Europe needs to diversify both energy sources and routes of supplies

Caspian Energy (CE):  Mr. Janša, what do you think about recessionary processes in the Eurozone?

Janez Janša, Prime Minister of Slovenia: An essential feature of the Eurozone’s economic recessionary processes is heterogeneity between the Eurozone member states. On the one hand we have stable and strong economies, like Germany or Austria, on the other, there are still unstable economies like Greece. Between these two opposite groups of countries, there are economies occupying the in between position between macroeconomic stability and instability. The recessionary process has shown significant differences in the flexibility of economic systems of the Eurozone countries. One crucial point in the Eurozone is also structural weaknesses of the countries, and improving of this aspect is a long-term process. At present the Eurozone countries are introducing structural reforms and fiscal consolidation measures, but they can not make an immediate effect on the economy. 

I believe that the key element of an economic revival is the necessity for securing adequate sources of funding for the Eurozone economies, where access to such sources is limited due to the lack of trust within the banking system. Taking this into consideration, The EU-wide discussion on creation of the proposed banking union has been proceeding. The agreement on centralised banking supervision represents the first step towards securing adequate sources of funding. In addition, the need for a deeper fiscal integration has emerged as well. In this process of resolving the economic crisis, it has become clear that reliable foundations for stable and sustainable growth require a greater convergence in various fiscal positions between the Eurozone economies. The golden fiscal rule represents an institutional solution to ensure the convergence of fiscal positions between the countries.