NEWS

Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek attends the European Council meeting

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, on 24 and 25 October attended a two-day European Council meeting in Brussels. The meeting’s agenda included digital economy, innovation and services, growth, competitiveness and jobs, economic and monetary union, Eastern partnership and migration flows.

 

According to the Prime Minister, the European heads of state agreed that the experience of individual countries in the digital economy area should be combined in order to lay a foundation for progress in all countries.  In this respect, the Prime Minister pointed out that Slovenia tops the list of countries in terms of e-government.

 

The European leaders paid great attention to the proposed banking union and agreed with the need to restore confidence in the banking system. According to the Prime Minister, this particularly applies to Slovenia which is behind in the rehabilitation of the banking system. "However, we have made significant steps forward during the past seven months so that we are now only waiting for the results of the stress tests that are currently being carried out in eight Slovenian banks," explained the Prime Minister and expressed her belief that "the steps that will follow restore full confidence in our banks." In this respect she expressed her satisfaction with the talks on the review of Slovenian banks and stressed that she "received full support and assurance that our steps so far would be taken into account in further procedures." She explained that Slovenia will also be included in the procedures that will be initiated for each country in the forthcoming year, as SID Bank has not yet been subject to any such procedure. However, the Prime Minister expects no difficulties in this regard.

 

The European leaders also discussed the U.S. telephone tapping affair and adopted a declaration condemning such practices. They also agreed that it is more important to set things up for the future, the cooperation between the US and the EU being of key importance; "and this is the EU's top priority in the months to come," added the Prime Minister.

 

The second day of the meeting was devoted to migration flows, in particular to the Lampedusa tragedy. The European leaders agreed that "it is not a matter of one country alone, but requires establishing solidarity," explained the Prime Minister and added that the Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta thanked Slovenia once again for assistance.