NEWS

Prime Minister Pahor on the second day of his official visit to the French Republic: »New prospects in cooperation are emerging«

Prime Minister Borut Pahor is proceeding with his official visit to the French Republic (FR). Today he had a meeting with the French Prime Minister, François Fillon, the Minister of Industry, Energy and the Digital Economy, Eric Besson, and attended a roundtable on economic cooperation between the two countries. In a joint statement to the press after the meeting, Prime Minister Pahor said that the talks were very successful and that with his French counterpart, they agreed to meet more frequently. 

   

In the press release, Mr Pahor also said that France was Slovenia’s third export and fourth import partner and that Slovenia’s growth depended in many ways on the success of the French economy. The two PMs devoted a lot of attention to the issue of competitiveness. They agreed that the current reforms have not been going down well with the public and the people in France and Slovenia alike. “However, we both find that we presently have no other duty but doing everything that we find necessary to make our economies recover,” added Prime Minister Pahor, saying that the Slovenian economy depended in many ways on the French economy, much more so than the other way around.

   

Prime Ministers Pahor and Fillon mainly discussed the economy, the related appearance on third markets and potential investments by both sides. They established that there were opportunities for upgrading the existing good cooperation. The two Prime Ministers also agreed on a regular review of concluded agreements. They exchanged their views on the European Pact for Competitiveness and agreed that in this respect, the European Council meeting on Friday was going to be very important. Prime Minister Fillon congratulated Prime Minister Pahor on the 20th anniversary of Slovenia’s independence, highlighting it as a success story that was a fitting example for the Western Balkans as well as for Eastern Europe. He also said that new bilateral prospects in economic cooperation were emerging.

   

In a constructive dialogue, the PMs also talked about the strategic partnership that Prime Minister Pahor signed with French President Sarkozy yesterday and discussed all aspects of closer cooperation between Slovenia and France. They also addressed the issue of EU enlargement and pending issues in the Western Balkans.

   

During the visit, Prime Minister Pahor and the Minister for the Economy, Darja Radič, participated also in a roundtable discussion on economic cooperation between France and Slovenia, and had a meeting with the Minister of Industry, Energy and the Digital Economy, Eric Besson. At the roundtable discussion, Mr Pahor said that such meetings were the grounds for further development of economic cooperation between Slovenia and France. He expressed his ambition that cooperation would grow into an exchange of goods and services between the two countries and raise to the level of joint investments and strategic alliances between companies from both countries. Both Slovenian and French corporate representatives participated in the roundtable, whereas Prime Minister Pahor also attended the signing of the contract between the Slovenian company Bisol and the energy giant GDF Suez.

   

Prime Minister Pahor will meet today with the President of the Senate of the French Republic, Gérard Larcher, and the Secretary-General of the International Organization of the Francophonie, Abdou Diouf.