Only one week following a double Slovenian victory in the Tour de France, the cycling elite is moving to Imola, Italy for the UCI 2020 Road World Championship. Over the four days of competition, which begins on Thursday, September 24 with the Women Elite Time Trial and concludes on Sunday, with Men Elite Road Race, we'll see the world's best cyclists, including Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič, compete against each other once again.

The Slovenian team, consisting of five female and eight male cyclists, will have one racer from both groups in the Time Trials of the first two days, and thus Eugenia Bujak will compete on Thursday and Jan Tratnik will compete in the male Time Trial on Friday.

To many who wonder why Tadej Pogačar, who just won last week's Tour de France in a spectacular Time Trial race, isn't going to preform in the WC Time Trial as well, the Slovenian National Team's coach Andrej Hauptman explained for Siol.si that ahead of the Tour it has been agreed with Primož and Tadej they would not compete in World Championship's Time Trial since those who went through the gruelling competition in the Tour would have no chance of winning this as well.  

In Saturday's Women Elite Road Race we'll be cheering Urška Pintar, Eugenia Bajuk, Urška Žigart, Urška Bravec in Špela Kern.

In Sunday's Men Elite Road Race Slovenian team will consist of Primož Roglič, Tadej Pogačar, Jan Polanc, Luka Mezgec, Jan Tratnik, Jani Brajkovič, Domen Novak and Luka Pibernik.

STA, 24 September 2020 - The government has endorsed the fifth stimulus package. Chief among the measures is an extension of the furlough scheme until year's end for all industries, albeit with stricter eligibility criteria, Labour Minister Janez Cigler Kralj announced on Thursday.

The latest stimulus package extends some measures and introduces new ones based on the needs expressed in talks with social partners, the minister said. The main goals are to preserve jobs and protect the most vulnerable groups, especially the elderly, and prevent the further spread of infections.

The key measures are the extension of the furlough scheme, an introduction of a universal basic income for the self-employed, and measures to cut waiting times in health.

The minister stressed the package had been drawn up in dialogue with social partners. About four-fifths of the measures have been coordinated with social partners, which he said was a good basis for the passage of the bill.

To help the labour market, the government decided to extend the furlough scheme until the end of the year for all industries, but introduce a slightly stricter eligibility criteria, which is an at least 30% drop in turnover compared to last year. So far, a 10% drop was required for eligibility.

The use of the measure has been dropping and the idea is to have employers cut working hours instead, but some companies still need the scheme so it has been decided to extend it, Cigler Kralj said.

The fifth package also extends until the end of the year the quarantine provisions for employees. It introduces a compensation equalling 80% of pay for parents of children up to grade 5 who are ordered to quarantine.

When a self-employed person would be ordered to quarantine for 10 days, they would receive an income support of EUR 250.

The latest proposal also reintroduced a universal basic income for the self-employed who cannot perform their activities or whose business has declined by over 30% on last year. The measure was in force during the epidemic.

From October through December they would be eligible for a EUR 700 universal basic income plus a waiver of social security contributions in the amount of EUR 400.

Another key measure is to help cut waiting times in healthcare, most notably by securing additional funding for specific health services where waiting times are currently the longest, including for private providers.

This was one of the things that upset trade unions so much that they walked out of last night's session of the Economic and Social Council.

But the government did scrap its original proposal of bonuses for specific groups of employees in health outside the public sector pay system, which the unions also strongly opposed.

Notably, the package also includes the extension of the power to issue fines for violations of protective measures from the Health Inspectorate to the police as well as to municipal wardens.

The proposal was met with nods from employers, with the Chamber of Small Business (OZS) pointing out that the government had heeded its warnings and incorporated most of its proposals in the package.

The OZS stressed that support for the self-employed had also come upon its initiative. It would however like to see the government go even further and also secure allowances for self-employed workers who remain without income because their children are quarantined.

The head of ZSSS trade union confederation Lidija Jerkič on the other pointed out for the STA that the unions had not received a final version of the proposal.

The fact that the package was not finalised yet even though it was reportedly adopted by the government was also highlighted by Matej T. Vatovec, an MP for the opposition Left.

He stressed it remains to be agreed with social partners, while he took issue with what he said was obviously an effort to continue with the privatisation of healthcare and interfere in the public sector salary system.

This autumn will see the launch of a brand-new sustainable food retail and travel brand, CULTISAN. A digital and mobile platform on a mission to enable a global audience to discover, buy, learn from, travel to, meet and eat with the world’s best farmers and makers, curated by the chefs who love them, driving a new sustainable global food economy.

The brains behind Cultisan is British chef, restaurateur and food campaigner Jason Hartley, now based in Slovenia, who aims to give a voice to the hundreds of farmers, growers and producers he has met around the world throughout his career. Cultisan was inspired by his deep belief that ethical farming that is kind to the land and animals is the only sustainable way to produce delicious food, and the realisation that there are 570 million small scale and family-run farms in the world that still feed 70% of the planet on a daily basis.

Jason says, “This is about making it convenient for people to eat local, anywhere. I want people to discover and buy from the world’s greatest farmers and producers as easily as they buy from supermarkets, it’s about championing the cheesemakers, curers, fermenters, millers, charcutiers, oil and vinegar makers and more. This is about a new fair food system ensuring the survival of craft, knowledge and talent of generations of farmers, and about celebrating the innovators and creators of the food world, making sure they’re still here for future generations.”

Cultisan is a membership platform and anyone can become a member (further details below). The crowdfunding campaign will be launched on Wednesday 23^rd September and will run for one month before the official launch in November.

There will be no easier way to curate a shopping basket than with Cultisan. At its core lies the principle of not charging farmers, makers or producers any money to be listed on the platform and ensuring they are paid a fair price for their produce. By purely seeking out the very best in the world, with the help of leading chefs, Cultisan is making ‘eating local, globally’ a reality.

Set to be the world’s largest directory, the farms are chosen by the Cultisan team and a handpicked group of chefs predominantly in Europe, but the team already has plans to grow into other continents in 2021. These chefs have the inside track to the very best farms, suppliers, vineyards, growers and more, and Cultisan is bringing this to the consumer for the first time.

Cultisan will provide a global platform to smaller, more remote artisans such as Andrew Gilhespy at Fresh Flour in Devon, who works closely with a network of local organic farmers to grow heritage grains which are milled using a traditional stone ground method and turned into exquisite quality flour. They also champion producers who are growing their business without compromise, such as Northern Irish husband and wife team Richard and Leona Kane whose Broighter Gold rapeseed oil is some of the purest across the whole United Kingdom.

Across Europe, other unique growers, producers and farmers will be given an online platform on Cultisan’s app and website including a multitude of organic vineyards and olive groves throughout Italy. Closer to home for Jason, undiscovered Slovenian producers will be accessible to a wider market, including goat farmer, Peter Gorišek whose small batch goat’s cheese is stuffed with Istrian truffle and other more modern and innovative producers such as David Lesar’s biodynamic salami.

Cultisan has created local hubs on farms in regions across Europe and aggregates local produce before sending it to its logistic and fulfilment centres where it is packed and shipped to the consumer. Cultisan is dedicated to creating as sustainable a supply chain as possible, never shipping fresh food across borders and only moving foods between countries if a product offers something different and appealing to a consumer in that market.

Cultisan is enabling the public to shop, have delivered to their door and eat the very best produce local to them, and from further-afield. Cultisan will also offer unique food adventures that will make it possible for people to travel, meet, learn and eat with the finest farmers, makers and chefs whilst exploring new culinary cultures.

STA, 24 September 2020 - IMAD, the government's macroeconomic forecaster, has upgraded its GDP projections for this year. Instead of a 7.6% contraction at the annual level predicted in the summer, it now expects the economy to shrink by 6.7%. However, it warns that uncertainty remains high.

Economic activity is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels by 2022, but only assuming that there is not a new lockdown affecting certain activities, IMAD said in its autumn forecast, released yesterday.

"Were that to happen this year, the contraction would accelerate by two percentage points, while bankruptcies and higher unemployment would slow down the recovery in the coming years," IMAD director Maja Bednaš wrote.

The upgrade is underpinned by more favourable forecasts in Slovenia's main trading partners, the adoption of the EU recovery deal, and an improvement of confidence indicators from May to July.

Economic activity has already picked up, but IMAD warns it will be uneven across industries.

Exports and imports are expected to contract at double-digit rates this year before recovering at a rate just below 10% in 2021 and slightly under 7% in 2022.

Private spending is expected to contract by 6.6% this year and grow by 4.7% in 2021 and 3% in 2022.

The unemployment rate, projected to hit 9.1% this year, is expected to increase slightly in 2021 before declining to 8.5% in 2022.

Gross wages are projected to grow across the entire three-year period.

And while emphasising that the uncertainty remains high, IMAD said that the recovery could accelerate beyond current predictions in the event a vaccine is put to broad use or the novel coronavirus is sustainably contained in another way.

IMAD assumes that stimulus measures in Slovenia "significantly cushioned" the consequences of the pandemic. Without them, the contraction would have been three percentage points deeper.

The Slovenian economy is forecast to grow by 5.1% next year and by 3.7% in 2022, as all components of GDP are expected to recover, while government spending eases.

Investments, exports, imports and private consumption are projected to return to pre-crisis levels in 2022.

The government was informed about the forecast at Wednesday's session and will include the projections in its budget plans for the next two years.

STA, 24 September 2020 - Mercator Group sales revenue increased by 4.4% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year, to reach EUR 1.06 billion. Due to the revaluation of property and impairments of other assets, and the effects of Covid-19, the group posted a loss of EUR 69.2 million in the January-June period.

These factors excluded, the group would record a profit of EUR 86,000, reads a press release published on Thursday.

Consistently with the international accounting standards, revaluation of property on the one hand resulted in an increase of equity of EUR 23.3 million, while on the other hand it had a negative effect of EUR 69 million on the group's operating profit.

Despite the property revaluation, Mercator Group remains one of the largest property owners in Slovenia and the region with the total value of its land, buildings, and investment property amounting to EUR 1 billion.

"Despite the explicitly negative effects of the epidemic, Mercator Group succeeded in sustaining the positive trends especially in its core activity - fast-moving consumer goods retail," the group said.

Profit before tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was up by 1.7% year on year to EUR 83.4 million, which the group says was achieved by "strictly executing the value creation plan initiatives" to offset all negative effects on its regular operations and performance.

Among the latter, the group listed higher labour costs due to the increase of minimum wage in Slovenia, payment of bonuses or allowances for employees working in extraordinary circumstances during the epidemic, as well as an increase in other costs resulting from epidemic-related restrictions and lockdowns in respective markets.

The company Poslovni Sistem Mercator, Mercator Group's largest company, saw its core activity sales revenue increase by 8.2% compared to the same period last year, while its total sales revenue rose by 4.8% to EUR 616.2 million.

The group recorded the biggest rise in revenue in the first half of the year in Bosnia and Herzegovina (by 7.8%). In Serbia, revenue was up by 5.1%, while in Montenegro it was down by 1%.

In Croatia, where Mercator is active only in the real estate business, which was strongly affected by the epidemic, revenue dropped by 14.5%.

Tomislav Čizmić, president of Mercator's management board, said that the success in the core activity was the result of a "timely, responsible, systematic and comprehensive preparation for the crisis".

He also stressed that the European Commission's giving the Croatian group Fortenova a concentration approval for Mercator earlier this week was an "extremely important step" towards the transfer of the Slovenian retailer from insolvent Agrokor to its successor Fortenova.

"The strong owner will enable Mercator's further growth and development and support Mercator's strategic projects, including a EUR 130 million investment in a new logistics centre in Ljubljana," he said.

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This summary is provided by the STA: 

Parliament confirms revised budget for 2020, expenditure up by nearly 30%

LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly adopted the supplementary budget for 2020, which raises expenditure by EUR 3 billion or 29% in the face of the coronacrisis while slashing revenue by almost 15%. With a deficit of 9.3% of GDP, the budget earmarks EUR 2.6 billion, 19% of all expenditure, for measures meant to mitigate the crisis. Prime Minister Janez Janša acknowledged the deficit, at roughly EUR 4.2 billion, was high, but he added the spending was prudent and positioned the Slovenian economy for a recovery.

Slovenia logs second highest daily coronavirus tally

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia logged 136 new coronavirus cases for Tuesday, the second highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic, as another Covid-19 patient died. The latest cases come from 2,616 tests and bring the overall case count to 4,694, with the number of active cases at 1,383, show combined data from the government and tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org. Covid-19 hospitalisations fell to 65 after ten patients were discharged. Ten patients still require intensive care. So far 143 have died.

Compulsory solidarity chief Slovenian concern about proposed migration pact

LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry singled out the compulsory solidarity mechanism as the main area of concern after the European Commission unveiled the draft of a new migration and asylum pact. Slovenia expected that the plan would take into consideration "concerns by certain countries, Slovenia included, and would involve more balanced proposals," Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksander Geržina said. It is "not good" that the Commission opted for this concept since it "creates divisions again," he said.

Trade union reps walk out of coronavirus legislation meeting

LJUBLJANA - Trade union representatives walked out of a meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ESS) amidst a debate on new anti-coronavirus legislation. The unions proposed that the government adopt only the measures which have been coordinated with social partners as it holds a session this evening, while negotiations should continue on the remaining open issues. Jakob Počivavšek of the Pergam association said this was not accepted. Labour Minister Janez Cigler Kralj said he regretted the decision.

Pahor paying two-day official visit to North Macedonia

LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor will pay an official visit to North Macedonia on Friday and Saturday upon invitation from his counterpart Stevo Pendarovski. In addition to bilateral relations and multilateral cooperation, the EU accession process of North Macedonia will be on the agenda. Pahor will be accompanied by Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek and Defence Minister Matej Tonin, who will hold separate bilateral meetings, his office said.

Left proposes digital tax on tech giants

LJUBLJANA - The opposition Left tabled a bill in a bid to levy a 7% digital services tax on multinational tech companies. They generate about EUR 100 million in turnover in Slovenia per year according to Financial Administration data but pay almost zero tax, said the Left's leader Luka Mesec. Their turnover is expected to continue to rise and given such an upward trend, Mesec believes that the tax could raise some EUR 10 million for the budget next year.

Council of Europe urges recognition of minority languages in Slovenia

STRASBOURG, France - The Croatian, German and Serbian languages should be recognised as minority languages traditionally spoken in Slovenia, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe said in its latest recommendations. It also calls for sufficient funding for television programmes in the Hungarian and Italian languages and says Slovenia should foster teaching the Roma language and culture and enhance raising awareness about regional and minority languages in educational programmes and media.

Church's claim for natural sights turned down

RADOVLJICA - The newspaper Dnevnik reported that the Radovljica administrative unit had turned down the Ljubljana Archdiocese's claim for denationalisation of natural sights including the Triglav Lakes Valley, the Savica Waterfall area, and the lakeside of Lake Bohinj on the grounds that the Church did not own the properties when they were nationalised. According to the paper, the Church's claim also includes the Viševnik military ski slopes and some other properties the administrative unit has not decided on yet.

Home prices up in Q2, but fewer transactions

LJUBLJANA - Prices of residential properties in Slovenia in the second quarter of 2020 were up 1.9% compared to the first quarter, and 5.2% higher than in the same period last year, according to the Statistics Office. However, transactions were significantly lower, with the total value of all real estate sold being the lowest since the first quarter of 2015. Prices of new apartments and houses were up by 7.1% compared to the previous quarter, while used homes sold 1.4% higher.

Discussion urges efforts to contain job losses

LJUBLJANA - An online debate hosted by the European Parliament's Office in Slovenia highlighted the urgency of efforts to limit job losses during the coronavirus crisis. Measures leaning on the EU's SURE mechanism and being drawn up by the government were highlighted as part of this endeavour. The debate heard the young had been hit especially hard in particular because of precarious labour arrangements, which prevent them from taking out housing loans and are detrimental to their well-being.

Diplomatic Academy established at Foreign Ministry

LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry has established a Diplomatic Academy, whose main purpose will be to educate and train future Slovenian diplomats and provide permanent training to current diplomats. According to the ministry's website, it will offer professional and advanced training programmes for employees, and develop and carry out diplomatic studies, training and advanced programmes for employment at the ministry and in the foreign service.

Slovenia marks first Day of Sports

LJUBLJANA - Day of Slovenian Sports was marked for the first time in memory of the first Olympic gold medals won for the independent country in Sydney in 2000 by rowers Iztok Čop and Luka Špik and shooter Rajmond Debevec. Addressing the main ceremony in Ljubljana's Congress Square, President Borut Pahor as the honorary patron noted the importance of sports for health, the country's promotion and for national unity. On the occasion, Pahor also decorated the Slovenian Athletics Association with the Golden Order of Merit to mark the centenary of organised track and field competitions in Slovenia.

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STA, 23 September 2020 - Slovenia logged 136 new coronavirus cases for Tuesday, the second highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic, as another Covid-19 patient died, fresh government data show.

The latest cases come from 2,616 tests and bring the overall case count to just shy of 4,700, at 4,694, with the number of active cases at 1,383, according to the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org.

On the upside, Covid-19 hospitalisations fell to 65 after ten patients were discharged home yesterday. Ten patients still require intensive care.

The latest infections include ten health staff, five care home staff and four care home residents.

The bulk of the newly infected (86) are aged between 25 and 54 (30 are 25-34-year-olds, 29 are 45-54-year-olds and 27 aged 35-44 years), and another 22 are aged up to 64.

Five were children up to the age of 14 and 11 are up to 24 year old. Twelve of the infected are 65 and older.

Most of the infections were again recorded the country's largest cities, Ljubljana and Maribor, which now have 304 and 211 active infections, respectively. But infections are scattered country-wide.

The northern region of Koroška saw as many as 18 new cases on Tuesday and now has 57 active infections. The situation was discussed at a session of the regional council today.

Doctor Zdenka Koželj Rekanović told the meeting that sources of infection were almost impossible to establish as many people did not know or would not tell where they had caught the virus.

"The situation is getting out of control epidemiologically, the exponential growth over the past 24 hours showing there are many asymptomatic cases," said Davorin Benko, a doctor heading a team tasked with managing the coronavirus spread in public social and health care institutions in the region.

He warned that some people are wilfully hiding their symptoms.

One of the hotspots in the region is a centre for persons with mental disabilities in Črna na Koroškem, where local media report 14 residents and staff are infected with further test results pending.

Slovenia has so far recorded 143 fatalities related to Covid-19.

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STA, 23 September 2020 - The prices of residential properties in Slovenia in the second quarter of 2020 were up 1.9% compared to the first quarter, and 5.2% higher than in the same period last year, the Statistics Office said. But transactions were significantly lower, with the total value of all real estate sold being the lowest since the first quarter of 2015.

The prices of new apartments and houses were up by 7.1% compared to the previous quarter.

After dropping by 0.3% in the first quarter, the prices of new apartments jumped by 7.5% in the second. New houses were also 2.6% costlier than in the first quarter.

The prices of used homes rose by 1.4% in quarterly comparison. This means 1.6% higher prices for used apartments, and 1% for houses.

Family properties were on average 5.2% costlier in the second quarter of this year than in the second quarter of 2019. Up the most were the prices of new family houses (by 23.6%) and used apartments outside Ljubljana (by 7.8%). Meanwhile, a notable drop was recorded in the prices of used apartments in Maribor (by 1.2%).

The total value of all residential real estate sold in the second quarter reached EUR 229 million, which is some EUR 60 million less than in the first quarter.

This is also the lowest total value of all residential real estate sold since the first quarter of 2015, when sales stood at EUR 207.

The Statistics Office partly attributes the drop in transactions to the Covid-19 epidemic, which virtually stopped all activity on the Slovenian real estate market.

A total of 2,161 units of used residential real estate were sold in the second quarter, in the total value of EUR 220 million, which is almost half of the figure recorded in the same period last year.

Only 55 pieces of new residential real estate worth EUR 10 million in total were sold in the second quarter, while in the first 76 were sold worth EUR 14 million.

More data on house prices in Slovenia

STA, 22 September 2020 - Foreign Ministry State Secretary Gašper Dovžan stressed the importance of member states remaining united in conducting Brexit negotiations with the UK as he attended a meeting of EU affairs ministers in Brussels on Tuesday. He warned that the internal market bill was a grave violation of the UK's requirements stemming from the Brexit agreement.

Dovžan moreover said that all the ministers agreed a deal between member states and the European Parliament on the EU's future budget and the recovery fund was necessary as soon as possible.

Discussing the coordination of anti-corona restrictions among EU countries, the state secretary pointed out that it was up to individual member states to impose precaution measures.

He moreover urged the measures to protect public health but also ensure that the internal market and the four freedoms were as unrestricted as possible. A few more rounds of negotiations are needed to reach an agreement on joint guidelines, he added.

Today I have signed the Withdrawal Agreement for the UK to leave the EU on January 31st, honouring the democratic mandate of the British people.

This signature heralds a new chapter in our nation’s history. pic.twitter.com/IaGTeeL2is

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 24, 2020

STA, 23 September 2020 - Social media in Slovenia have exploded with posts about a minor who has allegedly been mistreated by the police in Vransko. She was removed from the bus for refusing to wear a protective mask. The General Police Administration explained that the police officers had to use force due to the passenger's rude behaviour.

The young passenger boarded the bus in Ljubljana on Tuesday, but did not heed the bus driver's warning that she should put on a face mask. The minor then allegedly behaved rudely towards the driver and the other passengers during the ride. The driver therefore informed his boss, who called the police.

The minor first found herself in the police procedure because she refused to wear a protective mask on the bus. The police officers asked her to show her identification, but she did not want to cooperate.

They informed her that they would escort her to the police station, by force if need be, to complete the identification procedure. They ordered the girl to leave the bus, which she refused to do. The officers then used force, took her off the bus and handcuffed her despite her resistance.

The passenger's mother arrived at the scene shortly after and helped the police confirm her identity. The police officers then quickly completed the procedure, the General Police Administration explained.

The minor, who will actually turn 18 tomorrow, admitted that she never wears a protective mask. She also posted a short clip of the event on her Facebook profile and commented that she will not wear a mask anywhere, and that she is a student who has been "fighting for the right to breathe freely from the very beginning".

"Decrees, rules and recommendations are not the LAW! They have no right to punish or fine you," she added.

The circumstances of the police officers' behaviour during the procedure have not yet been fully verified, but this will be done by the commission of the General Police Administration in accordance with the law on police tasks and powers, the police explained.

The latest statistics on coronavirus and Slovenia, and the latest police news on red, green and yellow list countries. All our stories on coronavirus and Slovenia. Can I transit Slovenia? Find out from the police...