Prime Minister Janez Janša holds bilateral meetings in Strasbourg
Today in the European Parliament, Prime Minister Janez Janša presented the six-month program and priorities for the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2021. This traditional presentation of priorities takes place at the start of the Council Presidency of the European Union. The presentation took place during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, after which the Slovenian Prime Minister attended a press conference with European Parliament President David Sassoli and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
As the Prime Minister said at the press conference, Slovenia is presenting these priorities in the hope of seeing a return to normalcy in the next six months, to the pre-crisis era, and that some strategic priorities, or at least discussions about them, will be put back on the agenda. “Over the past year, we have worked together in the trio with the German and Portuguese presidencies on these priorities, in particular on recovery and resilience. There are still some steps to take, the national recovery and recovery plans resilience have yet to be approved by the Council, but the Commission has already done most of the work following the historic agreement reached last July on the European Next Generation instrument and the resources needed to accelerate the recovery”, said the Prime Minister . He went on to say that the positive economic growth forecasts for the euro zone and the EU are encouraging, “especially as Slovenia is at the top of the list in terms of these forecasts and low unemployment figures”.
On the sidelines of the plenary session of the European Parliament, the Slovenian Prime Minister also met the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, the leader of the group of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, and the leader of the Renew Europe group, Dacian Cioloş. Prime Minister Janša also met with Marco Zanni, Member of the European Parliament and Chairman of the Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament.
During the discussions, the Prime Minister notably mentioned the priorities of the Slovenian presidency.
In the evening, he received a prize from the French Jewish Community at the Strasbourg Synagogue in gratitude for his friendship with the Jewish community and Israel. On this occasion, a short ceremony also took place at the Strasbourg Synagogue where Prime Minister Janša addressed the participants.