Structural funds are financial tool of the regional policy of the EU and support development of the European regions lagging behind in development due to various reasons. Their goal is to reduce differences and to create an environment for a uniform and balanced development of all countries and regions of the European Union.

 
Pursuant to the Strategic Guidelines of the Community 2007-2013 and Council Regulation (EC) no. 1083/2006 on general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, European Social Fund and Cohesion Fund, and pursuant to the repeal of Regulation (EC) no. 1260/1999 on implementation of the EU cohesion policy in the period 2007-2013, the Republic of Slovenia has prepared programme documents at two levels:

 
- at the first level, the National Strategic Reference Framework (in continuation: NSRO) and
- at the second, more concrete level, Operational Programmes (in continuation: OP).

 
NSRO is a document of development planning, providing the cohesion policy funds aid to be harmonised with the cohesion policy and determining the connection between priority tasks of the EU on the one hand, and strategic and implementation documents of the development planning on the other. NSRO represents a foundation for OP preparation within the funds of cohesion policy.

 
OP is implementation programme document of NSRO, determining in details the content of development priorities and priority directions for its implementation, and the European Commission confirms it by decision. The goals of OP are achieved by conducting the operations. OPs created on the basis of NSRO and enabling disbursement from individual EU funds, are:

 
- OP for reinforcing regional development potentials for the period 2007-2013
- OP for developing human resources for the period 2007-2013
- OP for development of environmental and traffic infrastructure for the period 2007-2013.

 
The Republic of Slovenia, primarily responsible for efficient and economic use of cohesion policy resources in accordance with Council Regulation (EC) no. 1083/2006, has determined the assignment of tasks and obligations in the Decree on the implementation of procedures for the use of the European cohesion policy funds in the Republic of Slovenia in the programming period 2007-2013 (Official Gazette no. 41/2007, from 11 May 2007), determining competences, responsibilities and tasks of the participants in the procedures of planning and use of European cohesion policy resources and implementation of OPs and regulating their mutual relations.

The Ministry of Justice and implementation of the projects in the programming period 2007-2013

The Ministry of Justice is a direct budget user acting as a rightful claimant. Its competences, responsibilities and tasks are determined in Article 7 of the Decree on the implementation of procedures for the use of the European cohesion policy funds in the Republic of Slovenia in the programming period 2007-2013 (Official Gazette no. 41/2007, from 11 May 2007), whereby the direct budget user acting as a rightful claimant in accordance with second paragraph of Article 7 also performs the tasks determined in the first paragraph of Article 6 of the Decree.

 
In the programming period 2007-2013, the Ministry of Justice is included into the OP for development of human resources for the period 2007-2013, which will be financed from the European Social Fund. Common goals of the OP for development of human resources for the period 2007-2013 relate to providing increased employment, social inclusion, higher standard of living and reducing regional differences, which can be achieved by increased investment in people, whose human capital will ensure higher level of innovation, employability and economic growth. A specific role for achieving OP goals will be assigned to the fifth development priority: "Institutional and administrative qualification". Within the context of efficiency of providing public services, this development priority will represent one of the key factors of country competitiveness – and here, the Ministry of Justice will also cooperate within the first priority direction: "Efficient and successful state administration".

 
The most important goal of the fifth development direction is "development of an appropriate institutional and administrative qualification for efficient structural adjustment, growth, jobs and economic development".

 
The Ministry of Justice approaches to solving the said problem in a comprehensive manner and takes into consideration three development areas, of which two (development of system of efficiency, and successfulness of the public sector and e-administration) are general fundamental development areas, directed towards establishment of the environment and conditions for efficient (the smallest costs at a given extent of the services) and successful (the best results for stakeholders at a given extent of the services) administration. The third area relates to a specific environment, which is of key significance to achieve the set goals – modernisation of the justice.

 
Efficient implementation of the operational programme, development priorities, priority directions and operations is the purpose of the sixth development priority: »Technical aid«. Activities performed within the framework of technical aid will help to increase recognition of the programme and its components, quality of its implementation, its monitoring and control of its implementation, and will ensure higher harmonisation between partners. Within the framework of technical aid, preparation of project proposals will be stimulated, various studies and evaluations, and information and publicity to support project activities will be performed and appropriate personnel support to perform activities will be provided.

Useful links

 
The Government Office for Local-Selfgovernment and Regional Policy

 
Structural funds of the EU in Slovenia