NEWS
Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek on a visit to Rome: "Employment of young people is essential for both countries"
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, is on her two-day visit to the Italian Republic and the Vatican. As part of her visit, she met today with her host, the President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, Enrico Letta. The leaders of the two countries also received representatives of the Slovenian and Italian minorities in the respective country – the first such meeting ever held. After the meeting, both prime ministers attended the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Italian ICE agency and SPIRIT Slovenia. In a joint statement to the media after the talks with the host, the Prime Minister said that cooperation between the two countries was exemplary and called for its successful continuation.
The talks between Slovenian Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek and her Italian counterpart Enrico Letta focused on economic situation in the two countries and European themes with emphasis on current topics ahead of the June European Council meeting. The Slovenian Prime Minister reiterated that the Slovenian Government would pay special attention to youth employment, which also appears to be essential for her counterpart and is in line with the EU priorities. The two leaders have undertaken to enhance economic ties and agreed to set up a business council.
As part of the visit, the prime ministers together received representatives of the Slovenian and Italian minorities that represent a special link and enhance relations between the two countries. In this context, Prime Minister Bratušek expressed her satisfaction that a permanent working body for addressing the issues of the Slovenian minority in Italy, which was established by the Italian Government, would soon resume its work.
The Italian Prime Minister labelled the talks as fruitful and useful, expressing the interest of Italy in the process of privatisation currently under way in Slovenia. He said he would endeavour to include Italian companies in this process. Prime Minister Bratušek gave the initiative for a joint session of the governments of both countries and invited her Italian counterpart to visit Slovenia, who accepted the invitation.
Within today's visit, Prime Minister Bratušek also met with the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano and paid a courtesy visit to Cardinal Franc Rode. As part of tomorrow's visit to the Holy See, Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek will meet with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and will have an audience with the new Pope, Francis.