NEWS

Prime Minister Janez Janša: "New appointments ensure the uninterrupted work of the Government."

The staffing decisions taken at today's Government session ensure that the work in the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration and the Ministry of Finance will continue uninterrupted. At the press conference after the Government session, Prime Minister Janša also said that the newly-appointed State Secretaries had experience in working for the Government and knew their areas well. "This will ensure unhindered work at a time when many operational decisions have to be taken for Slovenia to end the crisis," stressed Prime Minister Janez Janša.
  
Andrej Šircelj and Marko Pogačnik were appointed State Secretaries at the Ministry of Finance, while Mojca Kucler Dolinar was appointed State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration. Prime Minister Janša added that there would be some additional appointments in the next few days.
   
At its closed session, the Government discussed, for the third time, the report of the group preparing the defence before the court of arbitration with a view to determining the border between the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia. The Prime Minister stressed that this was "the first time they had discussed the Memorandum". The Government established that the fourth regular report on the work of the project group preparing the defence before the court of arbitration included Proposal A and Proposal B, where the content of the draft Memorandum fully follows only Proposal A. The Government also established that the content of Proposal A did not comply with the "Decision to protect Slovenian interests", which was approved by the National Assembly with a two-thirds majority on 18 February 2009. According to the Government, this Decision was not exceeded or amended by the Act Ratifying the Arbitration Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Government of the Republic of Croatia; therefore, the Government does not have the authority to decide on such an important issue contrary to the decision of the National Assembly.
   
According to the Government, Proposal B cannot be directly included in the Memorandum due to substantial and time restraints. However, it is possible to partly update Proposal A and the Memorandum with the text from Annex 1A. Therefore, the Government suggests that the National Assembly discusses the Memorandum at an extraordinary closed session by 4 February at the latest and decides which text the Republic of Slovenia will refer to the court of arbitration.
  
"While significant, the decision itself is not strategically decisive. Such a decision was made by approving the arbitration agreement at a referendum and by ratifying it," stressed the Prime Minister. Nevertheless, technical documentation such as the Memorandum is a significant decision defining our negotiating positions in the proceedings before the court of arbitration. "It is right for the National Assembly to decide on it, not only for legal reasons, but also because of the content," said the Prime Minister.