Slovenian leaders agree on balanced budget rule

(LJUBLJANA) - Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa said all major political parties agreed Monday to change the eurozone country's constitution and introduce a balanced budget amendment as soon as possible.

"We all share the wish of balancing our budget as soon as possible, during this mandate anyway," centre-right Jansa told journalists after meeting the heads of all parliamentary parties.

He added the government will soon send to parliament a budget revision that would cut spending and bring the country's budget deficit to below the European Union ceiling of three percent by the end of the year.

"We have agreed in principle that the fiscal rule will be incorporated into the constitution," former prime minister and Social Democrat opposition leader Borut Pahor said after the meeting.

EU leaders on Friday signed a new treaty to reinforce budgetary discipline in the wake of the debt crisis by introducing "golden rules" making balanced budgets mandatory.

Slovenia's national debt, although low by eurozone standards, has almost doubled over the last four years reaching 45.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2011, according to the European Commission.

At the same time, public deficit in 2011 stood at 5.7 percent of GDP almost unchanged from 2010, when it had stood at 5.8 percent of GDP.