NEWS
Slovenian Prime Minister attends Eurozone summit in Brussels
The Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor yesterday evening attended the meeting of heads of state and government of the Eurozone in Brussels. The main purpose of this event was to determine the modalities of ensuring the stability of the Eurozone, which is currently faced with a "systemic crisis". The leaders gave their consent to the introduction of a new mechanism in order to reassure financial markets as soon as possible. Moreover, they confirmed, as expected, the activation of the Greek aid mechanism.
(Photo: Thierry Monasse/STA)
After the meeting, Prime Minister Pahor pointed out that the majority of the summit's participants assessed the events faced by the Eurozone as historical. He also warned against a repetition of the "Greek scenario" in some other EU Member State, a possibility reflected in the decisions adopted at the summit. Mr Pahor reiterated that so far, Slovenia has managed to evade the "Greek scenario" and that the country is on the right path to rehabilitate, provided that no unpredictable crisis arises in the Eurozone. The Slovenian Prime Minister also explained that Slovenia, like Germany and France, had sent a letter to the EU President Herman Van Rompuy. In this respect, he expressed his satisfaction that the content of the letter had partly been considered in the final positions of the Eurozone summit. He went on to say that the majority of his today's observations had been accepted with understanding and added that the Slovenian positions are very close to the German ones, without any prior coordination between the two countries to this end.
In a joint declaration after the summit, the Eurozone leaders called for rapid progress regarding the regulation and supervision of financial markets, whereby the enhancement of transparency and supervision, as well as the consideration of the role of rating agencies should be among the key EU priorities in this respect. The new mechanism for the regulation of financial markets will be decided on by EU finance ministers at the extraordinary meeting on Sunday. By then, the European Commission must prepare a legal framework for the adoption of such EU mechanism, which, for the time being, does not exist. The Eurozone leaders today also agreed that "consolidation of public finances is a priority for all of us" and that "we will take all measures needed to meet our fiscal target this year and in the years ahead in line with the excessive deficit procedures". Each is ready to accelerate consolidation and to ensure sustainability of public finances in accordance with the situation in one's own country, was further said in the statement.
After the summit, Prime Minister Pahor also announced the adoption of a supplementary budget by this summer, aiming at the reduction of the public finance deficit. "This will be a very sharp cut and sacrifices in the budget on individual items will be significant", he emphasised. Mr Pahor concluded by adding that he had instructed the Minister of Finance, Franci Križanič, to provide for a significant reduction of deficit.