Bratušek told the press after the government session that the original budget was unrealistic and that the deficit reached EUR 1.1bn at the end of May, which is EUR 130m more than planned for the entire 2013.

The supplementary budget for 2013 envisaging overall savings of EUR 25m on the EUR 9.6bn expenditure planned for this year in the original document. The motion mostly redistributes funds among the departments.

Budget deficit is now planned to stand at 4.4% GDP, which is 1.6 percentage points more than originally planned. This is on par with the deficit envisaged in the Stability Programme, Finance Ministry State Secretary Mateja Vraničar said.

According to Bratušek, revenues are decreasing strongly, although the government took into account the VAT increase planned for 1 July. No additional measures are envisaged in the supplementary budget, she added.

The government had to make several adjustments, primarily for the payment of interest and pensions. An additional EUR 145m for pensions has to be secured with the supplementary budget, the PM said.

Reactions from ministers arriving at today's session indicated that the plan was acceptable for the individual departments. According to a government tweet, the document was passed unanimously today.

Agriculture Minister Dejan Židan said that while his ministry will see a funding cut, he expects that projects funded from the Cohesion Fund will increase.

"We expect to see EUR 200m in new contracts signed in the coming two months," he said in response to fears that the amended budget was overly cutting into investments.

Židan said that most of the savings at his ministry would be achieved on account of material costs, while the "functioning of Slovenian agriculture should continue unabated".

Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec, who had previously complained that his ministry was on the verge of being paralysed by spending cuts, indicated on Thursday that the ministry had found some extra funding in talks with the Finance Ministry.

The proposed supplementary budget will allow the Foreign Ministry to ride out the year, although the payment of some membership fees for international organisations will have to be deferred to the end of the year or even to next year, Erjavec said.

Erjavec also announced that the amended spending plan did not envisage a cut in pensions. "This debate will likely be raised again once we get down to drafting the budget for 2014, although the position of DeSUS in this respect is clear: we cannot accept a cut in pensions."

Justice Minister Senko Pličanič meanwhile said that his ministry would see some smaller investments cut because of savings, although the main investments, including a new headquarters for the courts, would be completed as planned.

In a similar vein, Health Minister Tomaž Gantar said that his ministry would push ahead with key projects, while deferring some smaller ones.