Slovenia yet to appoint Fiscal Council
The Fiscal Council is envisaged by the law implementing the balanced budget rule, which the National Assembly passed with a two-thirds majority in July 2015 after the fiscal rule was enshrined in the Constitution in May 2013.
The three-member council was supposed to have been in place in 2015, but at the end of 2016 it is still far from being operational, with the ruling coalition and opposition blaming each other for the delay.
Since candidates need to be backed by two-thirds of MPs, the coalition needs opposition votes. The opposition, however, wants more say in the selection of the candidates.
But after three failed calls for applications, the list of possible candidates is getting shorter.
"There is virtually no more room for making silly demands as to how the Fiscal Council will be comprised: with names from the opposition, left, right,..," Jani Möderndorfer of the ruling Modern Centre Party (SMC) said at the parliamentary session dedicated to the national budget in November.
Finance Minister Mateja Vraničar Erman said that she was looking for solutions, and her ministry later told the STA that the government would look for candidates with another call for applications.
The first attempt at finding the candidates in August 2015 failed, so the government repeated the call and in February picked former central bank official Damjan Kozamernik, and two economics professors, former ministers Marjan Senjur and Davorin Kračun, as the three most suitable candidates.
However, none of them managed to muster the necessary support in parliament in March, so the government published another call for applications, but was unable to pick three suitable candidates out of the four that applied until the 30 June deadline.
Calls for setting up a body overseeing the implementation of the fiscal commitments have also come from Brussels, as its establishment is required by EU rules and almost all EU countries have such institutions.
In May, European Commissioner for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis and Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici called on Slovenia to commit to setting up the Fiscal Council and present an action plan.
According to the fiscal rule act, the Fiscal Council will assess the compliance of fiscal policy with the fiscal rule and EU regulations, monitor the implementation of the national budget as well local, pension and health budgets.
The council will also assess whether circumstances have arisen that warrant a deviation from the objective of having the budget balanced over the medium term.
Slovenia has already had a fiscal council, though it had a consultative rather than an oversight role, and there was no legislation legitimating its power. Set up in 2009, the seven-member council was chaired by economist and former minister Marjan Senjur.
It disbanded in 2012 after the majority of its members resigned quoting lack of government support and in-fighting.