SLOVENIA'S MINISTER OF ECONOMY SUPPORTIVE OF TEC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LJUBLJANA 000203 NOFORN SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/ERA, EUR/NCE E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/06/2018 TAGS: ECON EUN EINV ETRD SI SUBJECT: SLOVENIA'S MINISTER OF ECONOMY SUPPORTIVE OF TEC Classified By: Charge Maryruth Coleman, Reasons 1.4 (b,d) -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) In a May 6 meeting with Charge, Minister of Economy Andrej Vizjak strongly agreed with our overall assessment that the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) is an excellent vehicle to raise complicated regulatory issues at the political level to effect change. He insisted that European economies must continue to liberalize across the board, unless some compelling domestic safety issue is involved, and asserted that the TEC can be an effective tool to promote transatlantic economic relations by removing investment and business obstacles. Vizjak reported on a conversation he had earlier on May 6 with Commissioner Verheugen, suggesting that the Commission may have a positive approach in the works on poultry for the TEC meeting. (Comment: Vizjak was clearly engaged on the TEC process, but not familiar with particular details of the complex issues on the agenda. He stressed that while the Commission has the lead on TEC issues, member states are being kept informed and have opportunities to inject their input. He also confirmed that Slovenian Prime Minister Jansa is keeping close tabs on the TEC process.) End Summary -------------- TEC Agenda Items -------------- Poultry -------------- ¶2. (C) Vizjak said that Slovenia was in favor of using a scientific approach to resolve the poultry issue. He said that he had learned from Commissioner Verheugen earlier that day that the Commission was going in that direction, and he hoped there would be a concrete, positive result for TEC. Vizjak noted that there was no resistance from member states to that approach. IPR Issues -------------- ¶3. (C) The Charge raised the possibility of building on past good U.S.-EU cooperation on IPR protection to agree on new areas where we should focus our efforts. Ales Gorisek, U.S. Desk Officer at the Ministry, stressed the importance of joint U.S.-EU work on IPR problems vis-a-vis third countries, such as Russia and China. The Minister strongly agreed that the TEC could be a useful forum to advance this objective. Resisting Protectionism -------------- ¶4. (C) Minister Vizjak also addressed the issue of protectionism, especially in Slovenia. He said that the Government of Slovenia (GOS) encounters considerable public skepticism -- not about U.S. or foreign investment -- but about private ownership in general. He explained that the public wants conflicting things: 90 percent favor removing state controls from companies, but they are also largely against privatization. He speculated about the best way to convince the public not to focus on Slovenia's one bad example of FDI, but on the myriad of good examples. Vizjak said, however, that Slovenia would share with the Commission and other member states that Slovenian businesses have reported that they have not faced any major obstacles to entering the U.S. market (although he noted that Slovenia was small). ¶5. (C) Vizjak highlighted an initiative that the European Parliament passed during Slovenia's Presidency -- the Goods Package Directive -- that will help reduce obstacles to cross-border business. He noted that Member States often use technical standards for products as a way to protect domestic producers from foreign competition. Under the new directive, each country must establish an information point where producers can get details about domestic legislation and product standards. It also places the burden of proving whether a given product does or does not meet domestic standards on the national body, rather than the producer. This saves companies, and particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, significant time and money. Vizjak suggested doing something similar between the U.S. and the EU. REACH LJUBLJANA 00000203 002 OF 002 -------------- ¶6. (C) The Charge explained that the U.S. wants REACH to be discussed at the TEC, and that we remain concerned that U.S. producers of cosmetics could be disadvantaged by the new regulation planned to go into effect June 1. Vizjak responded that Slovenia supports the general principle that all companies, U.S. and EU, should have the same access to markets. American companies should not have to face additional difficulties, he stressed. TEC's Future Work -------------- ¶7. (C) Minister Vizjak agreed that TEC should address energy and climate issues, noting that these are global problems. He also stated that TEC would prepare a document for leaders at the U.S.-EU Summit and that this should identify future priorities for cooperation. He added that Prime Minister Jansa was well-informed about the TEC, knowing that it will inform Summit activities. -------------- - Relations Between Commission and Member States -------------- - ¶8. (C) The Minister of the Economy, who will represent Slovenia at the May 13 TEC meeting, said that the Slovenes are in daily contact with Commissioner Verheugen's cabinet. He noted that while the member states had authorized the Commission to negotiate with the U.S., the Commission keeps member states informed. Last month, at the Informal Competitiveness Ministerial, Verheugen had asked Vizjak to add TEC to the agenda under any other business, and Verheugen had reported to the member states on progress on TEC. ¶9. (C/NF) In response to a question of whether Slovenia and other member states feel that the Commission protects their interests, Vizjak commented on differences among the member states. He said that Slovenia was among the member states most in favor of further liberalization. Slovenia wanted a broad horizontal approach, rather than a case-by-case approach to liberalization. He predicted that some member states, "especially the big countries - France," would try to protect some sectors. He stressed that if the EU protects some domestic markets without a very convincing reason, such as safety and health, the EU could have a problem with credibility. COLEMAN