Business Breakfast January 19th 2011; Guests: Mr. Aleš Zalar, Minister of Justice and Mr. Goran Klemenčič, M.Sc., President of Corruption Prevention Commission

Topic: How can jurisdiction and Corruption Prevention Commission contribute to a larger honesty and subsequently to the competitiveness within Slovene economics and environment?

We had an honor to listen to Mr. Aleš Zalar, Minister of Justice who spoke about the rule of law and its importance, especially regarding to economic development. The concept of legal development is often considered separately from economic, social or political development. It should not be so. 60-70% of our legislation is adopted on European level. Our main challenge is application of these laws. We should change the way of applying them and not the institutions for the application as we often do.

Media need one day, courts need one year for condemn. Sentence first, trial later. This leads to discrepancy. The more the expectations are unrealistic, the bigger are frustrations. Our judges are gatekeepers of the rule of law, however they cannot resolve all the problems and disputes. You can be proactive and plan what to do when it comes to dispute and you should also avoid litigations.

Mr. Goran Klemenčič agreed that legitimacy of institutions and business is very low. Corruption is right in the middle and it is a problem in this country. You cannot expect that people will stand by and watch. People want quick fixes. We won’t solve this only by law enforcement and putting people in jail. Nobody knows what are the right tools to prevent the corruption. There are plenty of them. White collars have no fear of consequences. He believes that one thing that would be good is that property which is obtained thorough criminal acts should be immediately taken.

Special thanks goes to our sponsor Comtrade programske rešitve d.o.o..