Ljubljana - The government ratified on Thursday the EU's "own resources decision", the legal basis to allow drawing post-Covid recovery funds. In 2021-2027, Slovenia should be able to draw EUR 5.2 billion.

The EU's EUR 1.8 trillion recovery fund consists of the 2021-2027 budget worth EUR 1.074 trillion and of the Next Generation EU recovery plan worth EUR 750 billion.

The main instrument of Next Generation EU, which consists of grants and loans, is an almost EUR 673 billion recovery and resilience facility.

To draw these funds, EU members must ratify the own resources decision, as the European Commission will borrow on financial markets on behalf of member states to finance grants.

While grants will not have to be returned by individual member states, they will have to be repaid at the EU level.

The ambition is to repay the borrowed money with an introduction of "own resources", that is new European taxes to fill the common budget.

Senior EU officials have been urging member states to promptly ratify the legal basis for the financing and prepare national plans for the phasing of recovery funds.

The goal is for member states to start receiving the first transfers before the end of June.

Slovenia's draft national recovery and resilience plan to draw the EUR 5.2 billion - EUR 1.6 billion in grants and up to EUR 3.6 billion in loans - is being finalised.

The government is expected to adopt it after the legal basis is adopted at EU level, which should happen in February.

Until then, the document remains labelled "internal", which bothers part of the opposition parties, which have urged the government to make it public.

The document will be debated by the parliamentary EU Affairs Committee behind closed doors tomorrow.

It is, however, already known that the loans coming from the recovery instrument would be treated as public debt, first at the EU level and then at national levels.