NEWS

Prime Minister Pahor presents new candidate for minister of the environment and spatial planning

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, today presented the candidate for the minister of the environment and social planning, Professor Dr Rok Žarnić, who had been proposed by Karl Erjavec, President of the DeSUS group, following the co-ordination procedure within the coalition. In his statement during the presentation Mr Erjavec said that his party was sufficiently expeditious in proposing a candidate in order to enable the Government to proceed with its work smoothly and in full composition.

      

(Photo: Tamino Petelinšek/STA)

      

In presenting the new candidate Prime Minister Pahor emphasised that the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning is a complex ministry, which, during the negotiations on the government composition, is usually underestimated and quite often under-ranked, thus provoking a false perception of this matter by the public at large, as  “quite on the contrary, this is a highly demanding and complex area requiring a person with a wide range of knowledge, who will absolutely and exclusively focus on the work of this ministry.” Mr Pahor availed himself of this occasion to thank the former minister for his contribution and to emphasise that he has no doubts about the support to be given to the new candidate by the National Assembly. He went on to say that he expects the candidate to absolutely devote all his knowledge, talents and rich experience to successful work of this highly demanding and significant ministry.
               
The candidate, Dr Rok Žarnić, thanked his party for proposing him to assume this demanding post, which, in his opinion, is full of challenges, while also representing the pinnacle of his career. Dr Žarnić considers the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning as one of the key line ministries covering an area, which indeed affects our everyday life. Only a multidisciplinary team having expertise in fields such as technology and natural sciences, as well as law and economy, can be up to the relevant task.  As regards priority policies, the ministerial candidate advocates the continuation of successful programmes already launched. He first intends to take note of these programmes, thus having the possibility to also gain an insight into the background of potential problems. Among the priorities, Dr Žarnić highlighted the anticipated law on the placement of the transport, energy and water infrastructure facilities, the Triglav National Park Act, the natural gas terminal, cooperation with local communities and NGOs, as well as drawing on EU funds and the implementation of the associated EU projects.