The successful drawing of EU funds is one of the central topics in the pre-election campaign across Slovenia’s municipalities. The topic is certainly important for the development of the municipalities and their infrastructures.

Slovenian municipalities have different levels of success with regards to the drawing of EU funds within the existing perspective, at least in relation to the projects they have applied for. Municipalities in the western region (4 statistic regions) have less available funds from the EU Cohesion Policy - 133 million euros out of 420 million euros, whereas eastern Slovenia (6 statistic regions) is eligible to 287 million euros.

The eastern cohesion region is still one of the less developed European regions, where the GDP is less than 75% of the average GDP in the EU. These regions are eligible to half of all budget funding.

Data provided by the Office for Cohesion Policy shows that, with nearly 69 million funds, Ljubljana is the most efficient in drawing funds, taking into account the level of eligible expenditure. Ljubljana is followed by Dravograd, with 40,5 million euros, Kamnik, almost 36 million euros, Postojna, 31,6 million euros and Žužemberk, 28,9 million euros.

Žužemberk, a small municipality in the Dolenjska region with approximately 4,600 inhabitants, is the number one municipality with regards to the projects’ eligible expenditures per capita. Every resident in Žužemberk will 'receive' 6,256 euros from EU funds.