German Chancellor Angela Merkel returns to former Yugoslavia on Tuesday after only a week, this time to Slovenia and not to defuse a conflict, but rather to discuss the problems facing the Eurozone, according to dpa. Merkel is due to visit for just five hours, with a packed and difficult agenda focusing on the debt and currency crisis in the European Economic and Monetary Union, the so-called Eurozone. Last week, Merkel had been to Belgrade to deal with renewed tensions between Serbia and Kosovo and violence in the former province. In Ljubljana, she is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Borit Pahor, President Danilo Turk and also the main opposition leader, Janez Jansa, and discuss the plans to resolve the debt carnage in the Eurozone and shore up its currency, the euro. Pahor had promised that Slovenia, an Alpine-Adriatic republic with around 2 million inhabitants, will support the German and French plan for the eurozone. Slovenia wants to prove itself as a "true and reliable partner" to the countries in the "Franco-German train," he was quoted as saying by the state news agency STA. Pahor had planned Slovenia to follow the German model of fiscal discipline, reforms for a more competitive economy and order in public finances. But chances for that diminished greatly after Slovenians flatly rejected Pahor's pension system reform plan in a referendum in June. Local observers also consider it next to impossible that Pahor's minority cabinet can really push a massive austerity package through the parliament in the coming autumn and cut the gaping budget deficit to 4.5 per cent of the gross domestic product. Actually, after junior partners abandoned Pahor's Social Democrats, leaving him with control of just a third of the 90 assembly seats, a snap poll is more likely than reforms. As it is, in 2011 Slovenia will again overstep deficit limits laid out for eurozone members - the official forecast for the deficit is now 5.5, instead of 4.8 per cent, following 5.6 per cent in 2010. Under the Eurozone stability rules, the maximum budget deficit is supposed to be 3 per cent, a limit which is to be enforced in 2013. Another issue of concern is Slovenia's debt - though its size is not yet a major concern, its rate of growth is. Germany has already signaled Slovenia that it must clean up its finances and stabilize itself for the sake of the euro. In Ljubljana, Merkel is also set to discuss the potential to expand ties between the two nations though they already are in excellent working order. Germany has been one of the major supporters and key partners of Slovenia since it split from the former Yugoslavia 20 years ago. After strong reforms, Slovenia in 2004 became the first - and so far only - former Yugoslav republic to join the European Union. Neighbouring Croatia is expected to join the club in 2013, while no other ex-Yugoslav country has the membership in sights.
