Dear Pedro, Thank you very much for your hospitality.
Dear Andrej, congratulations
for all the fun and entertainment of today, not just results.
It is always good to be among like-minded people
and today was a very good day in that regard.
Being here for the first time at MED9, it is an honour to me
that we were able to share not just ideas
in a totally friendly manner,
but that we were able to come to an agreement
so easy and so fast.
If you're like-minded and respect each other, it's doable.
This is one of the messages we should send across the world.
When you meet and discuss things in an open and friendly manner,
everything can be achieved.
I would like to pinpoint three principles.
We dealt with energy, which was the major topic today.
The first one is solidarity.
One of the major facets of the new package that has been prepared by the EC,
is establishing automatic solidarity between the member states
when it comes to gas and electricity supply.
This is a very important step forward,
because it's actually the foundation on which the EU has been established.
There is obviously no disagreement on that.
We all see major benefits coming from that.
Another thing, even more important now, is that we need to be decisive.
We, as the leaders of Europe, cannot stall. We cannot stop.
We shall act, not just because the people expect that from us,
but because it's the world that we live in.
For that reason, I'm particularly glad that in the field of energy
in view of the common energy ministers' meeting next week,
we came to a joint proposal on how to reduce and curb
the prices on gas.
And I think this is a very strong messages we're sending.
We were able to come to a joint proposal and solution.
And we will do all we can that next week all our colleagues
from other EU member states agree on that.
For this, I'm particularly glad, because being a small and open economy,
it's so much more important for us to bring the gas prices down.
And the third one,
which is flexibility.
When it comes to the future of fiscal rules especially,
and if there's something that this dire situation has shown us it's that
we cannot stay rigid.
We cannot apply the same rules that were in place for the last 10 years
to existing political and global situations.
We need to be flexible. And again.
We were all agreed upon that.
When we say flexible that means we need to target
those particular fields and areas such as green technology,
and digital technology,
where we can exempt them from the fiscal rules.
So it's not a total exemption, just abandoning the rules,
but it needs to be targeted. That way we will use the money,
the allocated funds in the most efficient way.
And finally,
it is true, inflation is high. The costs are high.
There's a crisis. The war in Ukraine.
But this also brings an opportunity.
In my view the Mediterranean area has so much potential now,
not just messages and lessons, but potential in order to help
other member states, the landlocked states,
to help them get away from the dependency on Russian gas.
Slovenia that lies in-between
understands this potential very well.
It's not just a gateway to the Central Europe.
It is also the source of renewables, especially the solar and wind.
At the moment, that is a huge, unexploited potential.
Not just on the northern shore, but even on the southern shore.
This is where we can contribute a lot
to the strategic development of Europe in the future.