Slovenian parliament appoints new ministers, resolving crisis

Telekom Slovenije, D.d

13/05/2015 17:44

By Marja Novak 
    LJUBLJANA, May 13 (Reuters) - Slovenia's parliament 
confirmed two new cabinet ministers on Wednesday, averting a 
crisis that could have threatened Prime Minister Miro Cerar's 
efforts to improve the finances of the euro zone country. 
    Parliament ousted Defence Minister Janko Veber, who belongs 
to a junior party in the centre-left coalition, in April because 
he had ordered the army secret service to check out the security 
implications of the planned sale of state-owned telecom operator 
Telekom Slovenia  TLSG.LJ .  ID:nL5N0X64EW  
    On Wednesday parliament confirmed Andreja Katic, who like 
Veber is a Social Democrat, as the new defence minister. Maja 
Makovec Brencic was given the education ministry. 
    Makovec Brencic was proposed by Cerar's Modern Centre party 
and will replace Klavdija Markez, who resigned in April after 
only five days in office over media reports that her master's 
thesis was a plagiarism.  ID:nL6N0WY4BI  
    Cerar's 17-member cabinet now has 8 women ministers, the 
highest number since Slovenia became independent in 1991.  
    The cabinet took office last September after a snap general 
election, less than a year after Slovenia managed to bail out 
its banks without outside help. 
    Cerar's cabinet plans to reduce the budget deficit to 2.9 
percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 to meet European 
Commission demands, from 4.9 percent in 2014. 
 
 (Reporting by Marja Novak; Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and 
Ruth Pitchford) 
 ((Marja.Novak@thomsonreuters.com; +386-1-5058805; Reuters 
Messaging: marja.novak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SLOVENIA MINISTERS/