NEWS
Prime Minister's press conference following the Government’s 96th regular session
At today’s regular session, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the wording of the draft Act Amending the Mining Act, the Decree on environmental tax on pollution of the environment due to disposal of waste into landfills and the Report on Monitoring the Implementation of the Operational Programme for Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2012.
Upon the proposal of the Ministry of the Economy, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the wording of the draft Act Amending the Mining Act and submitted it to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia for discussion under an emergency procedure. The proposed amendment aims at establishing a legal basis for the decision-making in the transitional period following the expiration of validity of the Mining Act (ZRud) and certain provisions and parts of provisions of the Construction Act until the date of application of ZRud-1, i.e. from 10 August 2010 to 1 January 2011
At today's session, the Government also adopted the Decree on environmental tax on pollution of the environment due to disposal of waste into landfills. The Decree lays down the obligation of payment, the calculation basis, persons liable to pay, payers, the method of calculation, determination of the amount and payment of the environmental tax on pollution of the environment due to disposal of waste into landfills, as well as the method of distribution of the collected environmental tax among municipalities. On the basis of this Decree, the environmental tax amount received by municipalities will depend on the ratio between the disposed and collected municipal waste. Moreover, the municipalities will be obliged to report on the quantities of collected and disposed waste to the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning.
Today, the Government further adopted the Report on Monitoring the Implementation of the Operational Programme for Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2012.The Report refers to the implementation of the revised Programme adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in July 2009 and covers the period until March 2010. On the basis of the Operational Programme for Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Slovenia should fulfil its liabilities under the Kyoto Protocol, under which it undertook to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8% in the 2008-2012 period compared to 1986. The Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Climate Change is drafting a Climate Change Act and a long-term climate (low carbon) strategy taking into consideration the international framework and building on experience gained from the implementation of the Operational Programme. The Climate Change Act is also part of the Government’s exit strategy, since efficient implementation of measures to mitigate climate change should contribute to the improvement of long-term competitiveness of the economy and new jobs with higher added value.
At the close of the press conference, Prime Minister Pahor also answered a number of topical questions.