This Regulation shall define the criteria, conditions and procedure of allocating funds for creating the economic basis for the autochthonous national communities.

Natural persons, members of the autochthonous national communities, and legal entities in the majority ownership of members of an autochthonous national community or founded by a national community shall have the right to compete for the funds from Article 1 for investments in the areas inhabited by members of the autochthtonous national communities.

Funds for creating the economic basis shall be proportionally divided between the two autochthonous national communities and shall be allocated for investments in the development of farms, secondary activities on farms, co-operatives, small business, and for the investments in other production and service facilities in economy.

For the purposes from the preceding paragraph, investors may acquire loans from budgetary funds deposited in the earmarked account at the Ministry of Economic Relations and Development and obtained from the funds acquired on the basis of the Act on the Use of Funds Arising from the Proceeds on the Basis of the Act on the Transformation of Company Ownership (Official Gazette RS, no. 45/95).

Funds for creating economic basis for the autochthonous national communities shall be allocated for a particular project only once.

An investor who won one of the tenders for the promotion of the development of demographically endangered areas in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994, may not participate in the public tender for allocating funds under this Regulation with the same projects.

The project with which the applicant competes for the funds from Article 3 of this Regulation must fulfil the criteria from Article 10 of the Act on the Use of Funds Arising from the Proceeds on the Basis of the Act on the Transformation of Company Ownership (Official Gazette RS, no. 45/95).

Applicants whose financing sources include at least 15% of their own finances may obtain funds from Article 3 of this Regulation in the form of loans.

Loans for individual types of investments shall be allocated in the amount of at most 60% of the estimated value of the investment.

The interests, period of loan redemption and conditions and time of moratorium shall be determined by the competent minister in the public bid for the allocation of funds for creating the economic basis for the autochthonous public communities.

Article 7

When applying for loans under the conditions of Article 6, applicants must submit the following documents:

For acquiring a loan up to SIT 2 million, applicants must submit:

Priority in acquiring funds shall be given to applicants who obtained a positive opinion of the competent regional unit of the agency for the promotion of agriculture, or a positive opinion of a local centre for the promotion of small business, or of an advisor of a network for the promotion of small business with the licence of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, stating that the investment in the field of small business is economically justified, and who have concluded a contract with a business bank on the approved loan.

Funds for creating the economic basis for the autochthonous national communities shall be provided by the Ministry of Economic Relations and Development on the basis of a public bid at least once per year.

All applications submitted on the basis of the public bid shall be examined by the commission consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Economic Relations and Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Government Office for Nationalities.

Prior to examining the applications, the Commission shall obtain the opinion of the Coastal Self-governing National Community of the Italian minority and of the Hungarian National Self-governing Community from the Pomurje region on the importance of the proposed projects for the ensuring economic basis for the autochthonous national communities.

Applicants shall attach the following to the applications addressed to the Ministry of the Economic Relations and Development:

(1) For the projects in the field of the development of farms and secondary activities:

Form A from Article 11 of this Regulation; investment programme or business plan; opinion of the competent regional agency for the promotion of agriculture; certificate of the municipal administrative body on the registration of the secondary activity in the case of an investment in secondary activities; location permit or a decision on the registration of the intended works in the case of an investment for which one of these documents must be obtained in accordance with the law.

(2) For projects in the field of the promotion of the development of small business in the area of production and services:

Form B from Article 11 of this Regulation; investment programme correspondingly formulated according to the methodology of the instructions for formulating the investment programme of minor investment projects (Institute for the Economy of Investments, Ljubljanska banka d.d., March 1992), or a business plan; financial construction with documented financing sources (contracts concluded with other investors, if such sources are foreseen) and the time schedule of financing; location permit or a decision on the registration of the intended works in the case of an investment for which one of these documents must be obtained in accordance with the law; opinion of the local centre for the promotion of small business, or of an advisor of a network for the promotion of small business with the licence of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, stating that the investment is economically justified, a concluded contract with a business bank on the approved loan.

(3) For the projects in the field of the promotion on investments in other production and service facilities in the economy:

Form B from Article 11 of this Decree, investment programme formulated according to the methodology published in the manual for formulating investment programmes (Institute for the Economy of Investments, Ljubljanska banka d.d., 1991) or a business plan; financial construction with documented financing sources (contracts concluded with other investors, if such sources are foreseen) and the time schedule of financing; conclusion of the administering body on the guaranteed own funds for the investment; location permit or a decision on the registration of the intended works in the case of an investment for which one of these documents must be obtained in accordance with the law; opinion of the local centre for the promotion of small business, or of an advisor of a network for the promotion of small business with the licence of the Ministry of Economic Affairs; a concluded contract with a business bank on the approved loan.

Forms A and B shall be defined by a Decree of the Minister of Economic Relations and Development, and shall be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.

The applicants obtaining the funds on the basis of Articles 3 and 6 of this Decree shall conclude a credit contract on the drawing on the funds with the bank with which the Ministry of Economic Relations and Development concludes a contract on operation under authorisation. Upon singing the contract, the users of the loans must submit a contract with an insurance company on the loan insurance or mortgage.

The Ministry of Economic Relations and Development shall monitor the use of the funds allocated under the public bid through an authorised bank. The investors must enable the Ministry or the authorised bank to supervise the use of the funds by allowing them to control at any time the realisation of the investment and permitting insight into their books of account and instruments relating to the use of the allocated funds.

Should the Ministry of Economic Relations and Development or the authorised bank find that the funds were not used for the purpose for which they had been allocated or that the funds were alienated in any way, or the loan had been awarded on the basis of false data, it shall have the right immediately to demand from the investor to return in lump sum all the funds not used for the purpose for which they had been allocated. The investor should pay back the funds and the interest on arrears from the date of remittance in accordance with the Law on the Prescribed Interest Rate of the Interest on Arrears (Official Gazette RS, no. 14/92, 13/93 and 45/95) and with the Decree on the Manner of Accounting Interest on Arrears (Official Gazette RS, no. 14/92 and 27/92).

On the day of entering into force of this Regulation, the Regulation on Criteria, Conditions and Procedure for Allocating Funds for Creating the Economic Bases for the Autochthonous National Communities shall terminate

Source: Report submitted by the Republic of Slovenia pursuant to Art. 25 Para. 1 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
http://www.humanrights.coe.int/minorities/Eng/FrameworkConvention/StateReports/2000/slovenia/slovenia.html#annex2