The Slovenian business delegation was visiting Bratislava on Thursday and Friday, and it was accompanying the Foreign Minister, Mr Karl Erjavec, who was visiting Slovakia. 

Minister Erjavec on Thursday evening at the Slovenian Embassy in the centre of Bratislava received members of the business delegation comprised of the representatives of 15 companies: Adria kombi, Datalab, Fersped, Fining, Interservice, Kolektor Etra, Luka Koper, Metrans Adria, Sinergise, Slovenija Trade, Slovenian railways – cargo traffic, TIB Transport and the Pan−Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD). Some important points of view and starting points were established during an extensive discussion, among others the necessity to start building a 2nd rail line which is very important from a logistics−transport perspective – not only for Luka Koper, but also for the wider Slovenian and European business environment. Andrej Mertelj, the director of Datalab, presented an exceptional initiative for the establishment of a European competence centre for agriculture and informatics in Slovenia.   

Minister Erjavec, together with the representatives of the Slovenian Ministry for Agriculture and Environment and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Spatial Planning, listened attentively to the initiatives, plans and arguments, and he promised that the Foreign Ministry will provide support for the presented proposals.

The VZMD President, Mr Kristjan Verbič, MSc, was also attending the events in Bratislava in the framework of the endeavours of the two VZMD international business−investment programmes: Invest to Slovenia - investo.si and International Investors` Network - invest-to.net. At the reception and at the bilateral and multilateral meetings, Mr Verbič presented the two programmes which – apart from the possibility of the presentations on the investo.si, and invest-to.net web portals, promotional materials, etc. – also enable the establishment of direct contacts with the representatives of the European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse), the World Federation of Investors (WFI), and 57 national associations of shareholders and investors, and also with partner associations: International Knowledge Economy Network (KEN), International Centre for Promotion of Enterprises (ICPE), the European Issuers Association (EuropeanIssuers), European Business Angels Network (EBAN), the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), International Financial Litigation Network (IFLN), etc.

On Friday the members of the business delegation were attending the Slovenian−Slovakian business forum, which took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovakia. Beside the Slovenian Foreign Minister, the assembled audience was in the introduction also addressed by the Secretary at the Slovakian Foreign Ministry, while the representatives of the Slovakian Investment and Trade Development Agency SARIO, the director of Datalab, Mr Andrej Mertelj, and Čedomir Bojanič, the director of the Slovenian Association of Port Logistics Providers, also presented Slovakian and Slovenian business environment in the field of information−communication technologies and logistics. The presentations were followed by two separate round−table discussions on the themes of logistics and information technology. The business forum ended with bilateral talks between Slovenian and Slovakian companies, and it was concluded by a mutual press conference of the Slovenian Foreign Minister Mr
Erjavec and the Slovakian Foreign Minister, Miroslav Lajčák.  

Otherwise Mr Verbič was attending the Bratislava conference in the framework of an intensive tour of the investo.si in invest-to.net programmes, and in the following days he will also be attending »India-Central Europe Business Forum«which will take place in New Delhi, and afterwards Mr Verbič will be present at the International Conference of the European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse) entitled »Better Finance Manifesto« (VIDEO ANNOUNCEMENT of VZMD.tv). It is his second longer tour this year, after the one in February in the framework of which he actively participated at the 5th Congress of the Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders (AEMEC), International Investors' Conference at the Madrid Stock Exchange, and at the West African Business Investment Forum Africallia 2014, which took place in the capital of Burkina Faso Ouagadougou.

After last year's successful presentations of companies, institutions and investment projects in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Buffalo, Bucharest, Cape Town, Dubai, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, VZMD is planning this year to be actively present and to carry out presentations on five different continents!

VZMD kindly invites those wishing to secure their business interest by taking part in their events and activities to contact the VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail tratar@investo.si.

Prof Dr Peter Glavič, a representative of the Civil Society Initiative »Erased Small Shareholders of Nova KBM Bank« and of the NKBM Section at the Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), and the VZMD President Kristjan Verbič, MSc, on Tuesday addressed a letter to the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, reminding him of the expropriation affecting 100.000 owners of shares at three Slovenian Banks, 2.000 owners of subordinated bonds, and indirectly also nearly 500.000 citizens (a quarter of the population) who have been saving in pension companies, fund management companies, and insurance companies. They have all been expropriated for nearly 500 million euros in total. The Republic of Slovenia (RS) has in this way, on demand from and in cooperation with the European Commission, plundered the biggest Slovenian banks and robbed their owners!

The two signers have also pointed out that none of the »crisis«countries (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain) have so far invalidated the property of small investors. The shareholders of the Nova kreditna banka Maribor (NKBM) have been erased contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the RS and the Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The State of the Republic of Slovenia has expropriated the owners in two phases. First it oppressively devaluated their deposits (5.6 million shares, each worth 27 €, 151 M€ in total); it forbade them bank recapitalisation, while at the same time it transformed coco-bonds and 10% fixed interest on them into shares: 100 million shares each worth 1 €, and 185 million shares each worth 1,3 cents, in total 285 million shares for 102,4 M€! The book value of a share has thus dropped from 5, 37 € to 0, 76 €, and the market value has dropped to only 0, 10 €. The small investors have thus practically been pushed out of the ownership, and a 92% bank ownership has been established which then, with a special law which so far none of the EU countries has adopted, erased their shares!

Last year's review and estimation of bad debts is also extremely questionable, which is also true for the conditions of transmission on the 'bad bank' whose criteria have been dictated by the European Commission, since the European Central Bank has at that time asked The European Banking Authority (EBA) for the criteria which, at that time, had not yet been formally approved. There is a difference between the valid international accounting standards and the forced illegal criteria, and because of this difference shareholders and the owners of subordinated bonds have been expropriated – the procedure was in a stark contrast with the basic principles of the rule of law.

The Government of the RS and the Bank of Slovenia have both claimed that the European Commission is responsible for the unique expropriation of shareholders, but in the notice written by the European Commission there is no word about the necessity of expropriating shareholders. Even those countries which have accepted a bailout (Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain) have not erased shares and subordinated bank bonds. Germany, Belgium, Austria and other member states have even recapitalised private banks themselves, without expropriating the existing shareholders, and the European Commission did not consider it helpful. Spain and the Netherlands even had to cancel the decisions about the nullification of the shareholders' property. Dr Glavič and Mr Verbič, MSc, have emphasized in the letter to Mr Barroso that it is more than obvious that Slovenia has been treated unequally.

The expropriation of small investors is a disproportionate measure, and the implementation of the Decision of the Bank of Slovenia jeopardizes the financial stability of the capital market, the bank system, the economy and the country of the Republic of Slovenia as a whole – among other things they also caused that, before the elections into the European Parliament, Euro-sceptical political parties began to grow and gain influence because of the destruction of the social-market economy and the double-crossing of small investors caused by the finance industry, large capital and their lobbies. Therefore Dr Glavič and Mr Verbič, MSc, have suggested to the President of the European Commission to support their endeavours in order to reach an out-of-court settlement, in accordance with the Article 45 of the European Commission, excluding demands of the Articles 43 and 44.

Mr Verbič, MSc, is going to present the letter to the President of the European Commission on March 28 in the European Parliament at the international conference Better Finance, which is being prepared by the European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse), whose active member is also VZMD. It is a part of a wider campaign »Better Finance Manifesto«, which is being managed by EuroFinUse before this year's European Parliament elections, and in the framework of which it summons all political parties to take their stand on four basic principles which have to be implemented in the next five years (VIDEO ANNOUNCEMENT which has been prepared by VZMD.tv and investo.tv).

Apart from the President of the European Commission, the letter has also been sent to the attention of: Michel Barnier, the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services; Dr Janez Potočnik, Slovene Commissioner for Environment; Slovene Members of Parliament Tanja Fajon, MSc, Dr Romana Jordan, Jelko Kacin, Mojca Kleva Kekuš, MSc, Zofija Mazej Kukovič, Alojz Peterle, Ivo Vajgl, Dr Milan Zver; vice president of European Investment Bank Anton Rop, MSc; and a member of the European Court of Auditors Milan M. Cvikl, MSc.

You can see the entire letter by clicking the photo of the document. 

The West African Business Development Forum Africallia 2014 took place last week in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Many distinguished regional and international representatives of states, institutions, and companies were attending the extremely well-visited forum. Apart from 240 African companies, there were at least 160 companies from all over the world present at the forum. In the introduction the assembled audience was also addressed by, among others, the following guest-speakers: Luc Adolphe Tiao, the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso; Alizèta Ouedraogo, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Burkina Faso; Christophe Dabire, a representative of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA); Ginette Nzau-Muteta, a representative of the African Development Bank Group; Bettina Acquier, a representative of the Futurallia organisation; and Gaspard Ouedraogo, the president of the Forum Africallia Organisational Committee.   

Burkina Faso is a member of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), which represents a common market for eight West African states which have more than 100 million inhabitants altogether. UEMOA, which comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, was established at the beginning of 1994, primarily with an aim to increase competitiveness through the common market, coordination of the member states' economic policies, and the supervision and harmonisation of the fiscal policies. These countries are considered to be very promising countries, and they have gained considerable attention from various foreign multinational corporations.

The forum was also attended by a Slovenian delegation which was present at the event in the framework of the successfully organised business trip that had been arranged by Public Agency SPIRIT Slovenia. The following representatives of the Slovenian delegation attended the forum: Tina Lukan, SPIRIT Slovenia; Ivo Boscarol, Pipistrel company CEO; Roman Žnidarič and Boris Lipovšek, Cetis company representatives, and VZMD President Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc. (in the photo at Friday's gala dinner).

After the successful collaboration at the fifth congress of the Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders (AEMEC) and the international investment conference at the Madrid Stock Exchange, Mr. Verbič carried out numerous B2B talks in Ouagadougu, with, among others, the representatives of the following institutions: International Consulting and Investment Group (Burkina Faso), Taiwan-Africa Business Association (Taiwan), Togo Chamber of Commerce (Togo), World Trade Centre Istanbul (Turkey) and CVS SPRL (Democratic Republic of Congo), Ivory Coast Chamber of Commerce, International Cabinet of Consulting and Brokerage (Morocco), and Afrique Agro-Export Association (AAFEX)(Senegal). These B2B talks were held in the framework of the two VZMD international business-investment programmes Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net).     

After actively participating in the last year's international conference Europe for Africa & Africa for World in Ljubljana, and after the Global KEN Forum international conference in Cape Town, VZMD, by participating at this event, substantially expands endeavours and activities of investo.si and invest-to.net programmes in the area of Africa which has huge potential and many opportunities for the future.

After last year's successful presentations of companies, institutions and investment projects in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Buffalo, Bucharest, Cape Town, Dubai, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, VZMD is planning this year to be actively present and to carry out presentations on five different continents!

VZMD kindly invites those wishing to secure their business interest by taking part in their events and activities to contact the VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail tratar@investo.si.

The European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse), of which the Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) is also an active member, has announced the campaign »Better Finance Manifesto« in the framework of which it summons all political parties to take their stand on the four basic principles that need to be implemented in the next five years. EuroFinUse announced the campaign before the upcoming European elections. The manifesto will be presented at the international conference in the European Parliament, which will take place on March 28th in Brussels. EuroFinUse kindly invites all to join the »Better Finance Manifesto«endeavours either by directly participating at the conference, or by contributing their opinions and ideas, and by supporting the campaign via websites and Facebook.

EuroFinUse is starting the campaign with a concise and eloquent VIDEO ANNOUNCEMENT which has been prepared by the VZMD.tv and investo.tv teams. Some important points have been emphasized in the announcement, among them the fact that households are the main source of funds for financial investments. Another fact accentuated in the announcement is that trust into the financial system has been in great deal lost. It was lost after the crisis in 2008 that, in many cases, on one hand and in many cases led to »privatising profits«gained by small elite circles, and on the other hand the crisis led to »socializing losses. «It is time for European politicians and regulators to now combine their existing focus on financial stability with a new focus on fairness and on shoring up the real economy by engaging in the protection of savers.  

The four main principles of the »Better Finance Manifesto« campaign are:

 FIRSTLY: Ensure households provide adequate long-term savings for the real economy

In EuroFinUse they have been warning that the ongoing destruction of the real value of households' savings has to come to an end. It is necessary to promote the role and involvement of individual shareholders in the long-term financing of the EU economy through enhancing minority shareholders' rights and facilitating the exercise of their voting rights, especially for cross border voting. It is necessary to promote equities as an adequate, simple, cheap, liquid and transparent long term investment tool. Capital markets (equities and bonds) should return to their natural participants – end investors and non-financial issuers. It is important to improve the governance of listed companies and investment intermediaries to avoid situations where executives depart with huge bonuses and non-insider shareholders and taxpayers end up with many more billions of losses.

SECONDLY: It is crucial to improve and harmonise savers' and investors' protection, whatever the product and whoever the distributor.

All EU citizens should be allowed the access to unbiased and cost-efficient financial advice, whilst at the same time ensuring direct access for citizens to capital markets. It is vital to achieve a »level playing field«for pre-contractual information for investment products, regardless of the type of the product, whether it is a simple investment or a more complex financial product.

THIRDLY: Further improvement of the European financial supervision and enforcement

FOURTHLY: Stop tax discrimination against European savers.

Individual investors and other real economy financial users have to be exempt from all FTTs (financial transaction taxes). It is necessary to put an end to the double taxation of cross-border dividends. Taxation above 100% of real income from savings has to be forbidden.

After Thursday's fifth Congress of the Spanish Association of individual investors and shareholders (AEMEC), the International Investment Conference took place at the Stock Exchange in Madrid on Friday. The conference was prepared by the above mentioned association in cooperation with the European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse). At Thursday's gala event AEMEC awards were also granted to, among others, MAPFRE Insurance Company and Jazztel telecommunication company. The award for the scientific work in the field of shareholders' protection was given to attorney Bercovitz Alberto Rodriguez-Cano, and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS (Airbus Group) was given the EuroFinUse »Shareholders-friendly Award«, which was in 2011 and 2012 also given to two Slovenian companies (EXCLUSIVE VIDEO REPORT).  

Friday's International Conference at the Madrid Stock Exchange was attended by numerous representatives of different companies and institutions, as well as by the following eminent guests: the President of the Madrid Stock Exchange Antonio Zoido; the President of the Association of the Spanish Issuers of Securities and a Board member of the power multinational enterprise ENDESA Salvador Montejo; the Director of the European Commission Representation; Nadia Calviño, a representative of the European Commission; Francisco seca, ex−President of the Spanish Parliament; José Bono, the President of EuroFinUse; Jean Berthon, the EuroFinUse Executive Director; Guillaume Prache, AEMEC Secretary General and a co−founder of the renowned law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo; Wilfried Hübscher, vice−president of the World Federation of Investors; Lourdes Centeno, Vice−President of the Spanish National Securities Market Commission, and many others. 

The VZMD President Mr Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., also attended the events in the framework of the activities and endeavours of the international business-investment programmes Invest to Slovenia - investo.si and International Investor` Network - investo.international. Mr Verbič, also a member of the EuroFinUse Board of Directors, used this opportunity for numerous bilateral and multilateral talks. In this context this has been his fourth visit to Madrid, after participating there at the following past events: last year's international conference of the World Federation of Investors (WFI) and the conference of the International Financial Litigation Network (IFLN), AEMEC Congress and a meeting with the Santander Bank management team in 2011, and the General Assembly of the European Association of Shareholders (Euroshareholders) at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Madrid in 2010.

After having finished his visit to Spain, the VZMD President is, with a stop in Brussels, immediately departing for Burkina Faso, where he will be attending West−Africa Business Forum Africallia 2014, which is taking place in the capital Ouagadougou.

This year's intensive international activities of investo.si and invest-to.net programmes started with these visits to Madrid and Ouagadougou, where Mr Verbič has departed after having attended the festive awards ceremony of high−level recognitions, awarded by the International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES), in Bled (VIDEO REPORT). Within the framework of these two international programmes active presentations have been planned this time on five different continents! 

After last year's successful presentations of companies, institutions and investment projects in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Buffalo, Bucharest, Cape Town, Dubai, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, VZMD kindly invites those wishing to secure their business interest by taking part in their events and activities to contact the investo.si programme coordinator by phone +386 31 770 771, or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  

A festive awards ceremony of high-level recognitions, awarded by the International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan Studies, IFIMES, took place in Bled at the end of last week.

Dr Torhan Mufti, the Iraqi Minister of Provinces and the Acting Minister of Communications of the Republic of Iraq, was awarded for his contribution to the progress and development of the provinces in Iraq; Mr Erdal Trhulj, the Minister of Energy, Industry and Mining for the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was given a recognition for his special contribution to development of energy sector and economy of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Dr Božo Dimnik, the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Croatia, and the President of the Slovene-Croatian Friendship Society, was awarded for a special contribution to the development of the Slovene-Croatian relationships; Dr Gregor Virant was given a recognition for a special contribution to the battle against organised crime and corruption. The peak of the formal part was, of course, Lifetime Achievement Award given to Budimir Lončar, a doyen of diplomacy and international relations.

Besides many esteemed guests from the field of economy, diplomacy and politics, the President of the Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), Mr Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., also attended the festive awards ceremony and the gala feast. Mr Verbič also used this opportunity to talk about the coming activities and endeavours of the international business-investment programmes Invest to Slovenia - investo.si and International Investors` Network – invest-to.net.    

In the framework of the two international business-investment programmes, Mr Verbič, departed on Wednesday for Madrid, to attend the conference of the Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders (AEMEC) and of the European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse). Afterwards Mr Verbič is, with a stop in Brussels, departing for Burkina Faso, where he is going to attend West-Africa Business Forum Africallia 2014, which will take place in the capital Ouagadougou.

After last year's successful presentations of companies, institutions and investment projects in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Buffalo, Bucharest, Cape Town, Dubai, Vienna, Kiew, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, VZMD have this year intensified their activities, and they are planning to be actively present and to organise presentations on five continents.

VZMD kindly invites those wishing to secure their business interest by taking part in their activities to contact the VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail tratar@investo.si. 

The Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), has filed three lawsuits through law office on Friday, January 17. The three lawsuits were filed against the banks at the District Courts in Ljubljana and Maribor, and they were filed in the name of 349 owners. By filing these three lawsuits VZMD has requested that the two District Courts declare the nullity of the simplified reduction and simultaneous increase of the banks' nominal capital, by which all the owners of subordinated bonds and shares of these banks have been expropriated. At this moment VZMD cannot yet reveal details of the lawsuit strategies and legal bases for them, but they have been formed as a result of cooperation between VZMD expert assistants and top experts in the field of register law.

Act amending Banking Act (ZBan-1L), which was – in spite of the official negative opinions of some acclaimed legal experts and the veto of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia – for the second time approved by the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, literally prohibits the expropriated subordinated bank creditors from suing the debtor banks because of their expropriation. This is in striking contrast with provisions regarding bond prospectuses which define such lawsuits as basic legal remedies in case prospectus provisions have been violated, therefore the authors of Act amending Banking Act (ZBan-1L) have added to it a paragraph which declares all such prospectus provisions void. Legal protection of the bank subordinated creditors has thus practically ceased to exist.

The constitutional principle which says that everyone has the constitutional right to a legal remedy has thus been very obviously and radically violated. Therefore the ZBan-1L authors have tried to conceal this violation by introducing a provision which says that it is possible to bring a lawsuit against the Bank of Slovenia, but the lawsuit is to be filed by a bank itself. It is absurd because (even if we disregard the fact that members of a bank's Management Board are appointed by The Bank of Slovenia, which can also remove them from their post at any time) the cancellation of a bank's subordinated debt means that a bank benefits from it and it is not at a loss, therefore a Court is not supposed to approve a legal interest for a lawsuit against this cancellation. 

European Federation of Financial Services Users (EuroFinUse), a highly esteemed European association whose influential member is also the PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD), was in the framework of European Public Affairs Awards this year again nominated for the European Non-Governmental Organisation of the Year « (NGO of the Year).

EuroFinUse was nominated for this prestigious award in 2012 when it was represented at the award ceremony in Albert Hall in Brussels also by VZMD president Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., as a member of the EuroFinUse supreme body – Board of Directors. On this occasion Mr Verbič also met the organisers and the assembled representatives of the influential EU lobby and advisory groups (in the photo Mr Verbič together with Jana Mittermaier, Director of the winning non-governmental organisation - Transparency International EU Office (TI-EU), Christian Wennig, Secretary General of the Union of European Federalists' (UEF), and Despina Symons-Pirovolidou, Director of the European Bureau for Conservation & Development (EBCD).

VZMD kindly invites all to submit your vote by clicking on the link: www.epaawards.com/voting. You can submit your vote until 31st January 2014, and the awards are to be granted on 19th February 2014 in Brussels. 

EuroFinuse.org, 09.01.2014

Following the filling of three lawsuits by VZMD, the Slovenian Constitutional Court acknowledged the legal interest of the 293 initiators united by VZMD who were all owners of subordinated bonds of three Slovenian banks who were expropriated on December 18.

VZMD demanded a constitutional review of the Banking Act and the Court accepted the hearing of two VZMD initiatives. However, the suspension of the Act was rejected due to the allegedly misleading claims by the Slovenian Government, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Slovenian concerning the “catastrophic consequences” and “jeopardy of the entire financial system in the Republic of Slovenia”, along with the fact that they claim that the holders will only have “material consequences”.

The PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) last Thursday at the Ljubljana Administrative Court filed three lawsuits through Kunič Law Office against the Bank of Slovenia, in the name of 293 owners of subordinated bonds of three Slovenian banks who were expropriated on December 18. The lawsuits challenge the measure of cancellation of NLB subordinated bonds (in the name of 229 owners of NLB bonds of 26th debenture issue), Factor banka (in the name of 24 owners of Factor banka bonds of 9th debenture issue), and Probanka (in the name of 40 owners of Probanka bonds of 9th, 11th and 12th debenture issues). These bonds were, due to the Bank of Slovenia exceptional measures which were carried out on 18 December 2013, cancelled without any explanation, without any compensation, and on top of this the expropriated owners of bonds were not even allowed to examine a decision about the cancellation, which has been justified by the Bank of Slovenia by claiming that there is supposed to be confidential information in these decisions!?!

Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia at the meeting held on Wednesday, December 18th, adopted a decision to accept into hearing the initiatives for constitutional review of the Banking Act (ZBan-1L), which were proposed on 4th and 10th December by the Pan-Slovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) which submitted the initiatives through Kunič Law Office in the name of 290 holders of bonds. The Constitutional Court accepts for hearing only those initiatives whose initiators have expressed legal interest, and the judges of the Constitutional Court have rejected statement made by the Slovenian Government which has been claiming that the initiators do not show legal interest and therefore the Court should dismiss their initiative.    

The Constitutional Court has also accepted the suggestion of the initiators that their initiative should be treated preferentially. It has even decided that the initiative will be treated with absolute precedence, which means that the procedure of the constitutional review of the amending act continued on Wednesday.  

Unfortunately, the Constitutional Court has rejected the proposal of initiators to withold the implementation of this statute until the Court's final decision is made. It seems that the misleading claims of the Slovenian Government, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Slovenia about the »catastrophic consequences«and »jeopardy of the entire financial system in the Republic of Slovenia«which would be the result of such witholding, along with the fact that the holders will only have »material«consequences, convinced the Constitutional Court Judges that the proposed witholding is not necessary.  

The cancellation of shares and subordinated bonds of the Slovenian banks has already taken place, synchronously with the Constitutional Court Session. A-bank has informed its investors that their shares and subordinated bonds do not exists any more at 15:47, NLB has done a similar thing at 16:51, and NKBM at 19:12.

None of the three banks or boards thought it would be appropriate to express their regret, let alone apologize to their investors and creditors – A-bank board has in the previously mentioned statement even ludicrously written that A-bank »as a bank important for the system, with stable operating profit, will continue to pay special attention to ensure security and stability of operations". 

Before the Wednesday's session of the Slovenian Institutional Court VZMD submitted to the Institutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia through Kunič Law Office in the name of 290 holders of bonds the initiatives for constitutional review, or a written reply to the statement by the Slovenian Government about both VZMD initiatives for constitutional review of the Banking Act (ZBan-1L). VZMD has, with these two initiatives, also suggested witholding implementation of disputable amending act. Some VZMD experts think that this opinion - which the Slovenian Government adopted and published on Friday, 13th December 2013, after being asked by the Constitutional Court to make its stand on the initiatives for constitutional review - is absolutely misleading.

Another initiative has been added to the above mentioned initiatives, namely the demand of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia for the constitutional review, and VZMD has emphasized that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia may indeed reject the initiatives, whereas the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia has been qualified for proposing cases which the Constitutional Court has to deal with. Like VZMD, the National Council has expressed its opinion that a few ZBan-1L provisions are not in accordance with the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the citizens. Thus an especially problematic provision is the one that, in case of state bank recapitalisation, enables cancellation of debts of all those bank creditors who could, in the case of bankruptcy in the sequence of repaying bank's liabilities, have their turn after the holders of bank deposits and senior bonds. There are two other provisions which are rather questionable: a provision that forbids the expropriated creditors to bring a suit against the bank, and a provision which declares as null guarantees in brochures that the risk of non-payment to the holders of subordinated bonds can take place only in case of bank bankruptcy.

However, the Slovenian Government in its Press Release keeps pretending ignorance, because it simply states that »challenged articles do not interfere with the rights of investors«(?!), that it will be possible to eliminate the »consequences of the challenged articles by constitutional appeal«(after previous constant assurances that it will not be necessary to abolish the consequences, because none of them is against the law), that in case of witholding ZBan-1L »procedures of bank assistance will be in contrast with the EU legislation about bailouts«and it has once again concealed that the guidelines of the European Commission from 1st August 2013 are not binding, and the directive is to be made in the following year, and the member states are to enforce it on 1st January 2018, and on top of that in Article 35, which defines bank measures for gathering capital, they talk about the »voluntary transformation of the subordinated instruments into capital on the basis of stimulation«! The Government of the Republic of Slovenia furthermore in the publicly published material – contrary to the principles regarding protection of personal data – reveals the name of the initiator of the constitutional review, a member of the VZMD Expert Council, Tadej Kotnik, PhD, and it gives to the Constitutional Court a statement that the »initiators do not show any legal interest to challenge ZBan-1L«. Although the assessment of legal interest is not the government's domain, VZMD is wondering if the government of the Republic of Slovenia is not familiar with the fact that the initiative was also filed in the name of NLB bond holders of 26th issue – NLB announced last Thursday that the holders of all NLB d.d. subordinated bonds will have their bonds cancelled, in full and without any compensation?! Apart from that VZMD also emphasizes the A-bank announcement stating that all holders of subordinated bonds will lose their entire investment, also by cancellation, which is – according to the claims by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia – necessary for establishing enough capital for A-bank operations, and the following day A-bank announced that it will invest 5 million EUR of capital into Argolina d.o.o. company which is involved in »investment engineering«!!!

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia in its Statement - sent to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia regarding the VZMD proposal for temporary witholding ZBan-1L, given in the framework of U-I-295-13 initiative – is trying to argue the point that witholding ZBan-1L is dangerous on the basis of 8 claims which are, as paragraphs, stated twice: first in point 5 of the summary of material, and then again on the 1st page of the Statement itself, and later it tries to justify these claims one by one.  

Therefore we have decided to publish a reply or arguments of some VZMD experts related to the Statement of the Slovenian Government, according to the individual claims:

1.) The Government claims that »the challenged articles do not interfere with the rights of investors«. Provisions regarding writing-off qualified obligations of a bank which have been entered in ZBan-1 with the amending act ZBan-1L provide that, in case any of the Slovenian banks gets State aid, debts of all those creditors of the bank who were, in case of its bankruptcy in the sequence of paying bank liabilities placed after the holders of bank deposits and ordinary bonds, are simply cancelled. NLB bank has already officially announced that such a measure will befall all holders of subordinated bonds of this bank by using ZBan-1L. The measure of cancelling subordinated bonds before implementing ZBan-1L was not possible even when bank went bankrupt, because bankruptcy does not terminate any of the debtor's liabilities, only the way of their payment changes. In regular operations debts are paid until their due date, in bankruptcy in the order of their subordination – first prior claims (salaries due), then regular (in banks these are deposits and ordinary bonds), then subordinated (subordinated bonds, then hybrid bonds, at the end shares). If there is a lack of bankruptcy mass, then some creditors are left without payment, however not without their debts – if at any time after the end of the bankruptcy procedure some non-registered property of a debtor is found, this is also used for payment of debts which have not been paid yet. Therefore, according to our opinion, it is clear that the intervention into the rights is present and very obvious.   

2. and 3.) The government claims that »the consequences of the challenged articles can be abolished by constitutional complaint«and that »the consequences will only be of material nature«. This is in contradiction with the Government's claims made so far, namely that it will not be necessary to abolish ZBan-1L consequences, because none of them is against the law. Now the Government allows that there will be some consequences which will be against the law, but it says that they will be »only material«- therefore they can be abolished by compensation. It is difficult to judge all the consequences that can have unlawful confiscation of an important part of someone's property. In case of legal entities this can lead to insolvency and consequently to bankruptcy and termination of business operations, including the termination of employment of all employees, which can be difficult to solve with compensation.

4.) The Government claims that "ZBan-1L requires that the creditors, whose claims were the subject to a measure, do not have losses that are bigger than the losses they would have in case of bank's bankruptcy«. NLB, d.d., announcement from 12 December, cited under item 1, explicitly states that the use of ZBan-1 »probably means writing-off of all currently valid subordinated instruments at NLB d.d.«STA has also already reported that subordinated NLB d.d. creditors will lose an entire investment with this measure. Thus the Government's claim could only hold true if, in case of NLB bankruptcy and the use of all valid legal provisions, none of the subordinated creditors of this bank received any payment.    

However, that this, in case of subordinated bonds of NLB d.d. as an issuing bank, is not true, can be proved by a simple calculation: if NLB d.d. went bankrupt, then all loans given to this bank by the state (Republic of Slovenia) as its main owner, would turn into bank's assets, according to the 498 Article of the Companies Act (ZGD-1). According to the latest accounting statements from 30 September 2013 the state had in NLB, d.d. a deposit in the amount of 1.36 billion euros, which means that even if, in case of insolvency NLB capital was negative in the amount of 1.36 billion euros, the capital would with this conversion again reach point zero, which in terms of bookkeeping suffices that all creditors of the company are entirely paid, including those most subordinated ones. In principle it is possible that there were additional losses that would arise as a result of cashing bankrupt's estate, but on the day NLB, d.d. officially announced that its subordinated creditors will be entirely expropriated of their claims, its capital definitely was not so deeply negative, even it had been calculated according to the most unfavourable scenario of stress tests. The amount of NLB, d.d. capital calculated in stress tests was not publicly announced, but a statement that, even if considering the most negative scenario with capital increase in the amount of 1.9 billion euros, a 15% capital adequacy of this bank will be achieved, which means that with such capital increase, even with such scenario, NLB, d.d. capital would be approximately 1.7 billion euros (15 per cent of bank resources in the total amount of 11 or 12 billion euros), which means that without this capital increase, this capital would be negative in the amount of approximately 200 million euros. If this negative capital was the reason for NLB, d.d. bankruptcy procedures, the transformation of state deposit, as defined in Article 498 of ZGD-1, would place capital back on the positive level, in the amount of more than a billion euros, which definitely would be enough to pay off all creditors, even those most subordinated ones. 

5.) The Government claims that »all procedures regarding aid to banks will run into difficulties, if they are carried out contrary to the rules of the European Union regarding State aid«. The Government has in this claim again »overlooked«the fact that the guidelines of the European Commission are not binding; only a directive which is a technical legal document with unambiguous and precisely defined terminology, and which is formed on the basis of non-technical guidelines, represents binding instructions that provisions of this directive need to be enforced in national legislation of the EU member states. In case of guidelines regarding State aid to banks, the directive is to be formed in the following year, and member states are to put it into force on 1st January 2018, and until then this directive is not to be binding.  

In addition to this the guidelines in the report of the European Commission regarding the use of rules about State aid to banks that the Government refers to, in Article 35, which defines bank measures for collecting capital, talk about »voluntary transformation of subordinated instruments into capital on the basis of an incentive«, and ZBan-1L defines that this transformation, without the owners' will or negotiations with them, be ordered by the Bank of Slovenia, and it can also substitute it by a compulsory write-off – also in its entirety, which was in NLB, d.d. public statement cited in item 1, already officially announced.

6.) The Government claims that »banks have to be aware of the fact that breaking the rules of the European Union means that the European Union will demand that countries return financial means which were unlawfully received, which means that rehabilitation of bank system will not be successful«.  This claim repeats the thesis that the guidelines are law, which is not true; even a directive is not a law, but only an injunction which indicates that provisions of a directive need to be enforced by a law, and by enforcing a law in the national legislation the use of these provisions becomes binding, and it is against the law if we do not use them.    

7.) The Government claims that »the financial resources which the country has at disposal at the moment may be insufficient, and it will not be possible to ensure capital adequacy of banks«. State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance officially declared on 29 November that:«4.7 billion euros will be the maximum amount invested into banks«. When the results of stress tests were announced they said that the State will contribute 3.01 billion euros for bank recovery of NLB, NKBM and A-bank, for capital increase of Probanka and Factor Bank 441 million euros, and for capital increase of bad bank (DUTB) additional 200 million euros, therefore 3.65 billion euros altogether. An entire subordinated debt of the Slovene banking system totals 800 million euros – subordinated debt of the previously mentioned banks is lower – therefore it is clear that because this debt will not be written off, the required financial means from the current 3.65 billion euros cannot exceed 4.7 billion euros.

8.) The Government claims that »emergency measures needed for the recovery of bank system will not be implemented«. This also is not true, because the government can carry out all other measures which can be implemented by using all provisions of the Measures for Strengthening Bank Stability Act (ZUKSB) and all ZBan-1 provisions which have been in use before ZBan-1L was introduced.   

Belarussian-Slovene Business Conference took place yesterday in the premises of the Belarussian Chamber of Commerce in Minsk. The Conference was attended by 21 Slovene and 39 Belarussian companies and institutions, among others Albin Promotion, ACS – Automotive Cluster of Slovenia, Finance Newspaper, Duol, Gonzaga Pro, Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, Helios Group, Institute of Tourism and Sports Radenci, Iskratel, Klima Petek, Kovinatrade, POP TV, Predilnica Litija (a spinning mill), Riko and Stubelj. The Conference was also attended by VZMD President Kristjan Verbič, M.Sc., who arrived at Minsk together with the representatives of the Slovene business diplomacy directly from Moscow, and he presented at the Slovene-Russian Investment Conference the possibilities and opportunities in the framework of VZMD international business-investment programmes: Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and International Investors` Network (invest-to.net), along with PREMIERING OF THE VIDEO prepared by investo.tv for these occasions (click on the image on the left to play the video). 

In the framework of yesterday's Conference the assembled audience was initially addressed by: Belarussian Deputy Foreign Minister Elena Kupchina, General Director of the Directorate for Economic Diplomacy of the Republic of Slovenia Mr Stanislav Raščan, PhD, and Deputy Chairman of the Belarussian Chamber of Commerce Mr Vladimir Ulakhovich. A representative of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce (GZS) Aleš Cantarutti and a representative of Belarussian National Agency for Investments and Privatisation Tatiana Bychkouskaya, presented to the assembled audience Slovene and Belarussian business environment, whereas a representative of the State Tourism Organisation»Centrekurort«Ksenia Pyzh presented their project 2014 Ice Hockey World Championship in Belarus.

The presentations were followed by B2B business meetings where a great interest was expressed in cooperation and the possibilities provided by the two VZMD business-investment programmes. Therefore Mr Verbič, M.Sc., had most meetings of all the 15 Slovene representatives – 8 meetings had been planned initially, however, due to the additional interest Mr Verbič held 11 meetings with the Belarussian participants at the Conference. The conversations were followed by meetings with the representatives of Belarussian institutions in the framework of mixed committee, and a dinner afterwards.

The Conference in Minsk was the last – the 18th carried out abroad this year (VIDEO CLIP) - presentation of VZMD international business-investment programmes before the start of a new season next year. After this year's successful presentations in Astana, Almaty, Baku, Brussels, Bucharest, Cape Town, Vienna, Kiev, Ljubljana, Madrid, Minsk, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, Toronto and Zagreb, VZMD kindly invites those wishing to secure their business interest by taking part in our activitiesto contact the VZMD investo.si programme coordinator by phone 031 770 771, or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. All those interested in our activities can also contact our coordinator to inform him about the

preferred date for a meeting with us and to get more information about our programmes, the anticipated activities and possible opportunities in 2014.