Passage of the pension reform in Slovenia is in line with the recommendations the country received this year in the area of public finances and structural reforms, the Commission's PR office said.

Slovenia had been receiving calls from the EU to reform its pension system to enable its sustainability for years.

"Now the key point is the implementation," the Commission said, pointing to the possibility of a referendum as an obstacle for this.

The Commission would not comment on the contents of the reform act though, saying it was too early to provide a more detailed assessment.

The motion that was passed by the National Assembly yesterday was based on the government proposal which had been labelled by Brussels as "the first step in the right direction" but more than a hundred amendments were subsequently added to the proposal.