The Government is expected to adopt legislative proposals to mitigate the energy cost burden for businesses as early as next week. “Today, we presented three sets of measures to businesspeople. First of all, the setting of reference prices for gas and electricity, which are a problem throughout Europe, then the state aid scheme to address the high electricity and gas prices, based on an EU regulation, and we also touched on short-time work and temporary lay-off schemes" the Prime Minister said after the meeting at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Through the state aid scheme, the Government will subsidise the market price for up to 70% of consumption in 2021.

Among other things, the Prime Minister expressed his satisfaction following yesterday's visit of the IMF delegation to Slovenia, and the positive estimates from abroad regarding the economic indicators and the country's efforts to tackle inflation and the energy crisis. "The IMF has set us an example of how to deal with these issues, and we need to make sure that we keep up with positive trends in the years ahead," he added.

The Prime Minister assured the business community that some of the comments and proposals would still be aligned with the European Commission due to the specificities of Slovenia. He thanked the crisis management team for their cooperation in formulating solutions that are also important from the perspective of ensuring the international competitiveness of the Slovenian economy in the longer term.

The crisis management team, which includes representatives of both the Government and businesses, was set up after the September Business Summit at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The task of the team is to develop comprehensive and well thought-out measures to sustain economic activity.