Almunia told Stepišnik that the European Commission would try to finalise the inquiry into the compliance of state aid to the subsidiary of French car maker Renault, which was launched last week, as soon as possible.

The minister meanwhile wishes that the European Commission finalise its inquiry by the end of the year.

The Economy Ministry and Revoz have expressed concern over the decision, claiming that it threatens to undermine production of new city cars in Revoz's plant in Novo mesto.

As part of the Edison project, Revoz plans to produce the latest generation of the Twingo and Smart's four-seater in Slovenia in conjunction with German car maker Daimler.

When the original plan was unveiled in 2011, production was set to begin in 2013 and output was to reach 194,000 vehicles by 2014.

The Commission decided for the probe to verify whether the positive effects of the project for regional development outweigh the distortions of competition.

According to Stepišnik, Slovenia was surprised with the Commission launching the inquiry before his visit to Brussels, which was announced three weeks in advance and wose intention was explaining the state aid to Revoz.

The minister justified the aid with the arguments that Revoz is substituting a part of its production with a new, green vehicle, that the project will create 162 jobs, that Revoz is the only car maker in the country and that around 20,000 jobs in Slovenia depend on the car industry.

Stepišnik explained that the Slovenian economy is undercapitalised and that good-standing companies need fresh capital and even state aid and assessed that still much has to be done to secure appropriate capital structure of these companies.

An analysis of 3,500 companies representing 75% of the Slovenian economy has shown that at least 30% good-standing, competitive and export-oriented companies are undercapitalised, the minister backed up his claims with statistics.

According to him, Almunia agreed that each side will speed up its part of the process - Slovenia will hurry up with answers demanded by the Commission, which in turn will finalise its analysis as soon as possible.

Almunia agreed that the economic situation in Slovenia is "tense", and said that the Commission "will make an effort that a solution is find as soon as possible", the minister said, noting that the Commission is dealing with eight similar cases.

Stepišnik also noted that Slovenia is facing the problem of capital inadequacy, and that the rate of self-financing in good-standing companies is at 15-20%, which is insufficient.

In 2012 the Slovenian banking system took EUR 2.5bn from the business sector because banks had to return loans taken abroad, the minister explained.

He believes that the share of foreign direct investments in Slovenia is too low. "All analyses suggest that this share is far too low, we want three to four times more."