Hello.
We had an interesting debate
about conditions in the European banking sector today.
Both the President of the ECB and the President of the Eurozone
showed us an analysis of recent events,
as well as an analysis of the European banking system
and how it differs from the cases of the U.S. and Switzerland.
On the basis of what has been presented, we came to a unanimous
conclusion, namely that the European banking system
is resilient to the disruptions we've seen
and that all the parameters, from liquidity to capital adequacy
and so on, are firmly within the designated limits.
It's the rules that regulate the European banking system
and are much stricter than in those two countries
that can put our minds at ease.
Given the turbulence affecting European banks
such as Deutsche Bank, have you discussed
additional measures to stabilize these financial markets?
No, we have a clear answer to this question.
Regardless of any daily volatility,
nothing has really changed over the past days or week
regarding the stability of the European banking system.
It's as stable as it was before. Daily volatility had no effect
and is not a consequence of the condition of the system,
which remains normal, stable, and robust.
The reaction to what is happening is just daily market volatility.
Was there any discussion, perhaps on the sidelines,
regarding an increase to deposit insurance?
No. Again, we were informed quite clearly why the collapse happened,
both in the case of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse,
and the findings indicate that rules in effect within the Eurozone
prevent this from happening in the European banking sector.
So there are no possible improvements to make
the system even more resilient? -The debate was primarily about
creating a banking union, but with an emphasis
not on relaxing the rules, as some have suggested,
but on preserving current rules, not tightening them but preserving
them, to prevent this turbulence from affecting stability.
Regarding European bank deposit insurance,
that didn't come up? -No. We didn't discuss that.
That's an integral part of the banking union,
which we didn't discuss. That was prepared in advance.
We're currently discussing the implementation
of these agreements, but we're at the beginning of the process.
How is the Slovenian banking system prepared for potential trouble?
Our banks are in the Eurozone, and Slovenia is in the Eurozone,
so we share the destiny of the Eurozone.
The rules are the same; our banking system
is very liquid and our capital adequacy is very high.
You also spoke about reforming economic governance.
Yesterday, the government prepared amendments to the budget,
resulting in a far lower deficit. How will this help Slovenia
return to its budgetary framework?
When we approved the budgets for 2023 and 2024,
we forecast an appropriate deficit of under three percent
for the 2024 budget, when fiscal rules once again go into effect.
The budget amendments we've prepared for 2023
are a confirmation of what we said last September,
namely that we have substantial budgetary reserves for aid
due to the energy crisis. We've seen that this aid
will likely be far more limited, so we've reduced our reserves,
which also reduced our deficit this year. Perhaps we'll have more
amendments in September, but they're unlikely to affect the deficit much.
We preferred to go into 2023 with the expected deficit,
which was larger, so we can now decrease as we go along
and send a signal to the financial markets
that Slovenia is managing the deficit risks appropriately,
and that we're approaching the target deficit
defined by the new fiscal rules.
We're just a year away from the European elections.
Your party in a new player in the EU political arena,
so how will you build alliances and with which groups?
The Freedom Movement has decided to become a member
of the broader Renew movement.
We intentionally haven't moved beyond this.
Give us another year. I believe we'll tackle this debate
after the summer. In the meantime, we'll see certain initiatives
on the European level, and I trust this will help us decide.
We haven't discussed candidates or potential commissioners
within the party. We have plenty of time.
Why aren't you interested in working with ALDE,
which is a far older group than Renew, and many people
are convinced that Renew will vanish once Macron departs?
I'm not saying that we aren't interested,
but we haven't had an in-depth discussion. We'll do that
over the summer. After all, ALDE will hold its congress
in Stockholm this summer, which will give us a chance to think this over.
A question about domestic affairs:
On Monday, you said that you'll present bills on the digitalization
of healthcare and health insurance reform by the end of the month
and put them up for public debate, but the Economic and Social Council
didn't take up the proposals today, so where is the sticking point?
I can't comment on the reasons. I have information that both bills
were passed on to the Economic and Social Council.
I can't comment on why they weren't put up for debate
because I wasn't there. I trust this will become clear
in a week or two. The important thing
is that the bills are already undergoing public debate.
We don't want to approve them without the public's involvement
or as part of an expedited procedure,
so we have enough time to collect all useful, relevant comments
and amend them.
I believe we'll see them amended this month,
and that there's plenty of time.