The new minister took over from her predecessor Infrastructure Minister Alenka Bratušek, who stood in after the previous minister resigned. Ms Bratušek said she was pleased and confident that the new minister would motivate and inspire the team at GODC to work hard and keep things moving in the right direction.

Dr Angelika Mlinar commended Ms Bratušek and her team for their dedicated work and efforts while in charge of the portfolio, and thanked for the advice and directions she was given. ‘’I am being briefed and up to speed right now; my team and I are well aware of the challenges ahead, but I can assure you that we will do everything in our power to overcome them and accomplish the goals set. GODC has been subject to criticism lately, but I would like to point out that things are not as bad as they might seem. What we need now is to stay focused and redouble our efforts to see to it that the funding made available to Slovenia in the 2014-2020 funding period is fully spent; we also need to open up the dialogue with other ministries, while proceeding full steam ahead with preparing the next programming period,’’ underlined Mlinar.