In the nine-year financial perspective, over 5,000 projects were financed and 45,000 jobs created.

"I am happy to report that we have done great deal in Slovenia this past year," the minister told the press in Ljubljana today, adding that there "is no municipality in the country that would not get EU funds for at least one project."

"We have managed to speed up the phasing to the extent that 22% of the entire cohesion policy, which took nine years, was completed in a year," she said.

The minister also said that the percentage of funds the state was reimbursed for by the EU rose from 64% to 83%.

A year ago Slovenia's drawing of EU funds put it on the 19th place among EU members, while now it ranks ninth, Smerkolj stressed.

This gives the minister hope that the drawing of funds from the previous EU budget period would be 100% completed by the end of the year.

Funds from the 2014-2020 perspective will be available until 2023, but the minister will strive for the phasing to be completed two years before the deadline so that preparations for the next perspective could start as soon as possible.

Smerkolj said the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy had also been successful in promoting cross-border projects and other financial mechanisms, noting that the European Commission recently confirmed two cross-border cooperation programmes - with Austria and Hungary, while one with Croatia is to be confirmed in the near future.

She also lauded Slovenia's smart specialisation strategy, which would enable smart use of available EU funding in the future.