Fourth consultation with representatives of Slovenian municipalities on flood recovery and Cohesion Policy projects

13. 2. 2025

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning organised the fourth consultation with the mayors and other representatives of Slovenian municipalities. The Minister of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, Novak, and the Minister of Cohesion and Regional Development, Dr Jevšek, along with their colleagues and representatives of the Government, presented information regarding flood recovery, the analysis of the municipalities’ needs, and EU funds absorption.

In his opening address, Jože Novak, Minister of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, emphasized: “It is in the interest of all of us that municipalities complete as many projects as possible this year and next.” Flood recovery must ensure resilience in the face of climate change. He stated that municipalities should prepare detailed estimates of the necessary and realistically feasible recovery projects, allowing budget resources to be allocated as efficiently as possible.

Municipalities received more than 218 million euros in advance payments for the urgent recovery of municipal infrastructure, and they are required to report on the use of the funds within 12 months. According to the requests made by the municipalities, almost 26 million euros was allocated to municipalities in 2024 and early 2025. To ensure that the procedures run as smoothly and quickly as possible, participants were informed about the most common errors and shortcomings in the claim preparation process.

Slovenia has received a total of 428.4 million euros in grants from the EU Solidarity Fund, exceeding the amount promised by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Slovenia in the days immediately following the floods. Slovenia has until June 2026 to spend the allocated funds, with several measures already underway or already implemented. Dr Aleksander Jevšek, Minister of Cohesion and Regional Development, presented the flood protection measures co-financed by the European Cohesion Policy for the period 2014-2020.

Under Cohesion Policy 2021-2027, 122.65 million euros is earmarked for flood safety measures in the areas of the Savinja River, which is identified as an operation of strategic importance, as well as in the areas of the Vipava, Drava, and Dravinja rivers. Funding for measures in the Vipava, Drava and Dravinja river basins has already been committed, and projects are already being implemented. For the flood protection measures in the Savinja River basin, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning is preparing the technical basis for allocating EU funds. It is expected that the funds will be allocated before the summer.

In the field of regional development, agreements on the development of regions are being finalised, with an intensive territorial dialogue already underway among representatives of the regions and the individual intermediary bodies of line ministries. Ms Mojca Kavčič, Director of the European Funds Office at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, presented the implementation of the Cohesion Policy programme. She explained that the call for proposals for the agreements on the development of regions for the programming period 2021-2027 makes 217 million euros available for wastewater discharge and treatment. To date, municipalities have submitted 41 applications, totalling 100 million euros. In the field of drinking water supply, 85 million euros is available, with municipalities submitting 30 applications totalling 96 million euros.

According to Kavčič, the majority of the proposals was submitted for Green Infrastructure projects, with 121 applications worth 100 million euros, compared to 39 million available in this area. The two key selection criteria for Green Infrastructure projects will most likely be the level of project readiness and the project’s impact on climate change. The Director of the European Funds Office noted that the state of readiness of projects is extremely low in all areas. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning’s priority is to launch an initiative for allocating funds in the areas of urban wastewater collection and treatment, as well as drinking water supply.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning has also prepared an analysis of the needs of municipalities for the construction of public water supply and sewerage systems. The activities in this area were presented by Dr Lidija Globevnik, Director-General of the Water Directorate. Representatives of municipalities have numerously presented the problems of those whose agglomerations have changed since the latest version of the regulation was adopted and now exceed the 2000 population units (PE) criterion. For these 17 projects, the number of PEs will be verified, and the list will be updated to accommodate the absorption of EU funding. For projects with agglomerations of between 1,000 and 2,000 PE, solutions will also need to be found.

When taking office, Minister Jože Novak committed to regular communication with municipalities – both on the management of watercourses after floods and on other topics covered by the ministry, including spatial planning, nature conservation, and the preparation of applications for EU funding for wastewater discharge and treatment. This was the fourth time the Minister had held a joint consultation with mayors and other representatives of municipalities in Ljubljana, following meetings in the spring and autumn last year, when they assessed the implementation of rehabilitation work on watercourses. He will repeat his field visits with a smaller team and representatives of the Slovenian Water Agency later this year.