Slovenia’s recovery and resilience plan

RRF FUNDED PROJECTS IN SLOVENIA

WHAT’S IN THE PLAN?

The reforms and investments in Slovenia’s plan, approved by Council on 28 July 2021, are helping it to become more sustainable, resilient and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green transition and digital transition. Following Council approval of Slovenia’s plan on 28 July 2021, Slovenia’s recovery and resilience plan was updated on 17 October 2023 also to introduce a REPowerEU chapter.

^{*This value includes also the part of the plan which is financed with national resources}

• 50 investment streams and 36 reforms
• 49% of the plan will support climate objectives
• 20% of the plan will foster the digital transition    

The transformative impact of Slovenia’s plan is the result of a strong combination of reforms and investments which address the specific challenges of Slovenia. The reforms address bottlenecks to lasting and sustainable growth, while investments are targeted to accelerate transition towards a greener economy, maximise the benefits of the digital transformation and ensure social-economic cohesion and resilience. The plan envisages measures to support the decarbonisation of the economy and climate change adaptation. It is expected to significantly contribute to Slovenia’s digitalisation, including by strengthening digital skills through education and life-long learning. The plan also strongly focuses on increasing resilience of the healthcare’s system, setting-up long-term care system and improving access to affordable housing.

All measures have to be implemented within a tight time frame, as the Regulation establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility requires all milestones and targets within the national plans to be completed by August 2026.

REPowerEU measures in Slovenia’s plan

Slovenia’s plan now includes one upscaled reform, two new and two upscaled investments to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, in line with one of the REPowerEU Plan's objectives.

To finance this increased ambition, Slovenia has asked for a share of its Brexit Adjustment Reserve  to be transferred to the plan, amounting to €5 million. These funds would be added to Slovenias's REPowerEU grant of €116 million.

Key measures for REPowerEU

The REPowerEU measures include a reform to remove regulatory barriers to the deployment of renewable energy installations (solar PV and wind) in certain areas, such as roadsides, water surfaces, and rooftops.

They also include investments to support industry decarbonisation (€42 million), to strengthen the electricity distribution network (€20 million), to promote the restructuring of existing district heating systems with new RES technologies (€20 million) and alternative fuels infrastructure and zero-emission vehicles (€40 million).

Together, these measures are expected to increase Slovenia’s share of renewable energy and accelerate decarbonisation of energy generation, building and transport sectors.

Green transition

In the area of climate and environmental policies, Slovenia faces the challenges of being a carbon intensive economy with a low share of renewables in the energy mix, high dependency on road transport and high exposure to climate change-related damage.

Key measures for the green transition

• The plan includes key reforms to unlock renewable energy potential and sustainable mobility, which are essential steps to decarbonise the energy, transport and building sector.
• The green transition is supported through investments of over €229 million in renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable renovation of buildings, including schools.
• €344 million will be invested into adaptation to climate measures, wastewater collection and provision of drinking water.
• With an investment of €708 million the plan supports sustainable mobility.
• The plan also includes reforms and investments of €45 million to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

The modified plan, including the REPowerEU chapter, has further strengthened the focus on the plan on the green transition, devoting 49% of the available funds to measures that support climate objectives (up from 42.5% in the original plan).

Digital transition

Digital challenges for the Slovenian economy include a lack of digital skills, low up-take of public digital services and a slow integration of digital technology into its business models.

Key measures for the digital transition

• Slovenia’s recovery and resilience plan supports the digital transition with reforms in the digitalisation of the public administration, in skills and cyber security.
• These reforms are accompanied by €256 million investments in public administration, including in key public sectors like health.
• The plan will invest €225 million in increasing digital competences as well as other competencies  required by the professions of the future.
• €50 million will be invested for the digital transition of businesses by supporting the implementation of advanced digital technologies in companies.

Economic and social resilience

Key macro-economic challenges for the Slovenian economy include low investments rates, such as in research and innovation, low employment rates of older workers, as well as high early leaving rates from the labour market. This has a substantial impact on the fiscal sustainability of the pension system. Further, Slovenia lacks a proper long-term care system, while its health system is facing many structural weaknesses (e.g. lack of staff, unmet needs and long waiting lines, outdated infrastructure). Slovenia’s recovery and resilience plan tackles these issues through its flagship healthcare, pension, and long-term care reforms.

Key measures in reinforcing economic and social resilience

• The plan reinforces economic and social resilience with €143 million support for boosting productivity and innovation to create a business-friendly environment for investors. 
• These investments are coupled with reforms to improve the business environment, access to finance and cooperation between public and private research.
• Tourism and culture sector is expected to benefit from €111 million of investments to support their upgrade in the direction of environmental sustainability.
• Resilience of the healthcare sector will be supported with €166 million investments in medical infrastructure and equipment.
• Access to more affordable housing for those in or close to poverty and social exclusion will be supported with €60 million investments.

ANNUAL EVENTS

Annual events facilitate the exchange of views on the state of implementation of the Recovery and resilience plans, while ensuring close cooperation between all stakeholders and providing a platform to discuss interlinks between the Plans and other Union programmes. 

More information on Annual events held in Slovenia can be found here

EUROPEAN SEMESTER

Slovenia’s plan is consistent with the challenges and priorities identified in the European Semester, the annual cycle of coordination and monitoring of each EU country’s economic policies. For a detailed explanation of the European Semester see the following link: The European Semester explained | European Commission (europa.eu)

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