NEWS

Prime Minister attends opening of Bled Strategic Forum: "We need to change together and we need to change for the better."

 

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, today attended the opening of the Bled Strategic Forum as the speaker of honour. In her address, she emphasised that one of the lessons to learn from the economic crisis is that there are no easy solutions or quick fixes for the problems but only long-term processes and long-term visions.

 

In her address, Prime Minister Bratušek went on to say:  "An old saying, namely that if a butterfly claps its wings in China there will be an earthquake in Slovenia, is becoming true. The economic and the financial crisis spread across the world so quickly that it left us unprepared and shocked us. We thought that something like that could never happen to us.  We thought it was happening elsewhere and to others. We must ensure that something like that will never happen again.  One of the lessons of this crisis is, at least for me, that there are no easy solutions or quick fixes for the problems, but only long-term processes and long-term visions."

 

In her address, the Prime Minister also touched upon the changes which Slovenia and the European Union are currently undergoing.  She highlighted that in her opinion we should build a stronger and more integrated Europe able to cope not only with the clapping of the butterfly's wings but also of much larger animals. "Only a strong, integrated and competitive European Union can face challenges of the changing world.  Only a strong, integrated and competitive European Union can be a global player which shares its responsibility for the stability in the world with others," said the Prime Minister.

 

At the close of her address, she emphasised, however, that all the changes required cannot be achieved by only building closer connections within the European Union.  "We all need structural reforms at the national level. All Member States need to do their homework, not only some.  What is also important to understand is that reforms as well as fiscal consolidation are not necessary because of Brussels. Well-thought-out reforms are simply necessary if we want to keep the European social model. We need to change and implement the reforms if we want our future and the future of our children to be brighter than the times we are facing now," added Prime Minister Bratušek.

 

On the margins of the Bled Strategic Forum the Slovenian Prime Minister met with the Minister of State for External Affairs of the Republic of India, Preneet Kaur.  Prime Minister Bratušek and Minister of State Kaur expressed their satisfaction with the excellent relations between the two countries and their wish to further enhance cooperation, in particular in the economic area.