The State Secretary spoke about the process of preparing the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) Application Form for financial assistance, underlining that the damage assessment covers all aspects of the natural disaster, from the replacement of buildings, the rehabilitation of watercourses, the restoration of infrastructure, the protection and restoration of cultural heritage sites, and waste disposal and management. She also said that the Reconstruction and Development Act has been upgraded with an instrument that allows the government to assist individual areas or individual entities with highly targeted measures to promote further development in any affected region, including the Koroška region. This legal framework will serve as the basis for drafting concrete programmes in cooperation with the stakeholders at the regional level.

The debate then turned to the draft amendment of the Promotion of Balanced Regional Development Act, which the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development is preparing. In her introduction to the debate, the State Secretary stressed that the Ministry wanted to be ambitious in its amendments. “We have approached the drafting of the amendments to reduce the development gap in areas where we have not been successful enough with the incentives we have provided so far. We aim for decentralisation and strong and well-developed regions. Public discussions with various stakeholders across Slovenia are already underway and I would like to see these events lead to a debate that will bring a broad consensus on the amendments,” said State Secretary Katič about the proposed amendments. She went on to present concrete proposals for amending the Act. She concluded by underlining that regional development and regional projects should also be financed from the Slovenian budget and not only from the available EU funding.

In addition to the State Secretary, the opening speeches were also delivered by Robert Smrdelj, Mayor of the Municipality of Pivka, Boštjan Požar from the Regional Development Agency Zeleni kras, mag. Lenča Humerca Šolar from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, Matjaž Ribaš from the Slovenian Regional Development Fund and Agnès Monfret, Head of the REGIO.E.3 Unit at the European Commission (EC).

In light of austerity measures and the solidarity after the floods that hit Slovenia in August and affected many Slovenian areas, this year’s Regional Days are being held in a shorter one-day format. The Slovenian Regional Days are aimed at presenting the implementation of and recommendations for the implementation of regional policy in Slovenia, and at bringing together the views and ideas of the relevant ministry, government bodies, regional development agencies, municipalities, other regional actors, and academia. The Slovenian Regional Days have become a permanent feature for all those involved in regional development.

The event is organised by the Anton Melik Geographical Institute, the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU), the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, the Slovenian Regional Development Fund, and the Association of Regional Development Agencies GIZ RRA.