The Slovenia Times

PM to Brussels: Slovenia Will Not Adopt Additional Austerity Measures

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The government did everything it could for this half of the year with the supplementary budget and the Stability Programme, Bratušek said, adding that she believed this would be convincing enough to Brussels.

Finance Minister Uroš Čufer said after a European Commission-initiated debate on Slovenia at an Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Monday that Slovenia was urged to step up efforts to reduce its public finance deficit.

Bratušek told the press in Ljubljana that she was not acquainted with all the details, and that the finance minister presented to her the common thread of the remarks from the meeting.

The PM noted that the measures envisaged in the supplementary budget and supported by the Stability Programme will be in force for the entire 2014, when their financial effect will be greater.

The government will now convince Brussels that this is the maximum possible effort, according to Bratušek. Even if the government adopted extra measures in September or October, their financial effect would be insignificant, she added.

Batušek believes that Monday's debate on Slovenia at the Eurogroup is nothing unusual, as this had already been discussed in Brussels, and that banks are "the number one topic" both in Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe.

She was referring to the other point stressed at the meeting - that quality is more important than speed in the transfer of toxic assets to the Bank Asset Management Company, the bad bank.

The PM said that she agreed in a way with the European Commission in the opinion that the transfer of non-performing assets to the bad bank should be postponed until the figures and transfers are better analysed.

According to Bratušek, the Bank Asset Management Company is ready and it could have received first toxic assets at the end of June, as it was announced. It is now waiting for assessments and analyses of the European Commission.

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