The current proposal put forward by European Council President Herman van Rompuy leaves Slovenia losing as much as 40% of cohesion funds, which is unacceptable for the country.
Slovenia received EUR 4.3bn for cohesion policies in the 2007-2013 period. Under Van Rompuy's proposal, this amount would fall by EUR 1.7bn to about EUR 2.6bn in the next seven-year period.
"Slovenia would be dealt a severe blow with these cuts," Foreign Ministry State Secretary Igor Senčar said in Brussels on Tuesday. While admitting that cuts have to be made in the budget as a whole due to the current economic situation, Senčar said the proposal cut too deeply into cohesion.
"We all want to reach a compromise this week, but not any kind of compromise. Slovenia will be among those seeking to improve the situation, in particular that we maintain a position of a net receiver country," Senčar said.
Slovenia's compromise threshold, according to Senčar, is that it stays a net receiver and secures favourable treatment in the areas of cohesion and rural development comparable to treatments received by more developed new members and less developed old members.
Janša stressed after a meeting of the Friends of Cohesion Policy in Brussels last week that about a half of EU members take cohesion funds too seriously to be willing to make rushed concessions to reach an agreement.
Source: Sloveniatimes
