Government of Slovenia

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Janez Janša’s presentation of Slovenia’s EU presidency priorities at the National Assembly on Monday elicited criticism from the centre-left opposition parties. Some described it as short on detail, others expressed doubt about whether the government can deliver.

One of the priorities will be the preparation of the European Union for possible new crises in the future, said the head of Slovenian diplomacy, Ane Logar.
In a statement for the Slovenian media, Logar said that the role of the state presiding over the EU Council is to try to harmonize and propose compromise solutions for legal proposals and various topics.

Brussels – Slovenia will not be able to reach the NATO target of 2% of GDP in defence spending by 2024, but it must do its homework and under the current government the spending trend has been reversed, Prime Minister Janez Janša said as he arrived for a summit of NATO leaders on Monday.

Ljubljana – Tomaž Vesel, the president of the Court of Audit, is seeking support among independent oversight bodies for a statement that urges against alleged political pressure and attacks on them that are carried out in the media and on social networks. Some government ministers have reacted to the statement, largely not sharing the view.

Despite repeated calls from EU officials, Slovenia has not yet selected prosecutors to delegate to the newly established EU prosecutor's office, which will investigate fraud, corruption and money laundering involving the EU budget.

On Monday, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders reiterated his call for Slovenia to appoint prosecutors.

Brussels – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described today’s meeting with President Borut Pahor ahead of Slovenia’s presidency of the Council of the EU as very constructive, saying she appreciated “the enormous energy with which the presidency will work on the resilience and recovery of the European Union after this heavy pandemic”.

Ljubljana – The opposition-controlled Commission for Oversight of Public Finances debated on Wednesday the impact of the proposed tax reform on public finances, with one of the adopted conclusions assessing the reform as an inappropriate fiscal response to the current crisis.

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Janez Janša told the National Assembly on Wednesday as it debated an impeachment motion against him that Slovenia was not in for a disaster as claimed by the opposition, but very optimistic times. He believes that Slovenia could be back to the pre-crisis level in record time and faster than the EU on average.

Ljubljana/Brdo pri Kranju – The government could vote on a proposal to annul the procedure to appoint Slovenia’s two European delegated prosecutors on Thursday and then publish a new call for applications, media have reported. PM Janez Janša said the government would check the appointment procedure Thursday to decide whether to proceed with it or repeat it.

Ljubljana – The ruling Democrats (SDS) have defended a draft resolution they plan to adopt at the upcoming congress and which warns about the possibility of civil war and leftist extremism, as the opposition stepped up criticism of a document they claim constitutes scaremongering.