by: Vida Kocjan
The ruling coalition (Gibanje Svoboda, SD, and Levica) at the end of the first half – whether we will experience the second half is a question – is posting numerous misleading and incomplete messages on social media, often without citing sources. There is a feeling that they are being created under the direction of complete amateurs, as it is hard to believe that serious experts could put their names under such a mess.
One such message is how the government managed to obtain all available European funds from the 2014 to 2020 programming period amounting to 3.4 billion euros. The Golob’s people took over the government on June 1st, 2022, when one hundred percent of all funds plus 12 percent of reserve funds had already been distributed, warned Janez Janša.
It is also a fact that according to the European Commission’s data, Slovenia caught up with and surpassed the EU member states’ average in drawing European funds only in 2020. This was during Janša’s government. However, the drawing of European funds for the period from 2021 to 2027 has not even begun. Monika Kirbiš Rojs, an expert in European projects and former State Secretary for Cohesion, currently serving as the secretary of the State Council, pointed this out. She published European Commission data showing that Slovenia is significantly lagging behind the European average during Golob’s government. What we gained in the last two years from the new EU programming period were prepayments provided by the previous government.
THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT HAS NOT ISSUED ANY TENDERS FOR TWO YEARS. THEREFORE, THE DRAWING IS NULL, YET THEY PRAISE THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT.
The current government has not issued any tenders for two years. Therefore, the drawing is null, yet they praise the achievements of the previous government. Kirbiš Rojs sent a message to the government that they are parading in borrowed feathers.
The nullity of the Golob’s people’s drawing is also due to the fact that immediately after the 2022 elections, they replaced leading positions in the government service for European funds with candidates who failed in the elections, who know nothing about European cohesion policy, nor are they interested in it. Experts were dismissed. And now we are where we are.