Hello. At its 81st meeting, the Government
discussed the Act on Reconstruction, Development
and Provision of Financial Resources. The clean copy
will be passed by the Government tomorrow.
The finance minister Klemen Boštjančič will present
the budget documents with the comments from the EU Commission.
The Government passed the proposition for the amendment
to the Act on the Public Use of Slovenian. The culture minister
Asta Vrečko will tell you more. Go ahead.
Hello. Today, we passed
the new Act on Changes and Amendments
to the Act on the Public Use of Slovenian which has to be passed
by the Parliament. The new law protects Slovenian
in the digital environment as well, in the operational systems
of computers, smartphones, cars
and other devices that communicate with users.
The old law did not make this possible because it was 20 years old
and most of these devices did not even exist at the time.
Therefore, Slovenia did not have an effective way
to make sure that our language will be present in the new environment.
Manufacturers decided themselves whether they want to support it.
The Windows OS was translated 30 years ago,
but Apple still has not done it until this day.
Nevertheless, a lot of Slovenians use their devices.
It is similar with cars,
household appliances, entertainment technology and other devices.
Some support Slovenian, others do not. We think this situation
is not acceptable. Modern devices
are key to access the services of information society,
media and culture, to post our opinions
and express ourselves artistically.
These devices are mostly used by younger generations
that are still developing their language skills.
On the other hand, the users that do not speak foreign languages
can be excluded from this environment.
Therefore, it is important that modern devices
speak Slovenian in the future.
With the new law, it is not just a wish anymore, it is our demand.
There are a lot of questions
about streaming services like Netflix.
This is regulated by the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive
which says that these platforms
are regulated by states where they are registered.
In the case of Netflix, that is the Netherlands.
They abide by their laws, therefore, it is even more important
that as a state,
we fight in the EU at all levels
for the equal access to languages
and for an equal treatment of smaller languages and states.
Thank you. -Thank you. Any questions?
Please, use the microphone, so you will be heard.
Metka Majer, Pop TV. Another topic. I just want to know
how you would comment on Luka Mesec leading the meeting.
Yes, Luka Mesec led the meeting today.
I think he did really well.
We passed a lot of important laws,
so he did a great job as a Deputy PM.
Is your party even more heard in the Government now?
Every minister always has a chance to talk,
so there were no differences.
Thank you. -Any more questions?
Come here, please.
Špela Bezjak, Pop TV. Two laws will be passed tomorrow and not today,
the Act on Reconstruction and the other is about the healthcare.
Why did you not pass them today? What will you change?
This is the usual practice. They will continue the discussion.
We discussed them. -They will pass them. -Okay.
The supplementary health insurance will be abolished.
Do you have any instructions for people?
What do they need to do and what will change?
I think you will get a very clear explanation
from the Ministry of Health and the Government.
We talked about the Act on the Public Use of Slovenian.
Hospital devices will be available in Slovenian as well
which will provide a better access to healthcare services
for everyone.
We unanimously passed the law
and are glad to send it to the Parliament. During this term,
different devices will be available in Slovenian.
We will have a transition period, but the manufacturers know
that this is coming and they will make sure
their devices will be available in Slovenian as well.
Thank you. -Thank you. -Thank you. Thank you, Minister.
I give the floor to the Minister of Finance, Klemen Boštjančič.
Minister, hello. -Hello. -Go ahead.
Greetings. I believe Petra already said this,
at today's government meeting we discussed the much anticipated
Act on Reconstruction, Development and Provision of Financial Resources
for recovery from the worst ever natural disaster in Slovenia.
I believe that that is also why you came in such great numbers.
We had a very extensive debate regarding this at the meeting.
We found that some things are still unclear,
which is why we postponed the approval of the Act for a day.
We expect that the Act will be approved
tomorrow during the correspondence meeting.
As I said, some things still need to be cleared up today,
that is why we thought it was sensible to take 24 hours to do so.
Substantively, these are not particularly significant issues,
but we should clarify them. Tomorrow, once we introduce it,
we will also comment on the Act in more detail.
Another thing I wanted to respond to today
is the budget debate, which is finishing in Parliament today.
Yesterday's session took all day. This evening we will be approving
budget documents for the next two years.
Due to the relevance of this debate
and that yesterday and today the European Commission responded ...
This is not directly tied to our budget.
Right now, all EU countries are approving their budgets.
They are in different stages,
but most budgets are approved by some time in November.
As the European Commission published its response yesterday,
I wished to comment on it specifically.
Regarding Slovenia's projected fiscal policy in 2024,
the EC assesses that it complies
with the recommendations of the Council of the European Union.
This assessment applies to the growth of expenditure,
which is monitored by the EC,
as well as financing public investments.
The Commission points to the necessity of continuing the progress
in implementing structural measures.
The Autumn Package was announced yesterday and published today,
which kicks off the annual European Semester cycle of 2024.
This is an annual process of coordinating
the economic and fiscal policies of EU Member States,
within which the Commission assesses
the drafts of budgetary plans of euro area Member States.
Of those 20 states, this year Slovenia is one of 7 states
whose projected fiscal policy for 2024
complies with the recommendations of the Council of the EU.
The Commission assesses that the government deficit in 2024
will decrease to 3.3 % of gross domestic product,
and public debt will decrease to 68.4 % of GDP.
I should point out that these are calculations
that the European Commission performs independently,
based on the data we send them, of course.
In the draft of the budgetary plan for 2024
Slovenia estimated that the deficit will grow to 3.8% of GDP.
The discrepancy is due to Slovenia including in its assessment
one-off measures for flood remediation,
without which the government deficit would be around 3% of GDP,
still at the valid reference limit.
The European Commission's assessments
differ from those of the Fiscal Council.
The reason for this are differences in methodology,
as the government and the Commission
do not regard the measures related to covid-19
and the measures to alleviate the energy crisis and inflation
as one-off measures, unlike the flood measures.
As such, they are including them in expenditure growth,
while the past measures related to covid-19 and the energy crisis
are regarded by the Fiscal Council as one-off expenses.
In extraordinary circumstances and under the general escape clause
an agreement has been reached at the EU level
that these measures be monitored very closely,
but to not be considered as usual one-off expenses
that affect the calculation of the structural deficit
and the aforementioned calculation of expenditure growth.
Of course, we realise that one-off expenses are short-term
and to compensate them will require greater fiscal efforts
or rather an appropriately limited expenditure growth.
The Commission also assesses that Slovenia's projected fiscal policy
complies with the Council's recommendations on maintaining
a high level of nationally financed public investments.
The Commission also highlights that Slovenia should ensure
medium and long-term public finance sustainability,
which will depend on further structural measures.
The Commission also believes that Slovenia has made progress,
which needs to continue. To this end,
the government is coordinating further structural changes.
Thank you, Minister. Journalists, go ahead.
Lea Majcen, STA. You said that the Act on Reconstruction
has not yet been approved today as some things are still unclear.
Could you be more specific about what remains unclear?
I will not go into details, but I assure you
that these are not huge issues that could not be resolved in 24 hours.
They are dilemmas between different departments.
On one hand it is about about weighing measures
in order to implement them
and have them come into effect as soon as possible.
These are mainly measures in the field of spatial legislation.
And on the other side considering the dangers
that the measures, meant to remedy the consequences of the disaster,
wouldn't be abused for some other uses.
Especially to harm the environment.
It won't be possible to execute some other procedures
under the pretence of remedy the consequences.
The main thing here is to resolve this dilemma.
I think there weren't a lot of troubles so far,
but if there is some reservation, I think we will address them today.
And coordinate it between the departments. -Yes. -Next.
Metka Majer, Pop TV. Let's stay at Reconstruction Act.
Are there any differences to the draft
that we have reported about. What content shall it bring?
We shall talk about the content tomorrow,
when the Act is probably adopted.
Then we shall comment it, as well as some solutions.
The Act is very extensive. It has 150 Articles.
It involves the public, economy, communal infrastructure.
The field of water regulation, agriculture,
environmental conservation, administrative procedures...
Procurement, protection of cultural heritage,
government revenue, partly duty exemption, development,
the question of release of data about recipients of public funds.
And last but not least, the fields of social security and health.
This Act is very extensive.
It is a great success that we prepared it so quickly.
As far as this is concerned, there was absolutely...
The weeks before that were quite hectic.
The Ministry of Finance coordinated this Act
with all the sectors. We have worked day and night
for the last month and a half.
Considering the communication on government meeting
I can say the Act is coordinated in most parts.
There aren't any big questions or objections left.
A few other questions shall be answered today or tomorrow.
Hesitations that some ministers had
shall be addressed or the sectors shall talk about it.
Tomorrow we plan to approve this Act on correspondence meeting.
The fact that it will be discussed there says, it is coordinated.
Tomorrow we can comment certain solutions from the Act.
As far as budgets are concerned,
you've said, the European Commission evaluated the draft of the budget.
I think there was a reservation there,
but you don't decide about the same document today.
What are the differences or are there important discrepancies?
How would you comment that?
I have listened to a lot of critique of this budget,
mostly from opposition, which is normal.
In the context that our plans are inappropriate,
we are hiding data and so on.
Yesterday we received a post from Brussels
and concrete data today. The same critics changed their tune.
"No, we meant the events after October the 13th."
It is a fact that this is a cross section on October 13th.
Budgets in the EU countries are being adopted right now.
And we are adjusting the documents accordingly.
When they are adopted, the Commission shall comment them.
But this question...
Changes that are being made...
Tonight we shall vote and then we'll know,
what was actually confirmed in the National Assembly.
But changes that have been made in the budget from October 13th...
I believe this is a date,
which was commented by the Commission.
But the changes aren't so big that the position
of the Commission should alter.
Okay. Another topic. Luka Mesec lead today's meeting.
Did you give him some slack because of it?
By no means. The government meeting was going as usual.
There wasn't many questions or points for Ministry of Labour.
By no means. Even if...
There wasn't such questions to be tempted... I'm joking.
No. From the point of view of a Minister for Finance
everybody is the same. Even if they sometimes assume a different role.
One more thing. I'm asking you this as a member of Gibanje svoboda.
Aren't there any complications... As far as public is concerned.
Are there any complications or is PM just extending his sick leave?
Of course. There isn't anything. -Doctor's recommendation.
I believe so. -It's true. His treating physician.
The Prime Minister is very active, even when he is resting.
Next. You can come here.
Rok Šuligoj of TV Slo. I would like to know two things.
Do you think that this Reconstruction Act could be
taken a step further, so you wouldn't have to wait till tomorrow,
if the Prime Minister was present?
And a second question. When do you expect,
as the Minister for the Civil Service,
to start again or continue negotiations with the trade unions?
I think the fact that PM was absent today doesn't mean,
we've adopted the Act any slower.
As I've said, we all intended to approve the Act today.
but after the discussion we held,
we judged that it is better to talk for a few hours
than search for solutions ad hoc
and also maybe sometimes give the impression
that we're excluding a minister from the discussion...
Let's say that I was quite neutral on this one,
because it wasn't about the financial aspects of this act.
It wasn't really a conflict,
some questions just need additional explanations.
In this context we decided to take time this afternoon
for the individual departments to talk to each other
and for the Ministry of Finance to coordinate this by tomorrow.
Let me add that we want to include the proposals of the opposition,
but they may not be feasible, we're trying to make them feasible.
Go ahead. -About the negotiations.
Yes, as far as negotiations are concerned,
I have to be very careful with my statements,
because people interpret every statement I make as it suits them.
First of all, the Government never withdrew from these negotiations.
In my opinion, the deadlock didn't happen because of the Government.
In this context, the change of the public administration minister
doesn't actually play any role, but the fact is
that we are already in the second half of November,
so the timeline which we set a year ago now
seems quite optimistic,
that is, that the negotiations,
including systemic changes, would be concluded before the new year.
But regardless,
the talks with the trade unions
will continue immediately.
I wouldn't prejudge anything at this moment.
This whole time, we have been supporting central negotiations,
followed by negotiations with individual pillars.
This remains the Government's position. I am looking forward
to continuing the negotiations.
That's all for now.
Kaja Kobetič, Kanal A. The content of the reconstruction act
will be clear tomorrow, but please tell us about the sources of funding
and the establishment of this budget fund.
Under what procedure will the act go into the National Assembly?
As well as two questions about the budget.
How would you respond to the opposition's accusations
that the frozen income tax rates adjustment
doesn't technically mean a new tax,
but it does mean a tax burden?
You also mentioned a 3.8% deficit.
If the fiscal rules remain the same, that's over the permitted limit.
Do you expect any complications?
What further procedures will be taken?
As far as the act is concerned,
I won't go into details at this moment.
As far as the financial resources of the act are concerned,
the act is written in such a way
as we've been saying for the last fortnight or three weeks,
so there won't be any surprises tomorrow.
As far as the deficit is concerned,
as I explained,
the European Commission evaluates our budget draft documents
for the year 2024 as qualifying.
Let me put it simply,
the expenses we are planning in the budget,
related to elimination of the consequences of flood damage,
are recognised by the European Commission as one-off expenses,
which aren't included in the 3% deficit.
Taking this into account,
if we deduct this from budget expenditures,
our budget deficit will be lower than 3%.
As I said in the beginning,
the European Commission ranked us among the seven countries
that have qualifying budget documents,
however, we will respond in more detail today during the day
with a slightly more extensive statement for the public.
We will try to explain the details
of the dilemmas that also occurred during the Fiscal Council
regarding the view of the European Commission
a little more professionally,
so whoever is interested will be able to get a clearer picture.
We absolutely want to be maximally transparent,
to hide nothing. I think it is only right
to clearly know where this difference in views comes from.
And the opposition's criticism? -About?
About the frozen income tax rates adjustment. -Yes.
First of all, no, we are not raising taxes.
As far as income tax scales, last year's change in the law
introduced adjusting for inflation for the first time ever.
We have said many times, due to emergency situations,
related to floods
and the extremely high costs of eliminating the consequences,
the Government was forced to implement some less popular measures.
We tried to find those that would cause less pain,
but it is clear that not every measure is popular,
and this is the answer
that we have been giving to the opposition this whole time.
But as I have said many times in the National Assembly,
I'm already used to this debate. On the one hand,
the constant criticism that we spend too much,
that the budget deficit is too large,
on the other hand, usually in the same sentence,
the areas where we spend too little, where we should increase the budget.
That's possible in politics, not so much in the real world.
Špela Bezjak, POP TV. I have a question about the budget.
What's the reason for 70% regulation on social transfers?
The opposition is putting an amendment forward that will be supported
by some MPs from the Left party and others aren't happy about
the 70% regulation only.
I'd wait for today's session to be over.
We'll know by then how the voting went.
I believe that the coalition is unified.
Our first suggestion was that there's no regulation at all.
Compared to that, the 70% is quite significant.
I believe the coalition offered a hand
and listened to the wishes about regulation.
I see this as a sort of a compromise.
€20 million will be saved.
It's one of the key points.
When it comes to social transfers regulation
and other structural expenses
we have different laws on regulation in Slovenia.
There's difference in time and formulae.
This proved to be very problematic during the inflation.
Even the latest analysis
of the Insitute of macroeconomic analysis and development shows
the biggest reason for inflation are service cost increases
and salary increases. We're in a spiral
that we're driving ourselves.
With these automatic regulations,
obviously, I'm talking about pensions and minimum wage as well,
we're adding fuel to the inflation induced fire.
We have to make this clear and not look the other way.
We can't change this overnight.
The government and the coalition shares the same opinion.
We'll try to modify this in the next years
so that it won't be an issue anymore. Last year,
we saw a record increase in social transfers and minimum wage.
This year, we'll see this with increased pensions.
It will be lower than the other two categories,
the formulae proved to be inadequate
and dangerous
and don't prevent inflation, rather the contrary.
This, however, is a legislative issue
that will be addressed accordingly. -One last question.
Abolishing additional health insurance is a topic for Ministry of health,
but 2024 will introduce an obligatory health fee of €35.
What role will the Ministry of Finance and the Financial Administration have?
They will collect the money.
People want to know what they're supposed to do.
Any piece of information will be appreciated.
Regarding the people. The system will be set up in a way
that the individuals won't have to do much themselves.
We're still discussing the possibilities,
including what tasks the F.A. and the Health Insurance Institute.
Because the Financial Administration is a part of Ministry of Finance
I welcome this on the one hand, but on the other hand not really.
With every new task, it was like this during covid,
and it's happening again now,
the Ministries want to shift the tasks to Financial Administration.
They are competent, they have the manpower and know-how.
Even though I welcome this and I believe it is really professional,
I also don't think this should be the reason
that other Ministries and Institutes don't do the tasks
that we believe should be theirs to complete.
I believe we'll find a solution in the following days.
Thank you.
One last question.
Rok Šuligoj, TV Slovenia. One more question on negotiations.
If there's no resolution by the end of the year,
will there be separate negotiations with SVIZ and FIDES?
I cannot comment on that.
The government's position stays the same.
We want to engage in dialogue with all parties.
Only this way can we approach the imbalances.
When you negotiate individually, this becomes much harder.
We'll advocate this further.
Both sides must agree on that, but I cannot comment further.
Thank you, Minister for exhaustive answers
and the journalists for your questions. Good day.