NEWS
Prime Minister answers parliamentary questions
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, today attended the 18th regular session of the National Assembly, at which she answered questions from deputies under the first item of the agenda. Romana Tomc, Deputy from the Slovenian Democratic Party, asked the first question concerning the equal and fair treatment of citizens. In her answer, Prime Minister Bratušek emphasised that the National Assembly will discuss amendments to two acts concerning social assistance, namely the Exercise of Rights to Public Funds Act and the Social Assistance Benefits Act, which will rectify certain deficiencies discovered during the application of the acts. "With regard to social assistance in cash, we are introducing an increase in child benefit for single parent families. Furthermore, only a part of child benefit, i.e. the part paid from public funds, will be considered in determining eligibility for other rights under the act. We are also introducing a change with regard to adults and older recipients of social transfers who are permanently unemployable, permanently incapable of work or unemployed, or older than 63 (women) or 65 (men), according to which monetary assets up to 2,500 euros for single persons and up to 3,500 euros for families will not be taken into account in the assessment of assets. The amount of child benefit for minor students not entitled to state scholarship will remain the same. This applies to the sixth income bracket. There are many other such measures, which will improve the social status of the most vulnerable groups, however, we will not adopt unconstitutional measures," stressed Prime Minister Bratušek.
In her answer to the second question raised by Jakob Presečnik, Deputy from the Slovenian People's Party, which concerned the vision for air transport, Prime Minister Bratušek explained that our goal should be to increase the number of passengers at Slovenia's main airport and, even more importantly, to increase the number of destinations from the airport. She added that the state is looking for a strategic partner to ensure the development of the company in this direction.
Matej Tonin, Deputy from the New Slovenia, raised a question concerning the implementation of the Forfeiture of Assets of Illicit Origin Act. Prime Minister Bratušek clarified that, as the Prime Minister, she has no powers to influence the procedures conducted by Slovenian courts in relation to the forfeiture of assets of illicit origin. She explained that the line ministry does not even have the power to collect statistical data on the procedures. However, the Government is drawing up an amendment of the aforementioned act based on the comments received from authorities that are responsible for the implementation of the act and have encountered any potential deficiencies in practice.
At the end, the Prime Minister answered the question of Katarina Hočevar, Deputy from the Civic List, concerning the drawing up of the act governing the implementation of the Fiscal Rule Act. Prime Minister Bratušek explained that the draft act has already been drawn up at the expert level and that the first calculations for the required fiscal consolidation have also been made. Therefore, we can expect the political discussion on the draft act to start soon. As she has already explained several times, the amendment of the implementation act also needs a two-thirds majority. However, she is convinced that political parties will be successful in reaching an agreement on this issue.