Slovenia will see the amount of funds available for promoting growth and jobs in the country cut by 9% under the latest proposal, said Mahkovec, the head of the office's managing authority, noting that this was not so bad compared to other countries.

According to the latest information, the multi-year financial framework should close this autumn, which would be favourable for Slovenia, because the 2014-2016 period would still be included in the calculations.

"The cohesion policy is primarily intended to help less developed countries and regions keep up with the rest as soon as possible and to reduce the economic, social and territorial differences that still exist in the EU or within individual countries, but we must't forget that the bloc is as strong as its weakest link," Mahkovec said.

Slovenia advocates a strong cohesion policy for the next financial framework, so it welcomes the European Commission's proposal to keep cohesion policy as a key developmental policy of the EU in the face of global challenges.

The country also argues for a flexible pace of the use of EU funds, where the quality of projects is given priority over the speed of their implementation.

The conference in Dubrovnik is the continuation of a ministerial meeting and talks that were held in Budapest in September 2018 and a meeting of the Friends of Cohesion group in Bratislava in November 2018, which was attended by Prime Minister Marjan Šarec.