Organisation and membership
Schedule
Agenda
The preparation of submissions
The preparation of decisions
Decision making and recording
Implementation of decisions
Legislative and regulatory procedures

Subordinate Bodies of the Council of Ministers

Organisation and membership

The Government comprises the Prime Minister, 16 other ministers, and four ministers without portfolio, of whom one is authorised by the Prime Minister to perform the function of the Deputy Prime Minister. He deputises for the Prime Minister in his absence in representation of the Government, in the chairing of government meetings and in the guidance of administration, but he cannot deputise for him in the rights related to the vote of confidence in the Government and to the proposals of appointments or dismissals of ministers.

The Government works and makes decisions at its meetings.

Government meetings are chaired by the Prime Minister. In the Prime Minister's absence, meetings are chaired by the minister without portfolio in the function of the Deputy Prime Minister. In the absence of the Deputy Prime Minister, the meetings are chaired by the minister assigned to do so by the Prime Minister.

The meetings of the Government are attended by the Prime Minister, ministers, the secretary general and invited guests.

In the minister's absence, the state secretary, or some other senior government official if a ministry has no state secretary, authorised by the minister, deputises in government meetings. The state secretary has no decision-making rights.

Government meetings may also be attended by the staff of the Prime Minister's office, who perform certain tasks relating to the Government's work, and who are requested to attend by the Secretary-General of the Government. On the proposal of a minister and with the consent of the Secretary-General of the Government, a state secretary, a head of a body within a ministry or a senior official responsible for preparing submissions, may also attend government meetings, but only for such points where their participation is necessary.

Heads of the Government Office for Legislation and the Government Public Relations and Media Office, deputised by senior staff of these offices and assigned by them in the event of their absence, have to attend the government meetings.

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Regular meetings of the Government are held once a week, usually on Thursdays.

In urgent cases, when it is not possible to call a meeting of the Government, the Government can, at the suggestion of the Prime Minister, decide on certain issues by correspondence without having to gather for a special meeting.

The Secretary-General sends the material for decision by correspondence along with the report of a particular working body having dealt with the material, to all members of the Government, the Government Office for Legislation and the Government Public Relations and Media Office with instructions as to whom and by when remarks or consent should be communicated; the deadline for submission of remarks or consent may be no shorter than four hours.

The material is adopted in a meeting of the Government by correspondence if no member of the Government has communicated remarks or suggestions within the appointed deadline.

If the material is not adopted by correspondence, the proposer may demand that the material be dealt with by the Government at its next meeting.

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The agenda is determined by the Prime Minister on the suggestion of the Secretary-General of the Government.

Only those matters on which the working bodies of the Government have already debated, and which have been prepared in accordance with the resolutions of the working bodies and the standard procedure defined in the Standing Orders of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, may be included on the agenda.

The Secretary-General of the Government, in calling a meeting, informs the members of the Government of the agenda and the time and place of the meeting. The invitation to the government meeting and proposals for discussion are submitted to members of the Government, including heads of the Government Office for Legislation and the Government Public Relations and Media Office, at least five days before the meeting; however, when the Government has to debate some urgent issues, the Prime Minister may call a meeting at a shorter notice.

If the proposer believes that in urgent cases the proposals for discussion need to be debated without a preliminary debate in the relevant government working body, he can propose such a solution on adoption of the agenda at the meeting of the Government.

The meeting starts with the adoption of the agenda.

Following the adoption of the agenda, the minutes of the last meeting and the review of the implementation of resolutions adopted at the previous meeting, are approved. Members of the Government have the right to a written comment to the minutes or to an oral comment at the meeting itself. Such comments are decided upon by the Government.

Discussion of proposals or individual issues at government meetings may be proposed by the Prime Minister, other ministers, the Secretary-General of the Government and heads of government services.

Suggestion for a proposal for debate at a government meeting is sent by the proposer to the Secretary-General within the deadline determined by the government work programme.

Proposals for debate at government meetings must specifically include:

• the title of the proposal and the name of the body which prepared it;
• the purpose of discussion and the aims the proposal is meant to achieve;
• a statement that the proposal has been drawn up in co-ordination with the relevant ministry; and
• the proposed government resolution, specification as to who will carry out the task and the deadline for its implementation.

The proposal for government debate must also include documentation complete with the data and expert information needed for decision-making.

The proposer, or the ministry which submitted the proposal, is responsible for drafting laws and implementational regulations.

On proposing regulations or other measures, the proposer must provide information on the financial means required for implementing the proposal, possible sources and the method of providing these means, organisational or other implementational measures which will have to be adopted, and the effects and consequences of the proposal.

When a draft law or another general act presupposes that individual questions will be regulated by implementational regulations, the submission must also state the basic premises for such regulations.

The proposer of a submission is bound specifically to explain whether a specific law or other general act is compatible with European Community enactments and the ensuing adopted national regulations and other regulations of the European Community.

The proposer of a draft law, implementational regulation and other general act or submissions of legal nature, is required to co-operate with the Government Office for Legislation in all phases of the procedure.

The proposer of the submissions stated above, is required to send such materials to the Government Office for Legislation at least five days before they are submitted to the Government, or at least fifteen days prior to the meeting, if such material contains new systemic solutions.

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The Government sets up committees, commissions and other working bodies to debate in advance on specific matters within its competence. The government decision on the establishment of a working body contains also the definition of its tasks and its composition.

Government working bodies are composed of the presidents of committees or commissions, their deputies and members appointed by the Government from among the ministers and state secretaries and, in exceptional cases, from among the senior officials of ministries and other administrative bodies and government services. Meetings of working bodies are called by their chairperson, and in their absence, by their deputy.

In carrying out these tasks, the working bodies apply the appropriate sections of the Standing Orders on the work of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia.

Standing government working bodies are:

• The Economic Committee
• The State Order and Public Administration Committee
• The Commission for Personnel and Administrative Affairs
• The Housing Commission.

The Government may authorise certain working bodies to decide on specific matters within its competence; a decision is passed if the majority of ministers belonging to the working body vote in favour. Such a decision by the working body is deemed to be a government decision.

If a competent minister (the proposer of a submission) disagrees with the decision of a working body (because he was outvoted), he may demand that the Government decide on the matter at a government meeting.

The Government may also set up expert councils to provide consulting services to the Government. Apart from ministers and senior officials from ministries and other administrative bodies and government services, other experts in a specific field are also appointed to such councils.

In order to carry out technical tasks relating to the implementaion of its rights and duties, the Government sets up certain services and offices. Presently the following government services and offices are in operation:

• Government Personnel Office
• Government Office for Legislation
• Government Office for the Reform of Local Self-Government
• Government Statistical Office
• Government Protocol Service
• Government Protocol Services Department
• Government Public Relations and Media Office
• Government Office for Nationalities
• Government Office for Women's Politics,
• Government Office for Immigration and Refugees,
• Government Joint Services Office,
• Government Centre for Electronic Data Processing,
• Government Office for Religious Communities,
• Government Office for the Disabled,
• Slovene Intelligence and Security Agency
• Prime Minister's Office
• Government Office for European Affairs

In relation to the Government, with the exception of the Slovene Intelligence and Security Agency, the Government Office for Legislation, the Government Statistical Office, and those government offices not managed by ministers without portfolio, the Secretary-General of the Government has the same powers as a minister has in relation to the bodies within its ministry. The Secretary-General may issue to the services and offices stated above binding instructions for their work.

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The Government works and makes decisions at its meetings, provided that the majority of members are present; it makes decisions and passes resolutions through a majority vote of all members. With an even number of the government members and only half of them present at the meeting, the Government has a quorum if the Prime Minister is present as well; a decision is passed if half of the members of the Government and the Prime Minister vote for it.

At the beginning of a debate on a specific issue, the proposer briefly explains the material for it. A member of the Government may suggest a change or amendment to it orally during the meeting provided he has well-founded reasons for not having been able to do so at the meeting of the relevant working body.

Following the debate, the Government has several options. It may:

• decide on the submission, and if necessary, request that the proposer amends it in compliance with the position and decisions adopted at the meeting;
• define the content of a law, implementing regulation or other general act, which is forwarded to the National Assembly for a reading or passes acts and measures within its competence;
• postpone the decision-making if such amendments are necessary that require a discussion at the next meeting;
• appoint a special working body to amend the submission in compliance with the expressed views and decides on the deadline for the preparation of the submission; or
• reject the submission.

Once the agenda is exhausted, the draft invitation to the next government meeting and the outstanding issues from the government work programme are reviewed.

If the Prime Minister determines that the adopted government decision might have a detrimental influence, he may block its implementation and immediately, or, at the latest at the next meeting, request that the Government re-examine such a decision and modify it accordingly.

All submissions and issues discussed at meetings of the Government and government working bodies are recorded in the minutes of the meetings. The minutes state the adopted agenda of a meeting, the name of the chairing person, the names of those government members who are present or absent from the meeting, the names of any other persons present, and positions and decisions the Government passed on specific items of the agenda. The Secretary-General is responsible for the minutes and sends them to all ministers.

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The proposer of a submission is also responsible for the implementation of tasks envisaged in the submission and for keeping the Government informed in good time of such implementation.

The Government supervises the work of the ministries, provides them with policy implementation guidelines, and the guidelines for implementation of laws, implementing regulations and general acts; it also ensures a co-ordinated performance of the tasks assigned to the ministries.

The Government may block the implementation of a regulation issued by a ministry if it is of the opinion that it is not compatible with the Constitution, laws or a regulation of the National Assembly, or its own regulation.

The Prime Minister has the authority to require ministers to report on the status and implementation of tasks agreed by the Government.

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Support and Advisory Structures

The Prime Minister's office, led by the general secretary, is organised to perform co-ordinating and expert tasks for the Prime Minister.

The duties of the general secretary of the Government are to, in accordance with the instructions of the Prime Minister, supervise preparations for government meetings, the implementation of government decisions and the performance of other tasks relating to the organisation of the work of the Government and government services.

The Government may establish expert councils to discuss individual issues and to submit appropriate solutions to the Government.

The centre of Government (the Prime Minister's office, with 132 staff) carries out organisational, expert-analytical, and administrative-technical tasks for the Prime Minister and for the Government as a whole.

Structures

The Prime Minister's office provides expert and administrative support to government working bodies in discussing and adopting positions relevant to the functioning of the ministries.

Within the Prime Minister's office are departments dealing with legal, economic, personnel, analytical, financial and organisational issues.

Senior administrative staff in the Prime Minister's office independently run and organise the work of individual departments within the office.

Administrative staff within the Prime Minister's office primarily perform expert analytical, organisational, managerial and administrative tasks.