During the first day of the study visit, meetings were held at the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and the Ministry of Health. Also, the delegation of the Committee visited the Ljubljana University Medical Centre (Ljubljana UMC).

At the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, the delegation met with Ms Katja Rihar Bajuk, Director General of the Directorate for Labour Relations and Labour Rights, as well as with Mr Borut Mislej, Head of the Sector for Pension and Labour Rights. The meeting was also attended by Ms Veronika Zorko and Ms Ivana Vrh from the Service for Coordination of European Affairs. The meeting was held on the topic of the reform of the pension system.

After the introductory words, the Chairperson of the Committee, Mr Suad Numanović, pointed out that the main reason for the study visit of the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare were amendments to the Pension and Disability Insurance Law.

On these and other issues, at the meeting, a constructive dialogue was conducted with representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the Republic of Slovenia.

At the Ministry of Health, the delegation of the Committee held a meeting with the Director General of the Directorate for Healthcare, Ms Tanja Mate, and the Director General of the Directorate for Healthcare Economics, Mr Mirko Stopar, and the associates.

During the meeting, the representatives of the parliamentary delegation and the delegation of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia exchanged experiences related to topics such as budgeting and allocation of financial resources in health care, information system in health care, brain drain and supplementary health insurance.

During a visit to the Ljubljana University Medical Centre, the delegation of the Committee had the opportunity to meet with Ms Jadranka Buturović Ponikvar, Medical Director of Ljubljana UMC, and Ms Zdenka Mrak, head nurse at the Ljubljana UMC. The presentation tour at the Ljubljana UMC was also attended by Mr Matjaž Veselko, Medical Director of the Surgical Clinic. The delegation also visited the Clinical Department of Cardiovascular Surgery and the Clinical Department of Paediatric Surgery and Intensive Care of the Surgical Clinic of Ljubljana UMC.

After the visit to the Ljubljana UMC, the necessity of continuing with the education of health workers from Montenegro in Ljubljana UMC was jointly noted, as well as the creation of conditions for the enrolment of students from Montenegro into the Faculty of Medicine in Ljubljana.

Today’s meeting at the ministries and the visit to the Ljubljana University Medical Centre was also attended by Ms Stanica Popović, first advisor at the Embassy of Montenegro.