NEWS
Prime Minister in her answers to parliamentary questions: "Families and children do not have a political party, but they have my commitment that I will act as their advocate in my role of the Prime Minister"
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, today, 9 July 2013, attended the 16th regular session of the National Assembly, at which she answered questions from the deputies under the first item of the agenda.
The questions from the area of family policy were posed by Jakob Presečnik from the Slovenian People's Party and Ljudmila Novak from the New Slovenia Party. In her answer, the Prime Minister emphasised that the laws in the area of family policy had been submitted for public discussion and said she wished that both the laws and the family policy strategy would be adopted with the maximum support. She went on to clarify the view that legislation in the area of parental protection must be based on the exercise and implementation of the rights of a child, and that it must cover the entire population and be focused on all families. In her answer to the second question, the Prime Minister reiterated that parental protection is above all the right of a child, adding that she believed in the importance of the father's role in caring for children, which is in fact encouraged by the proposed measures. She stressed that "families and children do not have a political party, but they have my commitment that I will act as their advocate in my role of the Prime Minister".
The last question by opposition parties was raised by Andrej Vizjak and referred to the implementation of the coalition parties' cooperation agreement. In her answer, the Prime Minister highlighted that when adopting the measures, the Government had to choose from among unfavourable ones, but was also convinced that the adopted measures were the least harmful, in particular for the economy. "The budget that we inherited was completely unrealistic. In terms of revenue, it was 400 million euros short, in terms of expenditure, 122 million euros were lacking for the payment of interest, and the pension budget deficit was 140 million euros. Due to your rash steps, we had to reimburse the annual leave pay for the last year, and this is the only reason why the salary bill for public sector has been increasing," stressed the Prime Minister.
A question relating to the measures aimed at promoting the employment of young people was raised by the leader of the Positive Slovenia Deputy Group, Jani Möderndorfer. The Prime Minister reiterated that young people were by all means one of the Government's priorities and that they were not part of the problem, but part of the solution. She went on to explain that in the next two years, the Eastern-Slovenian region would receive additional funds from the Youth Employment Initiative, but that the details on the absorption of these funds were still unclear. In order to improve the position of young people in the labour market, Slovenia will prepare a programme for the young by the autumn and the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities will provide for an effective integration of measures with a view to attaining better results in the labour market, explained the Prime Minister.