Slovenia’s recovery and resilience plan

Following an unprecedented crisis due to the pandemic, Slovenia’s recovery and resilience plan responds to the urgent need of fostering a strong recovery and making Slovenia future-ready. The reforms and investments in the plan will help Slovenia become more sustainable, resilient and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions. To this end, the plan consists of 55 investments and 33 reforms. They will be supported by 1.8 € billion in grants and 0.7 € billion in loans. 42% of the plan will support climate objectives and 21% 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 reforms and investments have to be implemented within a tight time frame, as the Regulation on the Recovery and Resilience Facility foresees they have to be completed by August 2026.

The plan will foster economic growth and create jobs. It will lift Slovenia’s gross domestic product by 1.1% to 1.7% by 2026. This boost to the economy will bring up to 6.000 people into jobs. As very export-orientated economy, Slovenia will benefit also from the recovery and resilience plans of other Member States. These spill-over effects account for 0.6 percentage points of gross domestic product in 2026. These estimates do not include the possible positive impact of structural reforms, which can be substantial. Altogether, this demonstrates the added value of joint and coordinated action at the European level.

+ 1.1-1.7% Impact of NextGenerationEU on Slovenia's gross domestic product by 2026
+ 6,000 Jobs by 2026
0.6% Gross domestic product benefits thanks to other Member States’ recovery and resilience plans in 2026

When designing the plan, Slovenian authorities consulted different stakeholders, while pursuing a close dialogue with the Commission ahead of the formal submission of the plan on 30 April 2021. On 1 July 2021, the Commission gave its green light to the plan. President von der Leyen announced the positive Commission’s assessment to Prime Minister Janša during her visit to the Paediatric Clinic in Ljubljana, at the start of the Slovenian Presidency to the EU. The plan was in turn adopted by the Council on 28 July opening the door to its implementation and financing.

Recovery and resilience plan for Slovenia

Green transition

In the area of climate and environmental policies, Slovenia faces the challenges of being carbon intensive economy with low share of renewables in the energy mix, in energy efficiency, 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 €230 million in energy efficiency and seismic renovation of buildings, including schools. Furthermore, €292 million will be invested into decarbonisation, digitalisation and safety of railway infrastructure transport. With an investment of €54 million the plan supports improved drinking water supply and water saving projects. The plan also includes reforms and investments of €48 million to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

Example project: Measures to increase up-take of public transport

The plan supports the decarbonisation of transport through €292 million investments in railway infrastructure: upgrading parts of the most congested parts of TEN-T railway netwok, refurbishing railway stations Ljubljana, Domžale and Grosuplje and increasing the capacity, speed and safety of rail transport and digitalising rail infrastructure with ETCS system to reduce travel time. These investments will be complemented by a reform of the public passenger management system, which should establish single-ticketing system and coordinated timetables of different passenger transport operations. All this should result in higher usage of public transport and better services for citizens.

Digital transition

Digital challenges for the Slovenian economy include a lack of digital skills, low up-take of public digital services and of integration of digital technology into 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. A strategy for digital transformation and reforms on electronic identification aims to increase use of public e-services and digitalisation of companies. These reforms are accompanied by €260 million investments in public administration, including in key public sectors like health (€83 million). The plan will invest €144 million in increasing digital skills of different segments of society and in improving connectivity in schools. €44 million will be invested for the digital transition of businesses by supporting the implementation of advanced digital technologies in companies.

Example project:Digitalisation in education

The development of digital literacy in education will be supported through an overhaul of curricula at all education levels (from early childhood education and care to higher education). To empower schools for this task, 20,000 teachers/educators will be trained in digital skills and supported with updated teaching practices. Moreover, the plan will support investments in improving connectivity of schools, thus reducing digital divide, and in creating modern digitally equipped learning places. Slovenia will also develop new digital solutions to better support the learning process (e.g. e-national examination, project-based learning etc.)

Economic and social resilience

Key macro-economic challenges for the Slovenian economy include low investments rates, including in the research and innovation, low employment rates of older workers and early leaving from the labour market, which impacts on the fiscal sustainability of pension system, skills mismatch. Slovenia lacks proper long-term care system, while health system is facing many structural weaknesses (e.g. lack of staff, unmet needs and long waiting lines, outdated infrastructure).

Key measures in reinforcing economic and social resilience

The plan reinforces economic and social resilience with €305 million support for boosting productivity and innovation in business, including financing research projects in the green and digital transition. 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 €127 million of investments to support their upgrade in the direction of environmental sustainability.Resilience of the healthcare sector will be supported with €110 million investments in medical infrastructure and equipment, while €79 million investments will accompany the setting-up of a long-term care system. Access to more affordable housing for those in or close to poverty and social exclusion will be supported with €60 million investments.

Example project: Investments in two Clinics for Infectious Disease and Fever Conditions in Ljubljana and Maribor

The key investment in healthcare is linked with improving the infrastructure and quality of treating infectious and communicable diseases, as the COVID-19 epidemic showed many shortcomings in that area. It consists of two infrastructure zero emission projects and relevant equipment: the upgrading of the Clinic for Infectious Disease in Ljubljana (€70 million) and the construction of a new clinic in Maribor (€40 million). While investments will ensure additional beds and modern equipment in treating communicable diseases, after the end of pandemic they will be used also for treatment of after-surgery infections.

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