For the government, local administration is a crucial factor of development. Therefore, it will make an effort to improve the situation in this field and ensure the autonomy of local communities, PM Janez Jansa pledged as he addressed a meeting of Slovenian mayors in Postojna on Monday.
The constitution guarantees local communities autonomy, and so the state should not determine their functioning, said Jansa, and added that it is not up to the government to interfere with municipal budgets or mayors' salaries.
The role of local communities will be set anew with the introduction of provinces, which is one of the cabinet's key goals, Jansa stressed.
The government will try to reach this goal with constitutional changes, but if this proves impossible, it will try to establish them within the existing legislative framework by the end of its mandate, Jansa pledged.
Referring to the general situation in Slovenia and the planned economic and social reforms, Jansa said the cabinet had achieved a solid economic growth as well as lowered inflation, unemployment rate and public spending.
The prime minister sees the reforms as inevitable. Slovenia is a part of the European environment which would like to preserve the principle of sustainable development, the basis of which is economic development, Jansa continued.
Jansa later on presented the reforms to the mayors together with the head of the government's reform committee Joze P. Damijan and the national coordinator for the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy Janez Sustersic.
The prime minister is also accompanied in the town of Postojna by several ministers: Local Government and Regional Policy Minister Ivan Zagar, Public Administration Minister Gregor Virant and Labour Minister Janez Drobnic.
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