Since recently, the European bank for Reconstruction and Development has been supporting green energy projects and it also wants to support a transition to green energy and green economy in Slovenia, Cvikl told the newspaper in the interview published on Saturday.

He said that the scope of possible projects was broad, but that it depended on each case which concrete projects the bank would co-finance.

One example is projects in tourism; "if private investors, Slovenian Sovereign Holding or other co-owners want us as an investment co-funder".

"Ljubljana is becoming a green city, while other towns still have much to do," Cvikl said, when talking about the transition to a green economy.

However, he also said that Ljubljana needed to put in place sustainable transport and renovate rail transport, including the central train station, which is more than 150 years old.

"Among energy projects I'd like to mention the middle course of the river Sava and green energy, also by means of modern solar plants, and renovation of street lighting. All these are the potential projects that the EBRD can enter."

The EBRD, which eight years ago contributed EUR 100m for the construction of generator 6 at the Šoštanj coal-fired power station (TEŠ), no longer supports coal in the energy sector, Cvikl said.

"This has changed and is now the bank's new policy, which is why a while ago I said that Slovenia could probably no longer get financial sources for TEŠ6 from the EBRD, but it did then," he said.

Listing some of the projects co-financed by the bank since Slovenia became an EBRD member in December 1992, Cvikl noted loans to the SKB bank, road and railway reconstruction projects, hydro power plants, and in 1994 a capital investment in SKB and a capital investment in the paper mill Papirnica Količevo.

The first year the EBRD approved almost EUR 160m for nine projects, and until February 2019 a combined net of over EUR 1bn in 85 projects. "Today, there's a little over 300 million euro in 32 active projects, more than half in capital investments and almost 80 percent in the private sector.".