Krizanic said that the main conclusion of the meeting in Brussels was that different incentives would be used to make sure that the financial sector responds in this way and not by curbing lending.

With the latter presently being the case in Slovenia, Krizanic said that the country's biggest bank, the state-owned NLB, should "show a slightly more dynamic approach when handling loans that are not being serviced regularly". He feels that NLB still has some "reserves" here compared to NKBM, the no. 2 bank.

The debate on the capital increase for European banks of systemic importance, agreed by EU leaders in principle at the end of October, was in the centre of today's meeting, Krizanic said.

The increase envisages an improvement by the end of June next year of the banks' Core Tier 1 capital ratio to above 9%, which would require an estimated EUR 106bn.

Commenting on the European Banking Authority's (EBA) estimate of a needed EUR 297m for NLB, Krizanic said that this figure was likely to change slightly with a new assessment that was under way.

Krizanic also touched on the debate about the introduction of a European tax on financial transactions, saying that the EU had not yet reached agreement on the September proposal of the European Commission, which could bring an estimated EUR 55bn annually into the EU budget.

Slovenia feels it only makes sense to introduce such a tax on the global level or at least across the entire EU. Krizanic believes that limiting it to the eurozone, which is being mentioned among the options, "would not be the best solution, since there is too much competition in the financial sector" in the immediate neighbourhood.

While Great Britain and Sweden remain the most outspoken opponents of such a tax, the decision today was to examine whether it is possible to introduce it only in Europe without risking too many negative side effects.

Kriznaic moreover commented on Monday's Euro Group debate on the expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), explaining that it was important for Slovenia that decisions regarding this were taken unanimously.

Slovenia is flexible as regards the possibility of boosting the euro stability mechanism with private sources, while it is sceptical about the option of using part of eurozone members' foreign currency reserves.

According to the minister, Slovenia is in favour of setting up of a permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), as soon as possible, while it is reserved about the possibility of a parallel functioning of the temporary and permanent mechanisms.