Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip met Slovenian Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk on Monday for talks that focused on Slovenia's experience with the euro and also broached Slovenia's plans for the EU presidency in the first half of 2008.
In the meeting, held on the first day of a two-day visit by Ansip to Slovenia, Bajuk explained that Slovenia decided to speedily adopt the euro because it assessed the advantages associated with the single currency outweighed the costs, the Finance Ministry said in its press release.
Bajuk pointed out that Slovenia is a small and open economy, which is heavily reliant on trade with the EU (up to 60% of all trade is done with the EU). He said Slovenia's switch to the euro was quick and problem-free, while its impact on inflation was assessed at 0.3 percentage points through March.
Slovenia's upcoming stint as EU president was also a topic of the talks held by Bajuk and Ansip. The Slovenian minister stressed that the Slovenian presidency programme is based on the 18-month plan drawn up by the EU presiding trio of Germany, Portugal and Slovenia. The priorities in finance include stable macroeconomic policy, shoring up of public finances and improvements in the common market.
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