Prime Minister Janez Janša in talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel

17. 5. 2021

Former Prime Minister Janez Janša (2020 - 2022)

Prime Minister Janez Janša had a videoconference talk today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They discussed the state of pandemic, which is slowing down in both countries, the vaccination process as well as future challenges. Of particular importance among the latter are combating the new mutations, facilitating the logistics of vaccine distribution and implementing vaccination in less developed countries when there is a plentiful supply of vaccines, a situation which is expected towards the end of this year.

A videoconference talk between PM Janša and and German Chancellor Merkel | Author Kabinet predsednika vlade

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The officials agreed that it is necessary that the EU member states ratify as soon as possible the Own Resources Decision – both countries have already done this – and that the national recovery and resilience plans are discussed and confirmed as soon as possible. This would enable the drawing of the funds agreed by the EU leaders last year and the necessary support for recovery and kick-starting the economy.

The Prime Minister acquainted the Chancellor with the priorities of the Slovenian presidency of the EU Council. They also separately discussed the Conference on the Future of Europe. To this end, Slovenia will dedicate the entire Bled Strategic Forum this year to debates on the future of the EU, which will be attended by numerous European leaders. They also talked about the Western Balkans. As part of the Slovenian presidency of the EU Council, an EU-Western Balkan summit will be organised in Slovenia in October.

Prime Minister Janez Janša and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also discussed the agenda of the upcoming session of the European Council, which will again be discussing climate change and adopt additional guidelines to the European Commission before it publishes a revised Fit for 55 climate-energy legislative package.