Prime Minister Golob: Coalition united on three key reforms

SLOVENIA, March 17 - "At today's Coalition Summit, we reviewed and reaffirmed our coalition's commitments to the people. The three areas we discussed today touch all generations. We talked about public and accessible healthcare, a sustainable pension system and housing for young people," said Prime Minister Golob after the meeting. 

The Prime Minister added that the coalition was united on three key reforms. "These are common goals that we can implement by the end of this mandate, and we will implement them together. This is the best starting point for the coalition to then go into the next elections with confidence to confirm a second mandate. And this is our common will," the Prime Minister said. 

He then explained the meeting by area. The Coalition Summit first discussed strengthening the public healthcare system. The Prime Minister recalled the commitments made at the Coalition Summit last September, when measures on accessibility and quality of public healthcare services were discussed.  "In the meantime, we have delivered on these announcements. An act on the quality of services in the public healthcare system has been adopted and is in the parliamentary process. The Health Services Act is about to be adopted and will radically change the current regulation in the way the boundaries between the public healthcare system and private healthcare service providers are drawn. And this with one goal in mind: to strengthen the public healthcare system and reward all the hardworking, dedicated, motivated employees of the public healthcare system, from carers, nurses, to doctors, so that they can dedicate even more time to patients."

Prime Minister Golob added that in 2024 alone, more than 40 different rules, implementing regulations or other documents were adopted in the field of healthcare.  "This shows that this reform is very complex, made up of a large number of small steps, and that we will continue in this way. It is a complex system which we should change in small steps", said Prime Minister Golob about the healthcare reform. 

The coalition took note of the state of play in the negotiations on the pension reform, where negotiations with the social partners are in their final phase. “The whole pension reform is aimed at ensuring a sustainable public finances on the one hand, and on the other hand at ensuring that the new pensioners who will retire in the next few years will receive as decent a pension as possible. One of the ways we will achieve this is by increasing the assessment percentage," the Prime Minister said. He added that there would be no extension of the length of service, which remains at 40 years. 

The third area discussed by the coalition today is the mass construction of public rental housing. The Prime Minister said that the projects would be presented to the public on an ongoing basis. "What makes us optimistic is that we see that in reality there are more and more potential projects available every month," said Prime Minister Golob, expressing his conviction that this project will not only be a matter for this mandate, but that the main results will come in the second mandate. "In parallel, housing legislation is being prepared and it will be sent for public debate next week and approved by the government in April," he further explained.

"We have stuck to the three areas where we made a commitment to the people before the elections and where we estimate that we will deliver on these commitments by the end of this mandate. We want results, not words, to do the talking. In all three areas, the results will be visible before the end of the mandate," concluded Prime Minister Robert Golob.