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This summary is provided by the STA:
Referendum on changes to water act to be held on 11 July
LJUBLJANA - MPs decided that Slovenians will head to the polls on 11 July to vote on amendments to the water act that have pitted environmentalists, who say the legislation paves the way for the build-up of coastal land, against the government, which says their claims are misguided. The referendum was supposed to be held on 4 July, but it was pushed forward by a week after it was determined that recent electoral law changes had inadvertently left out a few settlements with roughly 800 inhabitants. The delay, the coalition argued, is needed so that electoral law can be fixed in time, while the opposition countered that this was merely a manoeuvre designed to push the date deeper into the summer season.
Ilešič not confirmed as EU Court judge
LJUBLJANA - Marko Ilešič will not get a new term as EU Court judge after the National Assembly voted by 37 in favour and 43 against in a secret ballot. Ilešič was nominated by President Borut Pahor after consultations with parliamentary factions and was endorsed by the Privileges and Credentials Commission, but now he fell nine votes short of the required absolute majority. Six ballots were invalid. It was never clear whether he enjoyed the necessary support since almost all parties kept mum about their voting intentions. Ilešič has been representing Slovenia at the court since 2004.
Janša says Belarus debate shows EU firmly behind its values
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Prime Minister Janez Janša hailed the European Council's decision to step up sanctions against Belarus, saying the debate had shown the EU standing firmly behind its values. "Us placing human rights and political freedoms of an individual, human, in the centre is the right answer to what has happened," Janša said in a reference to Belarus forcing the diversion of a passenger flight in order to arrest a dissident journalist.
Slovenia, Serbia agree to recognise vaccination certificates
LJUBLJANA - FM Anže Logar and his Serbian counterpart Nikola Selaković agreed on a mutual recognition of vaccination certificates as they held talks that focused on bilateral relations and Slovenia's forthcoming presidency of the Council of the EU. Logar noted that the Western Balkans was one of the priorities of the presidency, with the planned informal EU-Western Balkans summit expected to open up a series of questions. The ministers agreed that the countries are important business partners, who had doubled bilateral trade in the last ten years, to bring it above EUR 1.1 billion last year.
Minister Hojs presents Slovenia's EU presidency priorities in Malta
VELLATE, Malta - Interior Minister Aleš Hojs met his Maltese counterpart Byron Camilleri to present the priorities of the coming Slovenian EU presidency. Hojs highlighted the role of efforts to strengthen the Schengen area, the ministry said. "We will devote efforts to a search for appropriate solutions regarding negotiations over legislative acts that are part of the migration and asylum package," said Hojs, noting that another key priority would be the strengthening of the Schengen area.
Police results in 2020 encouraging, public trust lower
LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian police leadership presented the annual report on police work in 2020, saying the results were encouraging, although the Covid epidemic presented an unprecedented situation for the police force in its entire 30 years. Despite the good work, a public opinion poll has shown decreasing trust in the force, which Deputy Police Commissioner Tomaž Pečjak commented on by saying that the results were being taken seriously and the police were already working on restoring trust.
Covid-19: 7-day average drops to 309, hospitalisations below 300
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's rolling average of daily coronavirus cases has dropped to 309, just above the threshold to move to the green tier, as Covid-19 hospitalisations have already fallen under 300, fresh government data show. Out of 3,558 PCR tests performed yesterday, 326 new cases were confirmed for a positivity rate of 9.2%. A total of 44,113 people were screened with rapid antigen tests.
Vaccines in short supply this week
LJUBLJANA/MARIBOR - Slovenia's vaccination centres are receiving fewer anti-Covid vaccines this week than they have ordered because supplies by producers other than Pfizer are still rather unreliable, the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) told the STA. This week, vaccination centres will receive all the ordered vaccines for second jabs, but only 70% of the ordered mRNA vaccines, that is by Pfizer or Moderna, and just 20% of the ordered supplies of the Johnson & Johnson's vaccine.
Record workload for Information Commissioner in 2020
LJUBLJANA - The Office of the Information Commissioner received a record number of applications, complaints and queries last year, according to the annual report submitted to the National Assembly. A total of 565 complaints were received, and the number of requests for opinion rose by almost a third due to high demand for information about spending on public health measures. More than 40% of the complaints refer to state bodies and a high share of those concern failure by the competent authorities to answer freedom of information requests. The office says this is worrying.
New FURS head to speed up digitalisation
LJUBLJANA - Ivan Simič, who was appointed interim head of Financial Administration (FURS) last week, plans to simplify FURS's operations and services as well as speed up digitalisation. But he does not plan to keep the post for more than six months, he told the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija last night. His term starts on 1 June and will last until a new head is appointed, but no longer than the end of November.
Triglav shareholders to get dividend of EUR 1.7 per share
LJUBLJANA - The annual general meeting insurance company Zavarovalnica Triglav decided on Tuesday to pay out a dividend of EUR 1.7 gross per share, as proposed by the management and supervisory boards. EUR 38.7 million or just over half of last year's consolidated profit will be allocated for dividends.
EUR 0.85 dividend confirmed for Sava Re shareholders
LJUBLJANA - The shareholders of the insurance group Sava Re confirmed at annual general meeting (AGM) the dividend payout of EUR 0.85 gross per share for 2020. The AGM representing 79.85% of the voting rights endorsed the proposal by the management and supervisory boards that EUR 13.17 million out of EUR 23.81 in distributable profit from the end of last year be allocated for dividends. They also appointed two new members of the supervisory board and extended the term of another supervisor.
New truck entrance to Koper port inaugurated
KOPER - A new entrance for trucks to the port of Koper was inaugurated to reroute heavy cargo traffic from the main roads just outside the city of Koper. Luka Koper, which operates the port, has also a new car park for 6,000 vehicles and a new petrol station. The Bertoki entry to the port, which cost almost EUR 5 million, was inaugurated by Luka Koper chairman Dimitrij Zadel and Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec.
Slovenia gets additional EUR 9m in React-EU funds
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Slovenia will get an additional EUR 8.9 million from the React-EU facility under a European Commission decision that allocates an extra EUR 286.5 million to France, Malta and Slovenia. The funds will be allocated to support the most deprived population groups, the Commission said. React-EU is a cohesion instrument worth EUR 47.5 billion that is part of the EU's recovery and resilience fund.
Business sentiment continues to improve
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's business sentiment has continued to improve in May for the sixth month in a row as the relevant indicator was up by 6.2 percentage points over April. The latest figure, standing at 5.6 percentage points, was also up by 6.8 percentage points on the long-term average, the Statistics Office said.
STA being put forward for state decoration
LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian Association of Journalists (DNS) will put forward a proposal to President Borut Pahor to decorate the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) on its 30th anniversary. DNS head Petra Lesjak Tušek announced the move as the fundraising campaign for the STA entered its final week, having raised EUR 246,300 in donations.
Police arrest almost 60 members of criminal ring
LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian police arrested about 60 members of the Montenegro-based international criminal ring Kavački Klan, which also had an arm in Slovenia, the newspaper Večer reported. The group trafficked drugs and weapons. Kavački Klan is based Montenegro, but is also active in Serbia and other European countries.
Slovenian women shooters win silver at European championships
OSIJEK, Croatia - Slovenian shooters Urška Kuharič, Živa Dvoršak and Klavdija Jerovšek won silver in the women's 10m air rifle team event at the 2021 European Shooting Championships, having to concede a 2:16 defeat against Russia in the final. Slovenia had a score of 623.2 points to place second among the eight top-scoring teams today. Kuharič was the best Slovenian shooter (209.5 points), followed by Dvoršak (207.7 points) and Jerovšek (206 points).
