NEWS

Prime Minister's press conference held after the Government’s 113th regular session

At today’s session, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, alongside several other resolutions, adopted the draft Private Investigatory Activities Act and the draft Private Security Act, and adopted the text of the amended Elections and Referendum Campaign Act. In addition, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia gave its consent to the NLB Group Strategy 2010-2015. While the state secretary at the Ministry of the Interior and the Minister of Finance presented the main resolutions, Prime Minister Borut Pahor answered some topical questions.

 

At today's session, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the wording of the draft Private Investigatory Activities Act and the wording of the draft Private Security Act. The Private Investigatory Activities Act stipulates that the Private Investigation Chamber shall retain the public authorisation for granting and withdrawal of licences, since this provides efficient supervisory mechanisms over granted authorisations and inspection supervision; other novelties include compulsory training prior to taking a private investigator exam, which was not stipulated by the act in force.

 

The essential novelty of the draft Private Investigatory Activities Act is that the Act clearly delineates the competences of individual entities performing tasks in the field of private security; since the conditions for the provision of the private security service have not been determined clearly and proportionally, the draft Act eliminates this deficiency. It also introduces a new licence for the public event security in catering facilities, for which owners shall be obliged to rent specially trained security staff. The procedure for the protection of the rights of individuals has been determined, which has not existed previously.

 

At today’s session, the Government adopted the text of the amended Elections and Referendum Campaign Act. The main reason for the amended Act is the implementation of the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia concerning the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, which provides that “the Government of the Republic of Slovenia may issue a decision earmarking the funds for a referendum campaign when a referendum has been proposed or initiated by a budget user". The opinion of the Constitutional Court is that “appropriate resources available to the National Council are essential to the implementation of the campaign.” Thus the proposed amendment provides that the Government shall earmark resources to the National Council when the latter organises a referendum campaign and when it requests the resources. Due to an unclear provision, the organisers of referendum campaigns expressly include the Government of the Republic of Slovenia (precisely its competent service), which may be earmarked campaign funds when it organises a referendum campaign. As the main proposer of laws and as an entity responsible for the operation in all areas of the state, the Government must have a possibility to actively participate in referendum campaigns, including the use of earmarked budgetary funds.

  
At today’s session, the Government adopted the wording of the Act Amending the Ownership Transformation of the Lottery Slovenia Act and submitted it to the National Assembly with the proposal for its adoption in a summary procedure. Under the regulation in force, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia shall appoint six members following the proposal of the Slovenia’s Sport Expert Council based on the proposals of different sport organisations operating in the public interest, including a member of sport associations not members of the Olympic Committee of Slovenia – Sport Societies Association. The proposed amendments shall provide a more appropriate, balanced or proportional representation of different non-profit organisations from the field of sport in the Council of the Foundation for Funding Sports Organisations in the Republic of Slovenia.

 
At today’s regular session, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia gave its consent to the contents of a document entitled NLB Group Strategy 2010-2015 adopted by the management board and supervisory board of NLB on 13 October 2010. The Government withdraws all reservations concerning the document NLB Group Strategy 2010-2015 provided in the Government material entitled the Strategy for managing state participation in NLB and confirmed by the Government on 21 October 2010. The Government and the Agency for the Management of Capital Investments will implement a regular monthly monitoring of interim results of the implementation of the operation rationalisation programme.

 
The Government expressed its position towards the document entitled NLB Group Strategy 2010-2015 adopted by the management board and supervisory board of NLB on 13 October 2010. The Government expressed its agreement with the contents of the mentioned Strategy. As a result, it has withdrawn all reservations concerning the mentioned Strategy provided in the Government material entitled the Strategy for managing state participation in NLB and confirmed by the Government on 21 October 2010. The Government and the Agency for the Management of Capital Investments will implement a regular monthly monitoring of the implementation of the operation rationalisation programme. As a result of the withdrawal of reservations concerning the document NLB Group Strategy 2010-2015, the document Strategy for managing state participation in NLB shall be amended accordingly.

 
At the close of the press conference, Prime Minister Pahor answered a number of other topical questions of the press.