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The prime minister's office said ahead of the trip that talks with Merkel would revolve around "topical issues faced by the EU and the international community", especially youth unemployment. They are also to talk about improving bilateral relations.

Apart from the meeting wit the chancellor in the afternoon, Bratušek will attend a business forum of Slovenian and German start-ups and hold a meeting with the members of Slovenian community in Berlin.

Being the strongest EU economy, Germany plays the key role in the bloc's efforts to overcome the debt crisis. Merkel, who is facing an election in September, insists that additional borrowing is not the solution for over-indebted countries.

Berlin insists that countries which are in trouble must do their homework - strict austerity and structural reforms - to improve productivity and regain their competitive edge.

Merkel is also strongly against the possibility to transfer the national debt onto the EU level, a position German voters support.

Any major shocks in the eurozone before the 22 September election could cause doubts over the way the EU is trying to tackle the crisis and jeopardise Merkel's advantage in the election.

Slovenia has been cause for concern among eurozone members and there had been speculations earlier this year that it would be the next country to request aid from the European Stability Mechanism.

Only two days ago, Slovenia was also added to the agenda of the eurozone financial ministerial. Finance Minister Uroš Čufer was urged to start tackling effectively the excessive public debt by October and heard that the quality of the planned bad bank was much more important than speed.

Brussels believes Slovenia should introduce additional measures to reduce the deficit. Bratušek said however that the government was not planning any measures additional to what is already included in the supplementary budget.

She said that the supplementary budget and the stability programme was the most the government could do and she believes this will also be recognised by Brussels.

The government measures are three-pronged: consolidation of public finance, bank restructuring, and privatisation, with all three likely to be on the agenda of Bratušek's meeting with Merkel.

Germany is undoubtedly interested in Slovenian companies slated for privatisation. German telco Deutsche Telekom and its subsidiaries have frequently been mentioned as potential buyers for Slovenia's telco Telekom Slovenije.

Around 20% of Slovenia's trade is generated with Germany, which is also one of the biggest investors here. More than 550 companies with German capital employ over 46,000 people in Slovenia, creating around 20% of revenue in the manufacturing sector.

According to the Slovenian-German Chamber of Commerce, German investments in Slovenia amount to 1.4bn.