The Slovenia Times

Finance Minister: Bailout Operation was "Clean"

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Deputy Prime Minister Boris Koprivnikar, who led today's session in place of PM Miro Cerar, who is away in Brussels, said Jazbec is to present the procedures and reasons for the decisions made in the bailout.

"However, at first glance there are no indications of irregularities, also because this was in fact monitored by the European Commission as well and went through a serious of check," Koprivnikar, who is the minister for public administration, told the press.

Banka Slovenije is part of the European Central Bank and the government cannot interfere directly in its decisions, Koprivnikar moreover said after being asked about the responsibility of the government.

The government's debate came after Slovenia was stirred in recent days by allegations of irregularities at Banka Slovenije in the a bailout of Slovenia's largest banks in late 2013.

The gist of the allegations is that the negative equity of the banks had been overrated in order to allow for the bail-in of junior bond holders so as get the European Commission's approval for a EUR 3bn bailout of Slovenia's largest banks in late 2013, and the subsequent recapitalisation of Banka Celje.

Jazbec however rejected the accusations that documents had be doctored and data manipulated.

The media reports on the matter also made waves in parliament and the parliamentary Commission for Oversight of Public Finances will hold a special session on Friday. Moreover, the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) said it would start collecting signatures for an emergency plenary session of parliament.

The matter was moreover commented after today's cabinet session by the heads of two junior coalition parties, Karl Erjavec of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and Dejan Židan of the SocDems.

While none of them see any reason to doubt the leadership of the central bank, they are waiting for additional explanations.

Erjavec moreover agrees with the view that the sale of NBKM, the no. 2 bank, be suspended until all allegations are cleared up, although the government rejected this possibility on Wednesday and the sale is part of explicit commitments made to the European Commission.

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