NEWS
Prime Minister's press conference held after the Government’s 114th regular session
At today’s session, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, alongside several other resolutions, adopted the draft Prevention of Illegal Work and Employment Act, draft Employment and Work of Aliens Act and determined the text of the draft Promotion of Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs Act. The two competent ministers Dr Ivan Svetlik and Dejan Židan presented the above mentioned resolutions, and Prime Minister Pahor then presented the work of the Government in the past year and commented on its achievements, using the scoreboard for monitoring the implementation of the exit strategy.
At today’s regular session, the Government adopted the draft Prevention of Illegal Work and Employment Act and referred it to the National Assembly for discussion. The key goals of the draft act are to increase the competencies of the supervisory bodies, determine the grounds for more effective work of the supervisory bodies, define more clearly individual terms and measures of the act and make sanctions for its offenders more severe. This Act will in part transpose into the legislation of the Republic of Slovenia the Directive providing for minimum standards on sanctions and measures against employers of illegally staying third-country nationals. The goals of the proposed amendments are also improving the existing situation and eliminating legislative ambiguities and abuse. In terms of economy, illegal work and employment are extremely harmful, because it fosters unfair competition in the market. Commercial companies and sole traders who perform their activities in compliance with regulations cannot compete with those who work illegally, because the latter can offer considerably lower prices not burdened with contributions and taxes to their clients, while at the same time their services provide no guarantees or insurance. The major changes proposed refer to the extent of competencies of supervision bodies. In the new act, the latter are determined in more detail and divided among particular supervisory bodies. The Customs Administration of the Republic of Slovenia is included among the supervisory bodies and will partially take over the supervision of illegal employment under this act. Moreover, the supervision procedure is determined in more detail and the competencies of supervisory bodies are expanded, also enabling them to issue decisions prohibiting activities in the areas under their responsibility.
At today’s session, the Government adopted the draft Employment and Work of Aliens Act and referred it to the National Assembly for discussion. The draft Employment and Work of Aliens Act, which has undergone inter-ministerial co-ordination and has been approved by the Economic and Social Council, reproduces the present applicable regulation of the aliens' employment and work and also includes certain important new elements. The need for changed legislation in the area of aliens’ employment and work has become apparent at the end of 2008, in particular owing to the abuse of the law through mass founding of limited liability companies, aimed at obtaining work permits and residence permits that enabled the aliens to head for other countries within the Schengen area. The draft act also brings a novelty that on the one hand, provides enhanced protection and safety to aliens, but on the other hand makes the conditions for extending their employment permit stricter.
The Government defined the text of the draft Promotion of Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs Act and will submit it for reading and adoption to the National Assembly under the ordinary procedure. This act regulates the area of promotion of agricultural products and foodstuffs in compliance with the EU regulations and following the model of some other European countries. One of the goals is to establish and promote a widely spread national quality scheme and/or voluntary labelling and products labelled in this manner. Appropriate financial resources and/or financial participation by ministries should be provided for such promotion, as required by European regulations on state aids. This act also determines the collection of the respective parafiscal levy.
At the close of the press conference, the Prime Minister Borut Pahor wished to all those present and to the citizens of Slovenia that their hopes may come true and that they “may be happy and able to state, when making the next year inventory, that they/we have taken another step forward to the future which we had dreamed of 20 years ago when dreaming of our own state.”