NEWS

Prime Minister Janez Janša: Hard work ahead for Slovenia

In an interview for Odmevi (a current affairs TV programme), Prime Minister Janez Janša spoke about the fiscal stability pact signed by the Member States at the European Council, the golden fiscal rule, pension reform and the measures to be taken by Slovenia to exit the crisis.
 
According to the Prime Minister, the constitutional amendment, which is to be discussed by the National Assembly's party leaders and national communities' deputies at a meeting on Monday, will stipulate that all revenues and expenditures, both at national and local levels, are a mandatory part of the budgets and that they must be balanced without borrowing.  "This means that every year we will spend only as much as is collected in the budgets," he explained, adding that these provisions will be adopted next year in the constitutions or similar legal documents by the majority of euro area countries and the European Union.
 
The Prime Minister took the view that changes to the pension system represent only part of what Slovenia needs to do, stating that "it is a great illusion to believe that Slovenia will overcome the crisis just by extending the years of service and similar measures". In his opinion, the Slovenian pension system needs to be adapted to demographic changes, taking into account that these measures are effective in the long term. "In order to get to that stage and to see the effects of these measures, a number of short-term measures will first be required, and these, however, will be more painful," the Prime Minister pointed out. In his words, the right solution and the goal of the package of measures envisaged by the Government is to create new jobs and, in order to provide more room for manoeuvre, to discontinue the funds presently allocated for a number of things that are not indispensable; privileges will also be discontinued.
 
The Prime Minister added that there is hard work in store for Slovenia, which is mainly due to the fact that Slovenia lags behind other Member States in terms of achieving the fiscal consolidation phase. "We will have to adopt measures to consolidate the public finances at the same time as adopting measures to boost growth, which is extremely difficult, particularly because the time frame for doing so is limited to one year at most," said the Prime Minister.
 
In this regard, he pointed out that the Government would endeavour to ensure that future burdens are distributed equally and fairly. "The Government also does not agree that only certain demographics should shoulder the burden of the crisis –  especially not those that have so far been most affected by the crisis," stressed the Prime Minister.
For a transcript of the interview, please see the enclosure attached.