Ljubljana - The Western Slovenia cohesion region, comprising Central Slovenia, Gorenjska, Goriška and Obalno-Kraška regions, finds the draft partner agreement and programme for the implementation of the EU cohesion policy in 2021-2027 unacceptable. "The two documents are neither just nor fair nor solidarity-based," the region's development council said.

The council believes access to territorial funds should be secured for all municipalities, including city municipalities. "Is it really necessary to salvage one part of the country at the expense of halting development of the part of the country that shows development," the councillors wondered.

They stressed that there was serious concern that it would not be possible to carry out many projects.

The council said in today's press release that many questions also remained open related to the significantly lower amount of EU funds than would be necessary for the most urgent development needs of the region.

"The share of co-funding the projects dropped to 40%, which is down by half compared to the last perspective," the council said, adding that there was also still a lot of ambiguity regarding the government's promise that the difference would be covered from the state budget.

The development council would like the financial ratio of funding from the European Fund for Regional Development and the European Social Fund and the budget between the western and eastern cohesion regions to be 40:60 and that 85% of the co-funding were grants, just like in the eastern cohesion region.

The council also reviewed at its session on Thursday the implementation of the 2014-2020 projects, which are running smoothly, with some of them in their final stages. In total, more than EUR 147 million in grants has been secured for these projects.