STA, 2 October 2020 - Media have reported that the government is drafting a bill which would merge eight key regulators into two super-agencies, whose managements would be appointed by the cabinet. The main arguments for the restructuring is debureaucratisation and streamlining.

The bill, drafted by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, is in coordination between departments from the middle of this week until Monday.

The public agencies affected by the bill reportedly received the draft only on Thursday, and had a mere 24 hours to send in their comments and remarks. Its wording is not public and there will be no public consultation about it.

The draft obtained by several media outlets envisages an agency for market and consumers, which would absorb the Energy Agency, Agency for Communication Networks and Services, Competition Protection Agency, Traffic Safety Agency, Civil Aviation Agency and Railway Transport Agency.

The new super-agency would regulate the following markets - energy, telecommunications, postal services, media and audiovisual services, and all forms of transport, while also supervising mergers and takeovers and competition and consumer protection.

The government would meanwhile also merge the Securities Market Agency and the Insurance Supervision Agency into a new public agency for financial markets, which would also take over some of the powers from Banka Slovenije, the central bank.

The ministry says the main motivation behind the bill is debureaucratisation, synergies and streamlining of processes, while the media note that the proposals encroached upon the agencies' independence.

The agency for market and consumers would be managed by a seven-member council and a four-member management with a five-year term. Both would be appointed by the government, the latter on proposal from the council after a public call for applications.

The council members in charge of telecommunications, consumer protection and energy would get six-year terms, and the remaining members three-year terms.

A rotation system is envisaged under which up to half of the council may be replaced at once, which is expected to increase the body's independence from economic interests.

The management would feature members in charge of postal, media and audiovisual services, of transport, of electronic communications and of consumer protection.

This is a major difference in comparison with the existing regulation, under which the majority of agency directors need to also be confirmed in the National Assembly.

The super-agency for financial markets would be governed by a five-member council and a three-member management, which would be appointment under the same procedure. Members of both bodies would be appointed for six-year terms.

If the bill is passed in parliament, the two agencies would assume all employees, property, assets, powers, archives and current cases from the existing eight agencies, while the terms of their managements would be terminated immediately.

The government is expected to adopt the bill soon and send it into regular procedure in the National Assembly.

Media are noting that attempts at similar mergers were already made by the second government of Janez Janša (2012-2013), and that ideas about merging financial regulators were floated during the government of Miro Cerar (2014-2018).

STA, 3 October 2020 - Face masks will no longer be required for nursery and kindergarten children and primary and secondary school pupils in their class, and for teachers up to the third grade of primary school, under a decision taken by the government last night.

Higher education and university teachers will also not be required to wear masks provided they hold lectures from behind a plexiglass or other type of protective screen. Gym teachers will also not be required to wear masks.

Meanwhile, teachers from the 4th grade of primary school on and secondary school teachers will be required to wear face masks when they cannot keep a distance of at least two meters from pupils during class.

The decision, taken at a cabinet correspondence session, comes after Slovenia registered a record number of daily coronavirus cases for Thursday, at 238, although Education Ministry data show the number of infections at schools has been falling.

Data as of Friday show that one month into the new school year, 0.03% of all pupils and staff at nurseries, kindergartens, and primary and secondary schools are infected, while 0.36% are self-isolating.

Moreover, the Education Ministry noted yesterday that the number of infections had been slightly decreasing in the past week compared with mid-September. Most active infections were recorded on 17 September, at 176, with 136 active infections on 1 October.

The government yesterday also passed a decree under which hand sanitisers will have to be placed at entrances and lift doors of multi-apartment buildings.

The government also relocated EUR 2.5 million for the European Commission Emergency Support Instrument for advance payments to manufacturers of promising vaccines against Covid-19.

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Slovenia sees new surge in coronavirus cases

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia passed a new record in daily coronavirus cases as 238 tests came back positive on Thursday, with the total now surpassing 6,100 as the death toll increased by two to 154. Data released by the government show that 3,281 tests were conducted yesterday, which means 7.25% were positive. Calculations from the Jožef Stefan Institute show infections double about every 17 days, while government spokesman Jelko Kacin said the two-week incidence rate was almost 87 per 100,000 residents.

Janša urges serious EU preparations for winter season of Covid-19

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Prime Minister Janez Janša highlighted after the EU summit the urgency of serious preparations for the autumn and winter season with the novel coronavirus, especially in light of reports that vaccination, at least not in sufficient amounts, will likely still not be available early next year. He also stressed it was in everybody's interest to adopt the EU's recovery package without delays. Janša meanwhile welcomed the summit's proclamation of strategic sovereignty with a simultaneous preservation of an open economy as the bloc's key goal and the decisions on relations with Turkey and sanctions against the regime in Belarus.

PM Janša says migration pact in current form not acceptable to anyone

BRUSSELS, Beligum - The new EU migration pact in the current form is not entirely acceptable to anyone but everyone finds it a good starting point for further negotiations, Prime Minister Janez Janša said after the EU summit. "But at the same time this text is better than those so far, and virtually everyone finds it an acceptable starting point for further talks and negotiations," he said when asked whether the new migration pact was acceptable for Slovenia. Janša however expects no major steps in this field in the coming months.

Janša responds to Commission's rule of law report by stressing lack of funds for healthcare

BRUSSELS, Belgium - PM Janez Janša commented on the European Commission's concerns about the lack of resources in Slovenia for key independent bodies like the corruption watchdog and the networks regulator by saying he was much more worried about the lack of funds for healthcare than he was about NGOs and other organisations. Janša told the press after the EU summit that he had not yet read and found it hard to comment on the Commission's rule of law report, which also spoke of pressure exerted on journalists through lawsuits and online harassment. He added that nobody had noticed this report in Brussels and that "it therefore probably cannot be anything special".

Unofficial: Govt to label Huawei as high-risk supplier

LJUBLJANA - According to unofficial information, the Slovenian government is to decide in the coming weeks whether to label the Chinese technological giant Huawei as a high-risk supplier. Huawei has expressed negative surprise over the report. A document obtained by the STA shows that the risk assessment has been made on the basis of the European criteria for cyber security of the fifth generation technology (5G). The draft decision prepared by the Public Administration Ministry, which is still being coordinated between departments, labels Huawei and the companies with capital, structural or organisational connections with it as high-risk suppliers.

Janša wishes speedy recovery to Donald and Melania Trump

LJUBLJANA - Prime Minister Janez Janša wished US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump a swift recovery following news that the couple had contracted coronavirus. "All friends of the US in Slovenia, especially [wife] Urška Bačovnik and I are thinking of President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump and wish them a full and speedy recovery," Janša wrote on Twitter.

Agreement signed for hydro plants on the Sava

TRBOVLJE - The government and the state-owned power holding HSE signed a concession contract for hydro power plants on the central part of the Slovenian section of the Sava river. Environment Minister Andrej Vizjak, who signed the deal on the government's behalf, said the first three of the planned power plants would built in ten years. The plan is to build between nine and 12 hydro power plants on the section between Ježica, north of Ljubljana, and Suhadol, some 50 kilometres to the east.

Govt reportedly merging eight key regulators into two agencies

LJUBLJANA - Media have reported that the government is drafting a bill which would merge eight key regulators into two super-agencies, whose managements would be appointed by the cabinet. The main arguments for the restructuring is debureaucratisation and streamlining. The bill, drafted by the Economy Ministry, is in coordination between departments until next Monday. The public agencies affected by the bill reportedly received the draft only on Thursday, and had a mere 24 hours to send in their comments and remarks. Its wording is not public and there will be no public consultation about it.

Ambassadors from Visegrad Group visit Koper port

KOPER - Port operator Luka Koper hosted the ambassadors of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia. Luka Koper CEO Dimitrij Zadel said on the occasion that the ambition of the port was to become the main maritime window for the economies of Visegrad Group members. The meeting was organised by Polish Ambassador Krzysztof Olendzki, since Poland currently presides over the Visegrad group of countries, with which Luka Koper has close business ties, the port operator said. The Koper port and the Polish port Gdynia are two starting points on the European Amber railway corridor, while this is also the main transport axis in the Three Seas initiative, Olendzki stressed.

Pahor meets minority reps over Carinthian plebiscite ceremony

LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor hosted representatives of the Slovenian minority in Austria in the run-up to the centenary of the Carinthian plebiscite. Pahor said the predominant opinion was the past 100 years should be remembered in a way which would make it easier to build a common future. The meeting looked to review and bring closer the views on the event's importance for the situation of the Slovenian minority in Austria, coexistence with the majority nation and relations between the neighbouring countries. This was the last opportunity to do so before the main ceremony on 10 October in Austria's Klagenfurt to mark the centenary of the referendum in 1920 which determined the border between Austria and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Calls again healthcare privatisation in centre of anti-government protests

LJUBLJANA - The situation in healthcare and what is seen as its ongoing privatisation was in the centre of what was the 24th consecutive Friday anti-government protest rally in Ljubljana. The protesters demanded the resignation of Health Minister Tomaž Gantar and of National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) director Milan Krek. The protesters were also addressed by former Health Minister Dušan Keber, who said Keber said privatisation was being pursued even though it had been proven without doubt during the pandemic that public healthcare systems handled the situation much better.

Man abducted by migrants demands damages from state

NOVO MESTO - An elderly Slovenian man abducted in May 2019 by three migrants who stole his car demands damages of EUR 45,000 from the state. He argues the state could have prevented the event had it exercised its powers within the law. In reporting on the claim, the newspaper Delo and tabloid Slovenske Novice said the man, who was 79 at the time of the abduction, had already been approved EUR 4,500 in damages in March by a state commission that decides on damages awarded to victims of crime.

Contemporary puppetry art celebrated in Ljubljana

LJUBLJANA - Lutke 2020, the 15th international biennial festival of contemporary puppetry art, opened in Ljubljana with Gimme Shelter, the latest production by the French puppet theatre company Compagnie Yokai. Running until 8 October at the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre and other venues, the festival will feature a total of 12 productions and two installations by ensembles from France, Belgium, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Spain and Slovenia.

Cross-border film festival kicks off

NOVA GORICA - A cross-border festival got under way in the Goriška region in Slovenia and Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy. Until 11 October, the socially-engaged festival, dubbed Homage to a Vision, will feature screenings, workshops and debates, bringing them to Ljubljana as well, along with Nova Gorica, Gorizia, Udine, Trieste, Izola and San Pietro al Natisone. The main award will go to Serbian director Srdan Golubović, who is known for exploring the power of corrupt political-economic systems.

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STA, 2 October 2020 - Slovenia has passed a new record number of daily coronavirus cases as 238 tests came back positive on Thursday, with the total now exceeding 6,100 as the death toll increased by two to 154.

Data released by the government show that 3,281 tests for Sars-CoV-2 were conducted yesterday, with calculations at the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org showing 7.25% of the tests were positive.

Hospitalisations remained stable at 86 after eight more Covid-19 patients were discharged home yesterday. Fifteen remain in intensive treatment units.

Of the 6,103 cases recorded in the country so far, 1,908 remain active, data at covid-19.sledilnik.org show.

The Ljubljana-based Jožef Stefan Institute has warned of the exponential spread of the outbreak with its latest projections showing the infections double in about 17 days.

Warnings and appeals to the public to stick to precautionary measures were also voiced at the government coronavirus press briefing.

Slovenia's incidence rate is almost 87 per 100,000 residents in a fortnight, government spokesman Jelko Kacin said as he cited some statistics that are cause for concern.

For comparison, Kacin said the 14-day incidence in the EU and UK has been increasing uninterruptedly for 70 days and is currently 114 per 100,000 residents.

In Slovenia, infections were registered in 80 municipalities across the country yesterday, with the most, 46 in Ljubljana, which has 361 active cases, representing 0.123% of the population.

The highest active infection rates at the moment are in Črna na Koroškem in the north at 1.28%, Log-Dragomer just west of Ljubljana at 0.465% and Mežica in the north at 0.45%.

A new hotspot has recently emerged at the Rakičan care home, where six staff and 13 residents are infected, Labour Minister Janez Cigler Kralj told the briefing.

He said the situation at care homes was serious but not dramatic.

Even the situation at the centre for people with mental disabilities in Črna na Koroškem is stabilising. A total of 20 staff, two volunteers and 58 users are infected, with most isolated at other locations.

So has the outbreak been contained at the Danica Vogrinec care home in Maribor with all tests returning negative there on Thursday. A total of 44 elderly residents and 23 staff are still infected there.

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STA, 1 October 2020 - The interim leader of the Social Democrats (SD), Tanja Fajon, has called on the government to reconsider the appointments of National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) director Milan Krek and of coronavirus spokesperson Jelko Kacin, criticising their style of communication and questioning their expertise.

In today's letter to Prime Minister Janez Janša, she criticised the "confused, inconsistent and unprofessional communication of the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus".

She believes experts should be again entrusted with preparing relevant measures and the governments should take decisions on the basis of their recommendations.

In Fajon's view, Krek should be replaced by a person who will restore trust in the expertise of the NIJZ as a key institution during the epidemic.

She pointed to the situation at NIJZ as worrying indicating that the experts' voice was not being heard.

Kacin should meanwhile be replaced by an epidemiologist who will assume the key role in communicating with the public in a calm, wise and explanatory manner.

Kacin, a veteran politician who excelled at the government's news conferences during the 1991 war, was appointed practically as soon as the Janša government took over in mid-March. His style of communication has been often criticised as patronising.

Krek's appointment was meanwhile cleared on 30 April after his predecessor and the government had differing views on some of the preventive measures.

The opposition criticised him already in June for undermining the NIJZ's reputation by providing confused and incomprehensible explanations of some of the measures.

Fajon meanwhile welcomed the government's intention to draft a plan to contain the epidemic, but would like it to be produced in collaboration with various experts.

The plan should feature "logical and realistic measures which should be communicated in clearly and frankly", she wrote.

Fajon also supports an initiative by the leader of the fellow-opposition SAB party, Alenka Bratušek, to call a political summit on measures to contain the epidemic.

Fajon's appeal was rebuked by senior government officials and Krek, with two state secretaries at the prime minister's office dismissing her argument.

Vinko Gorenak said on Twitter that the government had always taken measures "exclusively on the basis of recommendations by the epidemiological profession".

Jelka Godec said the coronavirus task force presents proposed measures at least once a week, but it is true that ignores "your 'expert' recommendations about wearing masks," a reference to the SD's proposal that masks should no longer be mandatory in school.

While Kacin declined to comment on the call for the STA, Krek said what the NIJZ needed most right now was help and support rather than criticism.

"I work for the NIJZ as a doctor, I work in line with medical standards and I communicate with people in a way for them to realise this is a serious situation. Fajon's assessment is just her own assessment," he told the STA.

Krek said that 27 epidemiologists were working at the NIJZ keeping things going during the epidemic so that the country did not have to go into lockdown again.

"And instead of thanking us, Fajon is criticising us. I wonder what right she has to do it and why she is doing it."

He said he expected politicians to understand "that we are an expert institution not a political one, and that we are neither for one or the other political block, because we have too serious a job to do right now to be able to engage in anything else."

STA, 1 October 2020 - An ageing society, Slovenia has some 424,000 elderly, that is people aged 65 or more, or almost 20% of its population. Still, the elderly seem to be quite fit, with over a third saying their health is good or very good prior to the 1 October International Day of Older Persons, this year dedicated to health amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the moment the most burning issue regarding the elderly in Slovenia is containing the spread of the virus at care homes, which are home to some 4% of the elderly.

Related: Slovenia’s Aging Population, in Graphic Form (as shown in the main image to this story)

Several care homes were hotspots of the spring wave of the coronavirus epidemic, with official statistics showing more than 80% of all fatalities were older than 75.

The epidemic has also painfully exposed the dire staffing situation at public care homes, although they can count on 550 new jobs in the next two years.

The government has already earmarked EUR 29 million for the purpose, while the new stimulus package, which is yet to be passed in parliament, is to introduce the option of temporary redeployment of care and health staff to care homes.

Another burning issue is the long time it takes to get a bed in a care home; data from the Association of Care Homes show over 12,200 applications are pending.

The ministry in charge of social affairs has promised additional beds would be provided through concessions for public care home services and through the drawing of EU funds.

The EU funds would be used to increase daycare centre and temporary accommodation capacity, with a tender for building 20 daycare centres and 10 temporary accommodation units currently open, Minister Janez Cigler Kralj has recently said.

Capacity constraints are also expected to be further addressed with a new bill on long-term care, which would make the elderly eligible for assistance at home, if they wish so.

More funds for the elderly are to come from the planned national demographic fund, which is to manage state assets worth almost EUR 8.6 billion, and provide 10% of dividends and the money from the sale of state assets for building elderly homes. 40% of the dividends would go to co-finance the public pension budget.

In its message issued prior to International Day of Older Persons, the Slovenian Pensioner Association (ZDUS) urged treating the elderly as equals in society.

ZDUS joined calls by international NGOs and the UN for for inter-generational cooperation, tolerance, cooperation and fight against prejudice and discrimination on the basis of age. It said the elderly do not want to be a burden, they demand only what they are entitled to by the constitution and by modern civilisational standards.

Other associations have highlighted the Covid-19-related issues they face.

The pensioners' trade union pointed out that the novel coronavirus and its ramifications had revealed that the authorities had been ignoring burning issues of the elderly for decades.

There is still no long-term care system, whereas healthcare has not been adjusted to the needs of the elderly and disabled. A large number of older persons live in poverty and unacceptable living conditions and there is not enough bed vacancies in nursing homes, it added.

Srebrna Nit, an association promoting dignified old age, warned about obstacles which had prevented the elderly from making use of new measures introduced this year.

Small pensions that are not enough to make it possible for the elderly to redeem government holiday vouchers and technical issues preventing them from using free public transportation are examples of such obstacles.

New Covid-19-related restrictions for the elderly are on the horizon after the community was already restricted to certain shopping hours during the epidemic, said Srebrna Nit, deeming the measure discriminatory towards older persons and a violation of human rights.

Similarly, Equal Opportunities Ombudsman Miha Lobnik said the elderly had been severely affected by the pandemic, urging the government not to forget about their needs when attending to public interest.

Urging proportionate measures in protecting vulnerable groups, he said the elderly had been allowed to do their shopping only in dedicated hours while banned from shops in the rest of the day for a period during the spring lockdown, adding no other EU country had had such a measure in place.

The UN declared the day 30 years ago to highlight the role of older persons and their contribution in society, with this year's lead theme being "Pandemic: Do They Change how We Address Age and Ageing?"

Statistics Office (SURS) data for 2019 show that 37% of Slovenian elderly people assessed their health as good or very good, up from 26% in 2010, as opposed to 21% who said their health was poor or very poor, down from 33%.

Nevertheless, 65% of all older persons had a chronic condition or another health issue, but 57% engage in recreational activity at least 150 minutes a week, which is the World Health Organisation's minimum to keep healthy.

SURS data for the start of 2019 show that the share of the elderly in Slovenia rose from 17% ten years ago to almost 20% in 2019, which translates into some 424,000 people.

However, the EUROPOP 2019 projection for Slovenia shows that in ten years' time the elderly will account for 24% of Slovenia's population; in 50 years the share will rise to 31%.

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Report: PM Janša formally indicted over 2005 real estate deal

LJUBLJANA - Prime Minister Janez Janša has been formally indicted of abuse of office over a property sale carried out in 2005, a decision by the prosecution that comes more than six years after an inquiry was launched, Večer reported. Janša is one of the three persons indicted in a case that case revolves around a plot of land in the Trenta Valley that Janša sold in 2005 and that was subsequently resold several times, in what the prosecution believes was a chain of related transactions that ended up unlawfully benefiting Janša. The alleged criminal offence carries an eight-year prison sentence.

Janša expects EU show of solidarity with Greece, Cyprus and Belarus

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Prime Minister Janez Janša arrived at the EU summit hopeful that the EU would be able to mount a united show of solidarity with Greece and Cyprus in their dispute with Turkey. As for Belarus, he was hopeful that EU leaders would be capable of supporting the democratic desires of the people of Belarus and speak up for protection against any sort of repression. Janša also expects that European unity will be within reach when it comes to redefining the bloc's relations with China, noting that commercial and strategic interests should be decoupled.

175 new coronavirus cases in Slovenia on Wednesday, two deaths

LJUBLJANA - A total of 175 new coronavirus infections were confirmed in Slovenia on Wednesday after 2,899 tests, meaning 6% of the tests were positive. A total of 86 people were in hospital, including 15 in intensive care. Two people infected with coronavirus died, the government said. There are currently 1,807 active cases in the country.

Koroška added to Germany's Covid-19 red list

LJUBLJANA - Germany added on Wednesday the northern Koroška region to its list of Covid-19 high-risk areas after doing the same a week ago for the western region of Primorsko-Notranjska. Passengers entering Germany who spent time in Koroška in the past 14 days must quarantine unless they can present a negative coronavirus test that is not older than 48 hours.

Pahor urges faster progress in women's rights

LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor pointed to the need to accelerate attaining women's rights as he addressed an online UN summit marking the 25th anniversary of the historic Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. He acknowledged there was still much room for improvement, highlighting the coronavirus epidemic as an impediment to gender equality, and pointed to women as the majority workforce in healthcare being in the first lines fighting Covid-19, which could affect their work-life balance in the long-run.

Govt urged to replace NIJZ head Krek, Covid-19 spokesman Kacin

LJUBLJANA - SocDem leader Tanja Fajon called on the government to reconsider the appointments of National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) director Milan Krek and of coronavirus spokesperson Jelko Kacin, criticising their style of communication and questioning their expertise. She complained about "confused, inconsistent and unprofessional communication of the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus". While Kacin declined to comment, Krek said what the NIJZ needed most right now was help and support rather than criticism.

No end to dispute over Poček training area

POSTOJNA/LJUBLJANA - The Postojna municipality reiterated on Wednesday its call for the Defence Ministry to solve the issue of Poček, the main training area of the Slovenian Armed Forces (SAF), as locals are increasingly unhappy with the noise during military exercises. The ministry is willing to talk about all open issues bar Poček's full closure - Postojna's main demand.

Report: District court stops legal procedure in Rupnik case

LJUBLJANA - The Ljubljana District Court has stopped legal proceedings in the case of Leon Rupnik, a Nazi collaborationist general, the newspaper Dnevnik reported. According to Dnevnik's unofficial information, the court made the decision based on the criminal procedure act, which says legal procedures stop if the defendant dies. This comes after the Supreme Court annulled the death sentence of Rupnik in January, a decision which raised a lot of dust.

Another initiative for Slovenia to notify legal succession to AST

LJUBLJANA - An initiative for Slovenia to notify its legal succession to the Austrian State Treaty (AST) was filed to parliament, just days before the centenary of the Carinthian plebiscite, which left a portion of Slovenians in Austria after WWI. The 1955 treaty obliges Austria to provide for their minorities' rights. The initiative is spearheaded by legal expert Ivan Kristan and sociologist Niko Toš, who hand-delivered it to Speaker Igor Zorčič on behalf of over 100 public figures.

Slovenian minority in Italy warns of problems in education

TREVISO, Italy - The Slovenian Cultural and Economic Association (SKGZ), one of the two umbrella organisations of the Slovenian minority in Italy, has urged the authorities in Trieste and Slovenian ministers to address the issues of Slovenian education in Italy. It says that under-aged members of the Slovenian community do not have access to normal education, urging the Slovenian government to start bilateral talks with Italy regarding the many unsolved problems of Slovenian education in Italy.

Fuel prices fully deregulated

LJUBLJANA - Fuel prices in Slovenia became fully deregulated as the decree on administered prices for regular petrol and diesel at service stations outside motorways and expressways has expired and has not been extended by the government. Fuel providers are now able to set prices on their own, with the prices being published on the web portal goriva.si.

EBRD substantially downgrades economic forecast for Slovenia

LONDON, UK - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) forecast a 7.5% contraction of Slovenia's GDP in 2020, a downgrade of two percentage points from May. Partial recovery is expected in 2021 when the economy is projected to grow by 3.5%, which compares to 5% in the May forecast, said the EBRD, highlighting that in the first quarter of the year GDP was down 2.5% at the annual level, one of the biggest drops in the region.

EUR 95m available as part of new Covid-19 Fund of Funds

LJUBLJANA - The Economy Ministry and SID Bank, Slovenia's export and development bank, signed an agreement to finance the Covid-19 Fund of Funds as part of which EUR 95 million will be available to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic through microloans as well as loans for R&D and innovation. The new fund is designed to eliminate or mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic and encourage investment.

Charges over Lonstroff plot sale dismissed

LJUBLJANA - The specialised prosecution service has dismissed charges over the sale of a plot by the state-owned bad bank to Japanese-owned Swiss company Lonstroff for an elastomer plant in Logatec, reported the newspaper Delo. The prosecution received an anonymous complaint against Janez Škrubej, a former executive director of the bad bank over the deal two years ago.

Director of reconciliation study centre resigns

LJUBLJANA - Andreja Valič Zver has resigned as director of the Study Centre for National Reconciliation, the institution she has led since its inception in 2008, following allegations of mismanagement, reported the magazine Reporter. The resignation comes just two weeks after the centre's board launched into motion a procedure to dismiss the director over alleged mismanagement. Valič Zver refrained from comment. 

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STA, 1 October 2020 - Prime Minister Janez Janša has been formally indicted of abuse of office over a property sale carried out in 2005, a decision by the prosecution that comes more than six years after an inquiry was launched, Večer reported on Thursday.

Janša is one of the three persons indicted along with two former directors of companies that took part in multiple transactions, Branko Kastelic and Klemen Gantar, according to the newspaper.

The case revolves around a plot of land in the Trenta Valley in the Alps that Janša bought in 1992 and sold in 2005, at the time when he was prime minister the first time, for roughly EUR 131,000, nearly nine times the price he paid.

The buyer, the property developer Eurogradnje, then sold the plot, land along a river accessible only via a footbridge, for EUR 146,000 in 2005 to another company, Imos. The same year, Imos sold Janša a three-room apartment in the centre of Ljubljana for EUR 236,100.

The prosecution claims Eurogradnje paid EUR 100,000 more for the land than it was worth, which was then factored into the price of the apartment.

When Imos went bankrupt, the value of the plot was officially appraised at EUR 17,655, but then the plot was sold for EUR 127,500 at an auction won by Damjan Podjed, raising accusations about the price being artificially inflated to help Janša.

However, in August 2018 Podjed sold the plot to another person for EUR 140,000. Neither Podjed nor the final buyer appear among the suspects for now.

Janša has vehemently denied all allegations of wrongdoing since they first surfaced in the media in 2011. He has stressed that he has made enough money in his career with salaries and multiple bestselling books and has cast the allegations as part of a plot by people behind the scenes to remove him from politics.

The Trenta transaction was one of the allegations against him in a 2011 report by the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption.

The alleged criminal offence carries an eight-year prison sentence and is subject to a 20-year statute of limitations.

STA, 1 October 2020 - Students are returning to faculties for in-person lectures as the new academic year starts on 1 October against the backdrop of strict anti-coronavirus measures. While professors are happy to see students back in lecture halls, they are utterly unhappy with having to wear face masks while teaching.

Under the national guidelines, drafted by education and health authorities, the winter term will be held at faculties if all safety recommendations can be observed.

The guidelines also recommend a "hybrid model" - a mix of live and distance learning, while distance learning is recommended only for exceptional cases.

However, just a few days after the guidelines were adopted, the government has ordered compulsory face mask wearing in all indoor public places.

The new rule also applies to students and teachers regardless of whether they keep the recommended safety distance of 1.5 metres.

"Professors are outraged, they are convinced they cannot teach for several hours with a face mask," University of Ljubljana Chancellor Igor Papič has told the STA.

He recalled the original guidelines under which students could take the mask off in lecture halls if they kept a safe distance, so he believes this will affect the quality of the teaching process.

Universities have brought the issue to the attention of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, urging it to allow plexiglas barriers instead of masks.

But Minister Simona Kustec, although noting very different circumstances from previous years, is convinced students will get quality teaching.

"Foremost, we have to bear in mind the care for the health of students and of all staff in higher education," she was quoted in her ministry's release.

Until yesterday, some 60,600 students enrolled, of whom 13,400 freshers, but the exact number of students in this academic year will be known in mid-November.

The three public and three smaller private universities as well as over 40 mostly private higher education establishments with a concession have made over 46,400 posts available for first-year regular students (tuition fee is paid from public funds) and paying students.

The bulk of new posts - over 9,000 - were available at the University of Ljubljana, the country's largest and oldest, which in 2019 had a total of over 37,000 students.

The coronavirus situation will also affect this year's generation of freshers, who will be left without welcome parties traditionally organised by the universities and student organisations at the start of the academic year.

Still, faculties will welcome them at special receptions on the premises, while they will also receive key information at lectures in the first week of studies.

The pandemic has also slashed Erasmus+ student exchange programmes, as many students are cancelling or postponing their studies abroad to the summer term or the next academic year.

Slovenia's Centre for Mobility and European Educational and Training Programmes (CMEPIUS) expects the figure to halve.

The figures for the winter term are even worse - while almost 1,140 students opted for student exchange the previous winter term, the figure plummeted to 396 now.

Some have nevertheless decided on distance student exchange but since they will stay in Slovenia they will not be entitled to CMEPIUS funding.

An aggravating circumstance is definitely the prospect of quarantine: students are not allowed to quarantine at student dormitories.

Some Slovenian institutions as well as their partner institutions abroad have thus decided to cancel student exchanges for the winter semester altogether.

The Ljubljana University told the STA it expects some 600 foreign students at present, considerably below the around 2,100 figure from recent years.

STA, 1 October 2020 - A chain of Ljubljana's most prominent hotels Union Hoteli is changing its business model after the corona crisis slashed its business, pushing the group into a loss of almost two million euros in the first six months of the year. The group will now focus on Slovenian guests and renting.

"The Union Hoteli group was faced with the biggest drop in revenue in all its history in the first half of this year," the group, which consists of the company Union Hoteli and the sheltered company IP Central, said in a report released on the web site of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The trends at the beginning of the year were promising, but the government-sponsored lockdown decree in mid-March changed all that.

"We resumed operations in June but the demand for hotel services dropped drastically," the group said, adding that it was changing its business model to return to profitability.

Now, they are focussing on Slovenian guests and long-term renting of their real estate. Central Hotel and The Fuzzy Log in Ljubljana's city centre will be turned into student dorms.

The Union hotels generated EUR 3.6 million in net sales revenue in the first half of the year, a 69% drop compared to the same period last year. After posting a net profit of EUR 2 million in the first six months of last year, this year the group was EUR 1.8 million in the red in June.

The company Union Hoteli saw a 68% drop in net sales revenue to EUR 3.4 million, while its loss stood at EUR 1.6 million. The company posted EUR 1.9 million in net profit in the first six months of last year.

Union Hoteli is owned by Axor Holding, the hotel arm of the former ACH conglomerate. It manages the Ljubljana hotels Grand Hotel Union, uHotel, Hotel Lev and Central Hotel as well as youth hotel The Fuzzy Log.