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Finance Minister Uroš Čufer has said that it will be hard to avoid a combination of an increase in value added tax (VAT) and spending cuts. He unveiled his proposals to the coalition on Sunday, including a plan to increase the standard VAT rate to 24% from 22% and the reduced rate to 10% from 9.5%.

However, the next day the coalition Citizens' List (DL) announced it would not support a raise in VAT. Čufer met party officials separately on Wednesday, but it remains unclear what measures the government will resort to after the Constitutional Court annulled the real estate tax act last Friday.

Čufer made no comments as he came out of the meeting, while DL leader Gregor Virant said the party presented ideas of measures on the side of expenditure, including cuts in subsidies and checking whether state-owned companies in fact paid all their profit into the state budget.

Meanwhile the leader of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) Karl Erjavec says that while a VAT hike is not the only alternative, the party will not consent to any cuts affecting pensioners or public sector pay.

One of the items on the agenda of today's session is a draft partnership agreement between Slovenia and the European Commission for 2014-2020, which will serve as a basis for Slovenia to draw EU funds in the new budget period.