Prime Minister Janez Janša presented some achievements of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU in Brussels.
He first of all thanked the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, for their extremely fruitful cooperation. He welcomed the cooperation between all European institutions and also thanked the Portuguese and German governments with which Slovenia formed the trio over the past year and a half.
“Among the Presidency’s most important priorities were resilience and recovery. Important progress has been made in this area (…),The November Council conclusions have laid a solid foundation for future work on building the resilience of the EU, (…), the Council conclusions on an emergency plan to ensure food supply and security in times of crisis were adopted in December 2021 (…), Negotiations with the European Parliament on the functioning of the European Medicines Agency have been completed and we have obtained the extension of the mandate of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control”,
“Another priority was to build cyber resilience (…), I am glad that we have reached an agreement between States members concerning the revision of the directive laying down measures for the common security of networks and information systems”.
“In the meantime, the Commission has approved pre-finance payments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility for 17 Member States, representing 13% of allocated grants, for a total of almost € 53 billion. We expect that the approval of the last five national stimulus plans will be finalized shortly, ”Prime Minister Janez Janša notified.
With regard to green and digital transformation, an agreement has been reached between Member States on legislation on services and on digital markets. “These are two important steps in building our digital future,” said the Prime Minister, who also welcomed the agreement reached with the European Parliament to continue mobile roaming at no additional cost.”
“We have also harmonized the EU common position for the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, (…) further efforts will be required, but significant progress has been made. We have also concluded a framework agreement on the revision of the regulation on trans-European energy networks which will in particular support European climate objectives”, said Prime Minister Janez Janša.
During the Slovenian Presidency, the Conference on the Future of Europe was also held. “In my opinion, it is important to stress that we have also included in the strategic discussions representatives of the leaders of the countries which are in Europe without being in the European Union – the countries of the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership, which participated at the Bled Strategic Forum. Their contribution to the debate has been significant”, declared the Prime Minister.
Regarding the rule of law and the European way of life, a second annual rule of law dialogue was held in the next five Member States on the list, and agreement was reached on the essential characteristics of a European sports model based on European values.
“In the context of EU security and the situation in its neighborhood, we have reached agreement on a unified approach to the looming wave of migrants following the withdrawal from Afghanistan. (…) This was also the case when we were faced with the threat of a hybrid attack from the Belarusian regime, which exploited illegal migrants and their plight to put pressure on Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and the eastern borders of the ‘EU. Member States reacted in time, then the EU as a whole helped, (…) said Prime Minister Janez Janša.
-We continued work on the pact on migration and asylum. “There has been no major breakthrough on this issue. It is particularly important to reach an agreement on the EURODAC regulation, which strengthens our Schengen border and our common security. However, there are many issues linked to this settlement, which is why it will be one of the most difficult issues for the next Presidency to resolve” the Prime Minister announced.
“We are pleased that the Council has concluded that Croatia fulfills the necessary conditions for the application of all parts of the Schengen acquis, which is the first formal step towards the Council’s final decision on the enlargement of the ‘Schengen area.”
The Prime Minister considered it important to devote sufficient time to examine the current situation related to Covid-19. “We are all faced with this situation, and these are key messages related to the importance of vaccination, of the booster dose to face the new variant Omicron which is spreading rapidly. It is also important that we work together to tackle false information and disinformation, which is fueling, especially in our part of Europe, an anti-vaccination sentiment that currently represents a major health security risk. (…) declared the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Janša also underlined the importance of unity, expressed in support for democratic forces in Belarus, for political prisoners, and in the joint condemnation of the drastic sentences handed down by the regime “I personally believe that these sanctions are an expression of the weakness of the regime and that it is coming to an end,” said the Prime Minister. EU leaders also took a deep dive into the situation on the Russian-Ukrainian border and made their views and warnings clear.
“I think we’ve accomplished a lot, but certainly not all. Much of the work started is now in the hands of the French presidency, (…)” said the Prime Minister,
