The Foreign Ministry, which spent more than EUR 20m on memberships fees last year, and the Defence Ministry, which spent EUR 10.91m, have by far the biggest responsibilities towards international organisations, data by the Government Communication Office show.

The two ministries are followed by the Economic Development and Technology Ministry and the Agriculture and Environment Ministry, which spend EUR 1.98m and EUR 1.17m on membership fees last year.

The Foreign Ministry is involved in 21 international organisations and spends the most on the UN and its peace-keeping organisations. EUR 2.14m was contributed to the UN budget, while the sum for peace operations stands at around EUR 6m. The second biggest fee, EUR 2.73m, is for OECD membership.

The Foreign Ministry said that it was meeting the bulk of its fee obligations regularly, while the bigger debts include the OECD membership fee and EUR 12.m in bills for UN peace-keeping operations.

In face of a recent substantial cut in the ministry's budget - by EUR 23.29m to EUR 62.30m - the parliamentary foreign policy and EU affairs committees have recently proposed transferring the ministry's membership fee responsibilities to the Finance Ministry, which FM Karl Erjavec agreed with.

The Defence Ministry meanwhile contributed around EUR 4.4m for three budgets of NATO - the civil and military as well as to the programme of security investments - as well as an additional EUR 6.3m for specific NATO projects.

The Finance Ministry is also cooperating with a number of international institutions and organisations, such as the IMF, the World Bank Group, the EIB, EBRD etc. However, since Slovenia is involved in these institutions as a shareholder, meaning with capital, it is not paying membership fees.

The Government Communication Office said that Slovenia did not leave any international organisations last year because of austerity measures. In 2012 it left the Bruegel economic think tank and the SE European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC), saving a total of EUR 80,000 a year.