Meeting between the President of the Republic and the Mayor of Ljubljana

Ljubljana, 17.1.2008  |  press release

The President of the Republic, Dr Danilo Türk, today met Mr Zoran Janković, the Mayor of Ljubljana. According to Dr Türk, it was a necessary and useful meeting. “Slovenia still has to fully develop the concept of statehood, which cannot be complete unless the status of its capital city is fully defined,” emphasised the President and commended the work of Mayor Janković and his team. Mr Janković informed the President of a range of projects undertaken in the capital and Dr Türk expressed support for the city “in its efforts to improve its image and meet the future needs of Slovenia”.

In response to media questioning about his opinion on the “dispute” between the Slovenian state and the city of Ljubljana over financing, the President said that he would not take sides; he was, however, in favour of settling the issue of the financing of the city of Ljubljana. “On the one hand, such matters are the subject of negotiations between the city of Ljubljana and the Government, which I hope will be successful. I would advocate negotiating as effectively as possible and in this case one cannot be satisfied with every single aspect of the negotiations. On the other hand, there are also proceedings before the Constitutional Court that have to be taken into consideration,” explained the President.