We are not Cyprus, Slovenian prime minister says
Slovenian officials launched a damage-limitation campaign this week as concerns reappeared that the small country may be the next to succumb to the banking crisis after Cyprus.
Hungary’s western neighbour can save its banks by itself, Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek said on Tuesday following meetings in Brussels. “It is, at the least, abusive to make comparisons with Cyprus,” European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said on the same day as news headlines spoke of a domino effect following the eurozone’s bailout of the Mediterranean island last month.
Both Slovenia and Cyprus were among the countries to join during the EU’s large-scale extension of its membership in 2004, and both have subsequently adopted the euro, Slovenia leading the way in 2007.
