The cabinet made a number of appointments, including of the new government secretary general, and got acquainted with damage estimates following the recent floods in the country.

Darko Krašovec, judge at the Ljubljana Labour and Social Court, has become the government secretary general and Janez Lenarčič was appointed a state secretary in the office of the prime minister.

The General Secretariat of the Government is in charge of organisational, administrative and technical tasks involved in the government's operations, such as executing government sessions and cooperating with other state institutions.

Several more state secretaries were appointed, including Janko Burgar for the Economic Development and Technology Ministry, Klemen Grebenšek for the Infrastructure Ministry and Jure Leben for the Environment and Spatial Planning Ministry.

Tanja Strniša is staying on as state secretary at the Agriculture, Forestry and Food Ministry, Nina Pirnat at the Health ministry and Mateja Vraničar at the FINANCE Ministry. Vraničar will be joined by Irena Sodin in October.

Moreover, Miloš Bizjak was appointed state secretary at the Defence Ministry, Bogdan Benko is staying at the Foreign Ministry, and Martina Vuk and Dejan Levanič were appointed secretaries at the Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Ministry.

Also, Stanko Baluh was named the acting director of the Government Office for Nationalities. He was the director before the office was incorporated into the Interior Ministry in early 2013.

It later became part of the office of the PM and then made independent again in July 2013. Baluh is succeeding Tamara Vonta, who came from the office of former PM Alenka Bratušek.

The government moreover relieved Gregor Krajc of his duties as the national coordinator for the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, national coordinator for the Western Balkans and the head of the coordination committee for the Western Balkans. Media reports suggest Krajc will become Cerar's chief-of-staff.

Meanwhile, the cabinet also learned that the first estimates put the damage caused by the floods and landslides in the past week at above EUR 2.5m.

This is the threshold for state aid, while help from the EU can be requested if the damage exceeds 0.6% of gross national income or in Slovenia's case around EUR 210m.

Before the government session Bratušek, who led the country since March 2013, officially handed the office over to the new prime minister, stressing she was leaving the country to Cerar in a much better shape than it was when she took over.

Despite the late hours, the handover was also executed at the Defence Ministry, where Roman Jakič told his successor Janko Veber that he was taking over a department that is in good shape.

Veber, who was parliament speaker between February 2013 and August 2014, promised transparency and announced the ministry would immediately focus on relief efforts following the floods.

The new minister added that the ministry also has responsibilities outside Slovenia's borders and he was convinced that they would continue to be successfully met also in the future.

Most of the handovers at the other ministries will be completed during the day today.