Tadej Slapnik, state secretary at the office of the prime minister, said there were many such initiatives, with employees asking for assistance in obtaining guarantees for buyouts.

One such company is aircraft maintenance firm Adria Airways Tehnika, a majority state-owned firm slated for privatisation.

About 180 employees have opted for a buyout and collected half a million euros, now they are looking to secure guarantees to pay the full price, estimated to be EUR 3.2m, according to Slapnik.

The legislation would deal with cases where employees are willing to invest own funds but are discriminated against by banks, he said.

The bill is to be ready by the summer and will enter parliamentary procedure after the summer recess, according to Slapnik.

For employee initiatives that are already at an advanced stage, the government wants to find stop-gap measures, including tweaks to insolvency legislation that would give employees a pre-emptive right to purchase the bankruptcy estate.

The official made the comments at a conference on the development of social enterprises and cooperatives that also featured Secretary General of the European Confederation of Labour Cooperatives Bruno Roelants.

Roelants is paying a multi-day visit to Slovenia and is meeting senior government officials and employee organisations to promote cooperatives and social enterprises.

He noted that Slovenia had a long history of cooperatives, which should help in development of the sector.