Blockades are the main cause of concern here, Janša told the press. "The problem is not the potential, we have enough of that to get ourselves out of the crisis. Slovenia's problem is the blockades."

"There is no decision-maker in the EU who does not know that urgent crisis measures or long-term structural reforms can be blocked in Slovenia simply by collecting 2,500 signatures and launching referendum procedure," Janša said.

Unofficial sources say that Slovenia is not on the official agenda of the 4 December financial ministerial, however finance ministers will discuss the country's situation at an informal breakfast, during which current affairs are discussed.

The Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), the body that drafts the agenda for the financial ministerials, talked about Slovenia on Thursday. The meeting heard serious warnings that referenda might be Slovenia's ticket to international aid, according to unofficial sources.

Yesterday, the EFC discussed a report on Slovenia's economy that addressed several breaking points, according to unofficial sources: potential bank recapitalisations, the threat of exceeding the deficit level in 2013, uncertainty surrounding the bad bank law, as well as reforms of the pension system and labour market and changes to referendum legislation.

The unofficial sources moreover said that the EU had been drafting an aid programme for Slovenia in the past months in case the country's issue of US dollar bonds had failed.

The prime minister underlined that unless Slovenia managed to pass the fiscal measures and structural reforms it promised to implement, it might also lose EU cohesion funds.

EU leaders have discussed today macroeconomic conditions in negotiations on the 2014-2020 EU budget. This means that the EU could punish the member states which fail to meet their fiscal and reform goals by freezing their cohesion funds, said Janša.

The possibility that macroeconomic conditions remain in the final version of the budget must be taken seriously, the PM said.