Božič said it was not realistic that an agreement could be reached before the European parliament elections in May as advocated by the EU Commission, the parliament and Germany.

But he hopes a deal will be in place before the autumn of 2019, because that will be when fresh data on member states' GDP will be available.

Given that Slovenia's GDP growth has been far outpacing the EU average, it risks losing a certain proportion of EU funds when the new data are available.

The General Affairs Council also discussed Article 7 procedures against Poland and Hungary due to break of European values, and rule of law in general.