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