deficit”, pointed out Mr Pahor. Since 2008, this growth was essentially higher and increased even further in 2009, the most difficult year so far. "To stick to the goal that I have indicated, that is less than 45% of GDP, we will have to be extremely disciplined. An iron discipline has its reason and its goal, which is to keep up the Slovenian economy in good condition and give it the necessary momentum to be able to represent firm pillars of social cohesion” explained the Prime Minister, adding that this does not mean increased consolidation of public finance through an increase of tax burden. “Public money will be handled with utmost care, like it was our private money, therefore: save, invest sensibly, and consider the future.”
The Government will achieve the envisaged goals by adapting expenditure to development priorities. According to Prime Minister Pahor, the programme budget allows the Government to gradually close down and stop financing the programmes that do not deliver, thus maintaining a restrictive policy in all areas and re-channelling public funds into development and high-yield investment programmes. In the next two years, the public expenditure policy will be based on necessary interventions in the largest segments of public spending, such as public sector wages, pensions and other transfers; however, all these measures are temporary and adopted with good reason. “These restrictive measures will be recalled the very moment when we are able, without risking additional debts for servicing budget spending, to raise the level of the overall prosperity; which, however, in the 2009 – 2010 period was not affected as severely as the economic and financial crisis would require, since the Government used appropriate instruments to prevent it. “We must distribute the burden of the crisis so that all walks of population and all generations are evenly burdened and that all, not only some of us, will exit from the crisis without major shocks. And this applies to each and every of us, and also to the community as a whole.
The adoption of the two budgets will allow the Government to stabilize economy, enable growth and new employment, and will result in enhanced social cohesion and prosperity of our people. Slovenia is a welfare country, and Europe is a welfare society. In a global world, competitiveness and competition are the prerequisites of the strongest, yet, there is always a choice: we may not choose the time we live in, but we may, and we do, choose the way we want to live, said the Prime Minister and concluded “It is we who must decide whether we wish to create a society attentive to economic development, social cohesion and preservation of the environment, or a society engaging in a savage competition with players uncaring for such issues and forgetting any of these three elements of sustainable development. I do not accept this challenge.”