Greetings. The decisions from today's 144th government session
will be presented by two ministers and one state secretary.
Minister for Higher Education, Science, and Innovation,
Dr. Igor Papič, go ahead.
Thank you. Esteemed colleagues,
today, the government adopted changes
to the Scientific Research and Innovation Activity Act.
This is mainly a strategic change.
We are further increasing funding for science and innovation
from the current 1% of GDP to 1.25% of GDP.
This increase mainly applies to innovation.
We are hereby following the policy
that our society must be a knowledge-based one,
development in particular is knowledge-based.
Let me highlight some numbers. Before this government took office
funding for science was around 350 million euros.
Under the latest adopted budget for this year and for 2026,
it is approaching 700 million,
basically doubling the funding for science.
Last year we allocated this field 528 million euros.
this year 674 million euros,
and in 2026 funding for science will surpass 700 million euros.
We are also increasing the scope of funding to other ministries,
so our Ministry will not be the only one responsible for this field.
We are also taking into account other funds, especially EU funds.
We have thus met the strategic conditions
for the development of our society
through an efficient transfer of knowledge into everyday life.
Other changes in the amendment
mainly set certain legal bases for the full operation
of the Research and Innovation Agency.
We wish to empower the Innovation Council as soon as possible.
It also regulates a few administrative areas,
primarily self-evaluation, the assessment of institutes,
the establishment of institutes, et cetera.
For me, the main highlight is the additional increase
in funding for science in the coming years.
Journalists, please introduce yourselves.
Manja Delašjava, STA.
What are the sources of these additional funds
and which ministries will participate in this funding?
Of course, the main carrier
is the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation.
We are covering mainly the part that is strictly related
to the scientific research of research institutes.
But, like I said, we are also taking into account EU funds,
the Cohesion Fund, and the RRP, while the programme still lasts.
Additionally, it is our Ministry's task
to collect the data of all other ministries
that are also investing in science.
This includes the Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sport,
and the Ministry of Digital Transformation,
whose aim is the transition to a digital society.
Given the current situation,
I am confident that this scope of funding
will also increase significantly for the Ministry of Defence.
Any further questions?
Thank you, Minister, have a nice day. -Thank you.
The government reviewed the guidelines
for preparing public calls
for the allocation of public funds at the SPIRIT agency.
State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport,
Matevž Frangež, will outline their contents. Go ahead.
Greetings. Although public perception suggests
that the allocation of public funds through public calls
operates under a lawless, Wild West-like system,
this area is in fact highly regulated.
Within the scope of the Ministry of Economy, Tourism, and Sport alone,
there are 68 legal regulations governing public calls,
including 8 laws, 3 programming documents,
6 government regulations, 17 EU regulations,
and, in the case of the Ministry of Economy,
8 approved state aid schemes,
and 12 different procedural guidelines and instructions.
In this regard, the procedure is regulated,
though it is true that, in conducting public calls,
for some reason or other, mistakes happen.
With regard to the state and the correct utilisation of public funds,
it is important that we have mechanisms in place
that either prevent the allocation of public funds
to those who are ineligible, or, on the other hand,
enable the efficient recovery of public funds
from those who do not meet the objectives of the public calls.
The most important part of the review of the guidelines
for improving the system of public calls
is determining what needs to be corrected moving forward.
In this regard, the government considered the proposed directives,
namely the digitisation of call procedures,
which includes submitting applications in digital form,
integrating AI tools to verify conditions and access databases,
as well as to verify and rank data,
and the digitisation of oversight
in the implementation of individual projects.
But, as we discussed at the government session,
we cannot hide behind checking off formal requirements.
Instead, we must implement
a more thorough substantive evaluation of submitted projects,
and increase the accountability of the evaluation committees.
Furthermore, we want to explore the possibility of incorporating
the principle of prudent use of public funds into our legislation.
This would allow taking into account
past experiences in conducting public calls
for both individuals and legal entities,
like issues with chain-opening companies, and similar matters,
through a preventive prohibition on awarding public funds
or by imposing an additional obligation of diligent scrutiny.
Various suggestions for optimising procedures of awarding state aid,
mainly by limiting the number of application supplements,
including assessments by external evaluators,
and the assessment of business models,
in order to increase the detection and identification
of fraudulent practices and fraudulent business models.
The government also reviewed the consideration
on how to prepare a repeated public call
for productive investments in coal regions.
There are three specifics regarding this call.
Firstly, the public call is focused on creating jobs.
We need jobs to replace the jobs tied to the coal industry
in the Savinja and Šalek Valley and the Zasavje coal regions.
Secondly, it is focused on two narrowly defined territorial areas,
Zasavje and the Savinja and Šalek Valley
and on mandatory consultation
with the two regional development agencies
that have a very specific consulting role in this procedure.
In this regard we are announcing two public calls,
one through the SPIRIT agency
and the other through the ARIS agency.
The first is for production investments
amounting to 68 million euros,
and the other for co-funding development, research
and innovation activities of companies in the two valleys,
amounting to 14.5 million euros.
We intend to prepare the new call as soon as possible and,
based on revised guidelines,
structure it into two distinct segments.
One segment will address newly established companies,
with a capped maximum allocation,
set, for example, at 500,000 euros,
while the other will cover established companies,
for which we plan to limit annual turnover to an absolute threshold,
as was already incorporated in the previous call.
We also aim to include assessments by external evaluators,
and a bank statement confirming the financial
feasibility of the projects will be required.
In addition, we must devise a method
to more effectively assess fraudulent business models
that may sometimes underpin submitted projects,
and, in this respect, allow the agency,
as the executor of the public call,
to reserve the right to take into account past conduct,
particularly non-compliance with tax obligations
by individuals and legal entities, and other criteria.
Thank you, State Secretary. Journalists, go ahead.
No questions. -Thank you. -Thank you, goodbye.
The last speaker is the Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs
and Equal Opportunities Luka Mesec who introduces the adopted draft law
on asserting the partial wage compensation
for part-time work. Go ahead. -Thank you.
Hello and thank you for coming to the press conference.
I will introduce a crisis scheme for a part-time work.
Companies or employees can use it
in the event of crisis or natural disasters.
I will explain a bit of history.
Because of a crisis or natural disasters we have used subsidies
for part-time work in Slovenia two times, to keep the workplaces.
First, after the global financial crisis in the years 2009 and 2010,
and in the Covid period for the second time.
The European Commission estimates that back then the European countries
saved over 10 million workplaces.
As you know, the economic climate is unfavourable again.
The Slovenian companies are afraid of the events in export markets.
The automotive industry is worried and there are less orders already.
They urged the government to impose a possibility
for some kind of intervention scheme for part-time work.
We don't want to face mass redundancies and unemployment again.
We know it very well, if we look a bit into the past.
When I was finishing my studies in the year 2012 or 2013,
135,000 people in Slovenia were unemployed.
Ten years later we have one third of this number.
There are 48,000 unemployed people.
We want to keep it like that, because it means social security for people.
It means that it's not hard to find work in Slovenia
and everyone who can and wants to work can find it.
The problem is, if the crisis came and got a cyclical nature.
The unemployment could increase for tens of thousands people.
To prevent it, we took a look at foreign practices
in the countries we are inspired by. Austria and Germany among them.
We found out that both countries have established a scheme
that they can activate in a natural disaster or economic crisis.
When the crisis comes, they don't invent intervention measures,
but they have a mechanism that a government can activate,
when it seems that a hard economic period is on the horizon,
to save the workplaces.
We have adopted such a law today.
It was coordinated in the Economic and Social Council
and is supported by both sides, by the employers and union trades.
In the economy employers see it as a protection from the crisis.
Mainly from the one that is appearing on export markets.
On the other hand, the union trades support it,
because they see it as a safeguard for workplaces.
Now I can say a few words, how this scheme works.
After the adoption of this law,
the government can activate the scheme.
It can activate it in two cases.
The first case are natural disasters or epidemics.
Like floods or a case of Covid-19.
In both cases the government could activate the scheme.
The companies would apply and the government could for the employees,
who can't keep the job, subsidise a part-time work.
The second case is an economic crisis.
In this case, a Ministry of Labour, which submits the proposal,
and a Ministry of Economy, which prepares it, should say
what the economic trends are, what does the IMAD say,
what are the data on unemployment, what are the companies worried about,
if the orders are decreasing and so on.
Then the government decides if the crisis is serious enough
to activate the scheme.
When the government decides to activate the scheme,
the companies have a possibility to report to the employment office
or arrange it via electronic means.
They have to say
that they can't ensure 90% of the work for 30% of the employees.
This should apply to approximately one third of the employees.
the company cannot provide the work for.
It must therefore state which employees these are,
and how much their work will be cut back.
The Employment Service must then approve the scheme within 14 days.
If it does, the employees' hours can be reduced
by a minimum of 5 hours or a maximum of 20 hours per week.
It may not be reduced by more than half for any individual employee.
They must work half-time, they can be at home half-time.
This is not waiting for work. It's a reduction in working time.
In case of natural disasters, the company can also make arrangements
to work for a fortnight and have a fortnight off.
If the work has stalled because the premises have been flooded.
In that case, the state subsidises 60% of the waiting time.
This measure can be used by the company for six months,
and for a maximum of six months in a two-year period.
It cannot use it for six months,
and after three months, another six months.
For a maximum of six months because of one such incident.
Of course, it's different if there's a flood,
then an epidemic, then an economic crisis.
Those are three different cases.
But if there is only an economic crisis, which lasts for two years,
the company has to judge in which six months during the two-year period
it will apply this measure and use the state aid
to enable employees to keep their jobs.
Employees can receive training while working part-time.
They can undertake additional training for the work they do,
with the agreement of their employer they can also receive other training.
The Employment Service will draw up this list.
The company, however, in order to avoid the malversations
that we have seen in the past,
during the period of time that it's using the scheme,
will not be allowed to pay out bonuses and profits.
To put it simply, if it uses the scheme for half a year,
it is not allowed to pay out bonuses and profits for half a year.
And then, because it has happened quite often
that some have simply waited and kept the profits,
and then paid out double in the second year,
they can continue to pay bonuses and profits for a second and third year,
but if they pay a million in bonuses,
they have to pay a million, if the scheme cost more than a million,
back to the state budget. The same amount of the bonus they pay out,
they have to pay back to the state budget if they received subsidies
for reducing working hours the previous year.
That's it. In a nutshell,
the Government has adopted the act on crisis schemes
to reduce working time during a crisis.
On the one hand, this act is intended
to ensure that companies currently facing a decline in orders,
whether because of export markets,
the car crisis and so on in Europe, do not go bankrupt.
On the other hand, this act is intended to protect our employees
from the crisis,
to maintain the full employment that Slovenia now enjoys,
and, in the long term, to keep unemployment where it is now,
below 50,000.
The act will be adopted in Parliament in about two months' time.
From then on, the government will be able to activate this scheme
at any time. If the economic circumstances
seem suitable for such a measure.
We didn't invent this scheme in Slovenia.
It is based on a thorough study of good practices abroad.
In particular, we have drawn on the Austrian and German models.
Thank you very much. Any press questions?
No, you were very thorough. -Thank you. -Good luck.
That concludes the press conference. Goodbye.
Thank you very much. Good luck.