143rd regular session of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia

27. 2. 2025

Government of the Republic of Slovenia

At today's session, the Government adopted a draft amendment to the Confiscation of Assets of Illicit Origin Act, the Decree on the compulsory health insurance service programmes, the capacities required for their implementation and the amount of funding for 2025. It also adopted measures to speed up the absorption of EU funds.

The amendment to the Confiscation of Assets of Illicit Origin Act (ZOPNI) will improve the effectiveness of financial investigations (by strengthening the role of the Specialised State Prosecutor's Office in financial investigations) and the procedure for the confiscation of assets of illicit origin (by abolishing the exclusive jurisdiction of the Ljubljana District Court, shortening the time limit for filing a lawsuit, broadening the possibility of taking legal action to confiscate property corresponding to the value of the property of illicit origin or to receive a sum of money corresponding to that value), and will introduce a better defined regulation of relationships in tax procedures involving immovable property that is the subject of a lawsuit.

The Decree on compulsory health service programmes, the capacities required for their implementation and the amount of funding determines on an annual basis the expansion of programmes in certain areas, defines the method of financing these programmes, and covers the obligations of health care providers and the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia in relation to the provision of services covered by compulsory health insurance. The key amendments to the Decree on compulsory health service programmes, the capacities required for their implementation and the amount of funding for 2025 (Decree for 2025) include:

Additional funding for tertiary level II: the University Medical Centres in Ljubljana and Maribor will receive additional funds for services at tertiary level II in the context of treatment complexity and continuous availability. The degree of complexity in the University Medical Centres also includes the most complex hospital treatments, with patients being transferred to these centres due to the complexity of their medical treatment. Continuous availability means that healthcare services are provided 24/7 to patients with most severe conditions. Additional funding for tertiary level II amounts to 31.6 million euro.
Payment of up to 20% of the overrun of the agreed programme for adult dentistry and dental prosthetics (0.2 million euro).
Providers of community health nursing may receive up to 120% of the contract value for the programme overrun under the condition that 5% of preventive services were provided (additional 3.7 million euro).
Palliative care for children and adults is also being upgraded – the content of medical treatments was defined and the composition of teams adjusted.
An allowance totalling 2.5 million euro was set for working directly with people with mental, physical or sensory disabilities and with people with dementia who require increased supervision.
With respect to the programmes to be paid on the basis of outturn, the Decree for 2025 also encompasses a screening programme for newborns for spinal muscular atrophy, severe congenital immune deficiencies, cystic fibrosis and congenital adrenal hyperplasia in paediatrics and neonatal TSH.
An additional 1.4 million euro is provided for vaccines against measles, rubella, mumps and chickenpox, mpox (monkeypox) and tick-borne encephalitis, and a further 0.5 million euro for the health checks of registered athletes.
An additional 0.8 million euro is earmarked for more complex treatments in health resorts.
The Decree for 2025 also provides additional funding for the referral to the pharmaceutical counselling programme. This programme targets not only patients taking multiple medicines or experiencing medication-related issues, but also insured persons with treatment resistant conditions or insured persons not responding well to treatment starting medications with potentially dangerous interaction. The funding totals 0.9 million euro.
A total of 0.12 million euro is allocated for the operation of the Slovenian Cardiovascular Disease Registry (EuroHEART). A further 0.2 million euro is foreseen for a pilot project to include women aged 45-49 in the national DORA screening programme. Additional funding is also foreseen for the following: 4 million euro for standard materials for prosthetics at primary and secondary levels, 2.6 million euro for the adjustment of prices for laboratory services in family and general medicine outpatient clinics, and 2.1 million euro for the revision of prices for the preparation and application of medicines.
The additional funding outlined in the Decree for 2025 totals 91.4 million euro – of which 55.4 million euro is earmarked for better evaluation and expansion of programmes. The remaining 36 million euro comes from unrealized programme expansions from previous years.

The Government approved measures to accelerate the absorption of funds from the European Cohesion Policy programme 2021-2027 in Slovenia. In this context, it approved changes to the European Cohesion Policy programme 2021-2027 in Slovenia and adopted the Decree amending the Decree on the implementation of the Regulations (EU) and (Euratom) relating to the implementation of the European Cohesion Policy 2021-2027 for the Investment for Growth and Jobs objective. The proposal for the measures was prepared by the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development together with the relevant ministries. The key point is that the measures are aimed not only at enabling Slovenia to utilize EU cohesion funds, but also at enhancing the European Cohesion Policy programme 2021-2027, which will significantly contribute to Slovenia's development. The following measures were adopted:

The launch of the STEP platform, which will provide 100 million euro for the development of key strategic technologies to strengthen economic self-sufficiency. A large part of the funds will be earmarked for cutting-edge research infrastructure that will accelerate the development breakthrough of the Slovenian economy. The measure has been recognised by Brussels as an important contribution to common European objectives.
Modernisation of the Ljubljana railway station (Strand B and C), estimated at 205 million euro
Reducing the risk of flooding in the Savinja river basin. These are two measures, estimated at around 32 million euro, to protect Laško, Žalec and Celje from flooding.
Protection and rescue measures, including the establishment of a National Civil Protection Centre and a Flood Protection Centre, worth a total of 18.3 million euro.
Co-financing of projects in the 3rd Development Axis – North: Velenje-Slovenj Gradec, amounting to 44.3 million euro.
Additional financing of 12.1 million euro to improve the system for early warning, awareness-raising and adaptation to weather-related emergencies in a changing climate – SOVIR.
Acquisition of public research equipment in the framework of international priority projects of the Research Infrastructure Roadmap (ESFRI projects), which are essential for generating new knowledge and innovation and are a prerequisite for industry-academia collaboration. In particular, the Slovenian research environment will be upgraded with state-of-the-art research equipment in the fields of biomedicine, biotechnology, chemistry (restoration), structural biology and biophysics, making an important contribution to cooperation with industry. The estimated value of this action is 17 million euro.
Complete renovation of the Grajska kašča building in Ptuj, the largest granary in Slovenia. The estimated cost of the project is 8 million euro.