Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that Slovenia will likely have to introduce vignettes for highways for shorter periods under pressure from the European Commission.
Janša stated after a meeting with future Prime Minister Borut Pahor at a press conference on measures to mitigate the effects of the global financial crisis that his government did not accept the offered resignation of the leadership of the state agency DARS, which has been criticized for difficulties related to vignettes and highway construction.
Commenting on the initiation of the European Commission’s procedure against Slovenia for not having ‘shorter’ vignettes for cars in transit, Janša said it is almost certain that such vignettes will have to be introduced and, if necessary, as early as next year. This will not hinder the method of financing highway construction, and vignettes as a method of flat-rate toll payment introduced by my government will remain in effect, he stated.
The Slovenian government on Tuesday again confirmed that it had requested an extension of the one-month deadline to respond to the first warning from Brussels regarding vignettes, so the future Pahor government will have to respond to the EC.
