STA, 30 July 2019 - A plastic-free grocery shop, Rifuzl opened in the heart of Ljubljana's Šiška borough six months ago allowing customers to shop sustainably for local products and contribute to keeping the planet cleaner.

Rifuzl gets about 50 to 70 customers a day, and about the same number of curious passers-by, who come to check out the store first and return to shop later, say the founders, Primož Cigler and Manca Behrič.

"Most of our customers are young families, young mothers who only want the best for their children and want to contribute to keeping the nature intact for future generations," Cigler told the STA.

Their clients come to Rifuzl to shop from other parts of Slovenia. To save those customers a drive to Ljubljana they also plan on launching a delivery service.

"We are certainly not regretting to have taken this path. It's hard and there were moments that made us lose motivation. But happy returning customers make everything worthwhile," said Cigler.

Besides the more remote customers, the plastic-free shop has a number of local customers, who like the location and the products it offers.

"Šiška is quite densely populated and the area around Kino Šiška is fairly busy with enough parking space," said Cigler about the location's advantages.

"Most clients that have learned to shop without plastic packaging return very often. Some say they don't go to regular stores any more, because they can buy everything they need in our shop," he added.

Rifuzl sells more than 500 products, most of them food, such as rice, legumes, oatmeal, flours and pasta, along with preserves, eggs, sweets, dairy products, drinks and honey, and supplies for zero-waste life, such as glass jars, cotton bags and wooden cutlery, as well as cleaning and cosmetic products.

They get most products from local suppliers, which are the easiest to convince to supply plastic-free products. The ever-changing list of products is promptly updated and posted on their website, www.rifuzl.si, which also includes the company's presentation and manifesto, and the store can be found at Celovška cesta 111, 1000 Ljubljana.

Related: Meet the People - Neja Maruša Medved, Vegan and Zero Waste Blogger

STA, 30 July 2019 - Commenting on reports about Croatia being ready to enter the Schengen area in the autumn, the newspaper Delo says in Tuesday's front-page commentary that the government will thus be faced with a challenge of whether to support Croatia or use this step as leverage to ensure the implementation of the arbitration ruling.

"Prime Minister [Marjan] Šarec faces the first serious foreign affairs dilemma, which is strongly linked to interior policy, in particular to the opposition Democrats' criticism that this government is not able to protect the border properly.

"He will also face the public opinion, which will probably not welcome any yielding to Croatia."

The paper says that in terms of security and border control Slovenia would benefit from Croatia becoming a Schengen country; however, it would also lose its advantage in the two countries' border arbitration dispute.

Given Slovenia's status in Brussels, it is not likely that the country's efforts to let the new EU Commission decide on the issue would be successful, concludes the commentary headlined Šarec's Dilemma of Security and Politics.

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This summary is provided by the STA:

Merger of publishers Dnevnik and Večer cleared

LJUBLJANA/MARIBOR - The Competition Protection Agency (AVK) has given a nod to the merger of Dnevnik and Večer, the publishers of the second and third largest daily newspapers in the country, respectively. The AVK said on Monday it had established that the merger was in line with the competition rules. The content of the decision is yet to be published, while the managements of both publishers have already received it. The clearance was first reported by the public broadcaster Radio Slovenija, which said the joint company would have a 40% share on the printed media market, which is believed to have been the reason why the deliberations of the AVK on the case took a whole year.

Approval rating for govt, Šarec up in POP TV poll

LJUBLJANA - The voter approval rating for the Marjan Šarec government increased further in a poll commissioned by the commercial broadcaster POP TV, while Šarec overtook President Borut Pahor as the most popular politician. The poll, conducted by Mediana and released by POP TV on Sunday, shows 57% of those questioned supporting the government, up 3.1 percentage points on the month before; 11.4% are undecided and 31.5% oppose it. The Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) continues to lead the field among parliamentary parties at 19.2%, up 2.6 percentage points, ahead of the opposition Democrats (SDS) at 18.2%, up 3.2 points.

Ex-education officials indicted in Armenian healer case

LJUBLJANA - The newspaper Dnevnik reported that former State Secretary at the Education Ministry Andreja Barle Lakota was among the ten people who have been indicted for alleged abuse of office in a case involving Armenian healer Ruben Papian. He was allegedly paid tens of thousands of euro between 2009 and 2011 by three Slovenian education institutions for two studies allegedly written by Barle Lakota. The paper said that those charged included Mojca Štravs, the former director of the Educational Research Institute, and Andrej Koren, the former head of the National School for Leadership in Education.

Slovenia drops a spot in Global Innovation Index

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia slipped one spot to rank 31st among 129 countries in the 2019 Global Innovation Index, released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and business school INSEAD. Switzerland continues in the lead as the world's most innovative country, ahead of Sweden, the US, Netherlands, UK, Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Germany and Israel. Slovenia placed a spot after Italy and one ahead of Portugal. Among the neighbouring countries, Austria ranks 21st, Hungary 33rd and Croatia 44th.

Božič hosts Italian Foreign Affairs Committee chair

LJUBLJANA - Foreign Ministry State Secretary Dobran Božič hosted Marta Grande, the chair of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, to discuss minority issues, the Western Balkans and Slovenia's measures in the protection of the Schengen border. Grande was accompanied for the talks by Italian Ambassador Paolo Trichilo and committee members Filippo Giuseppe Perconti and Francesca Piazza, the Slovenian Foreign Ministry said.

Disciplinary procedure launched against army trade unionist

LJUBLJANA - Chief of the General Staff Alenka Ermenc has launched a disciplinary procedure against the head of the Trade Union of Soldiers (SVS), Gvido Novak, over his unionist activities, the SVS said in a press release. According to Maj-Gen Ermenc, who accuses Novak of severe violations of army discipline, there is ground to suspect that Novak made statements between 12 April and 7 May that harmed or could harm the interests of his employer. During that time, the controversial dismissal of the army's force commander, Brigadier General Miha Škerbinc, unfolded at Ermenc's request. The General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces said the procedure had been launched due to Novak's actions as a member of the armed forces and not as trade unionist.

Financial Administration taking on taxdodging crypto miners and traders

LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian Financial Administration told the STA that serious efforts had been under way to detect and sanction individuals engaged in regular crypto currency mining or trading while failing to pay taxes. It highlighted the example of a miner who had to pay EUR 100,000 in taxes after his undeclared activity was discovered. Furs responded last year to the soaring values of popular cryptocurrencies by issuing warnings that regular crypto mining and trading can amount to a work activity that needs to registered and is subject to taxation.

If you're learning Slovenian then you can find all our dual texts here

Slovenia’s Olympic judo champion, Tina Trstenjak, won her first IJF gold medal in some 18 months at Zagreb Grand Prix over the weekend, beating Japan’s Nami Nabekura in the under 63 kg event. In the over 78 kg group,  Anamari Velensek won a bronze medal.

The UK’s Ascent Resources, often in the news in Slovenia for its long-running and so far less than successful attempts to exploit it’s Petišovci gas field with the use of hydraulic stimulation, has announced a series of cost-cutting measures and managerial changes. As reported by Morning Star, the moves are an attempt to cut costs by 50%, and are needed because of the delays to the Slovenian project. As the website notes:

In its Slovenian operations, Ascent said it will cut the number of its employees and halt "all non-essential expenditure", including its May order of compression equipment for the Pg-10 and Pg-11A wells.

The company is also changing its CEO, with Chief Operating Officer John Buggenhagen replacing Colin Hutchinson, who will stay with company on a part-time, interim basis as a finance director.

Also leaving the company's board is Cameron Davies, retiring as chair having been a company director since 2010.

The new CEO, a geophysicist who has been working in various capacities at Ascent since January of this year, said: “we continue to pursue an appeal against the Environment Ministry in Slovenia, in conjunction with our joint venture partner at Petišovci, and we are prepared to initiate legal action against the Republic of Slovenia, who we believe is in breach of European Union law.”

Shares in the company were down 12% at 0.26 pence each in London at the close of trading, Monday.

The full report can be seen here, while all our reporting on Ascent Resources is here.

STA, 29 July 2019 - The Competition Protection Agency (AVK) has given a nod to the merger of Dnevnik and Večer, the publishers of the second and third largest daily newspapers in the country, respectively.

The AVK said on Monday it had established that the merger was in line with the competition rules. The content of the decision is yet to be published, while the managements of both publishers have already received it.

The clearance was first reported by the public broadcaster Radio Slovenija, which said the joint company would have a 40% share on the printed media market, which is believed to have been the reason why the deliberations of the AVK on the case took a whole year.

The approval of the Culture Ministry was already issued last December.

Maribor-based Večer, controlled by the no. 1 publisher Delo until 2014 when it was sold to entrepreneurs Uroš Hakl and Sašo Todorovič due to anti-trust concerns, has a circulation of about 19,000, while Dnevnik, owned by Bojan Petan of publisher DZS, one of 21,000.

According to some estimates, labour cost rationalisation alone will save the companies EUR 2 million. The two papers each generated around EUR 1.5 million in net profit last year.

Večer and Dnevnik are meant to continue being published as separate papers. Forces are expected to be joined when it comes to covering foreign and internal affairs as well as sports, while regional topics are to be covered separately.

Večer has traditionally had a strong subscriber base in the north-east of the country, while Dnevnik is perceived more as a central Slovenian or Ljubljana-based paper.

At least partial mergers are also expected for the subscriptions, marketing and administration department.

More about the plans and expected lay-offs will be clear once the owners comment on the AVK's decision, which has not yet been published officially.

Večer director Uroš Hakl and Dnevnik chairman Bojan Petan welcomed the decision by the AVK, labelling it as a "move which both companies perceive as necessary considering the aggravated situation on the printed media market."

Dnevnik editor-in-chief Miran Lesjak said that the merger "is certainly one of the most important decisions in the history of both newspapers."

According to Lesjak, the decision was made so that the newspapers survive. "We live in times when newspapers...which bet on quality of information, professionalism and their own credibility fight for survival," he added.

Igor Dernovšek, the president of Dnevnik journalists' trade union, told the STA that the decision was expected, adding that the trade union was assured that for now, there would be no lay-offs or pay cuts.

The Slovenian Journalists' Association (DNS) responded to the news by urging that both papers preserve their level of quality and professionalism, their separate brands, content plurality, as well as jobs.

The DNS expressed concern over the owners' limited sharing of information regarding their plans and consequences of the merger. It urged transparency, the inclusion of journalists in future steps and against only pursuing a strategy of survival and synergies, arguing this could prove fatal eventually.

"The owners must not only look at their economic interest but also at public interest - this means quality, in-depth and investigative reporting in what is in fact an increasingly barren Slovenian media landscape.

"Both of these media outlets are among the pillars of quality journalism in Slovenia, each a backbone of public opinion in their environment. Shaking them up would have irreparable consequences for the entire media and democratic environment," the DNS wrote.

The association moreover pointed out that it had launched an ongoing administrative dispute over being excluded from the Culture Ministry's deliberations on the merger.

The Association of Journalists and Commentators (ZNP) assessed that the merger will not change the balance of power on the Slovenian media market, and that it would not have a significant impact from the aspect of media plurality.

"Considering that both newspapers are...distinctively leaning to the left, their merger will not bring anything significantly new from the aspect of media plurality," said ZNP president Matevž Tomšič, who does not expect any major changes content-wise, either.

"Večer is a more regionally-oriented newspaper, which could hurt its image," he said, adding that the merger will render certain journalists and other media workers in both newspapers redundant and that they would be fired.

In addition to the DNS, the perils of the development have also been highlighted by media expert Marko Milosavljević, who particularly warned against the merging of the two paper's internal policy desks.

"This aspect definitely cuts deep into public interest and the plurality of the media landscape," Milosavljević told the STA, warning this could result in "a single person having control over reports in two key national papers".

He argued watchdogs too often only considered the economic side of things and forgot about the intellectual aspect. "This intellectual market often shrinks as a result of media mergers," the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences professor said.

STA, 29 July 2019 - The Slovenian Financial Administration (Furs) has told the STA that serious efforts have been under way to detect and sanction individuals engaged in regular crypto currency mining or trading while failing to pay taxes. It highlighted the example of a miner who had to pay EUR 100,000 in taxes after his undeclared activity was discovered.

Furs responded last year to the soaring values of popular cryptocurrencies by issuing warnings that regular crypto mining and trading can amount to a work activity that needs to registered and is subject to taxation.

Cases are evaluated on an individual basis, with key factors being the turnover value and number of transactions in a specific period.

Asked whether any undeclared miners or traders had been discovered in recent months, Furs highlighted the example of an individual who was discovered to have engaged in regular mining over an extensive period which would have required registration as an activity.

"This discovery of undeclared work led to the individual making a self-declaration and paying almost EUR 100,000 taxes," Furs explained.

It remains unclear how many people in Slovenia are engaged in the activity of mining or trading in cryptocurrencies.

Furs has various channels for obtaining information, indulging through the international exchange of data among tax administrations.

STA, 28 July 2019 - After a number of Slovenian cities have successfully launched bike-sharing networks, Nova Gorica is the latest to join the sustainable bike-sharing trend. The local authorities and development agency are planning to launch the city's bike-sharing network Go-kolo by March 2020.

The network planned by the Nova Gorica municipality and the Regional Development Agency of Northern Primorska will initially include 28 standard bikes and 13 e-bikes located at eight stations.

This is not the first attempt to bring bike sharing to Nova Gorica. Previous plans to establish a joint network with neighbouring Gorizia in Italy were abandoned after the selected Italian service provider failed to meet the requirements for the service's launch.

While the Go-kolo network will not be connected to the one in Gorizia, the plan is to expand it to the neighbouring Šempeter-Vrtojba municipality and build additional stations.

The use of the network will be free of charge for a limited time period, chosen in agreement with the service provider. The price and terms of use will be determined in agreement with the chosen provider. The system will offer payment with online or mobile application or by payment cards.

The partners have released a public call for bids to find the service provider, which will be chosen in September. The deadline for the start of operations is March 2020.

STA, 28 July 2019 - The government has proposed a series of tax tweaks aimed at reducing labour taxation, coupled with higher taxes on capital, which would partly offset the loss of revenue. The rest is to be secured through more effective tax collection.

The Finance Ministry submitted the blueprint of the tax reform for public consultation on 22 June, and is accepting comments from stakeholders until 1 August after which it will compile draft amendments ready to be passed by the government and then by parliament.

The changes would affect laws on personal income tax, corporate income tax and on tax on profit from disposal of derivatives. This would also require changes to the tax procedure act. The bills are to hit parliamentary benches in the autumn to be fast-tracked in order to kick in on 1 January 2020.

Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj would like the package to be revenue neutral. "We've planned a set of soft measures with the main role to be played by the Financial Administration," the minister said in a recent interview with the magazine Reporter.

The revenue service is to produce an extra EUR 160 million through a proactive approach that would make tax collection more effective and crack down on tax evasion and fraud involving social contributions, the minister explained.

Overall, the planned cuts on labour taxation, along with the cuts on holiday allowance that have already been implemented, are projected to reduce receipts by roughly EUR 220 million annually, while additional taxes would increase receipts by an estimated EUR 87 million.

FURS has told the STA it has already drawn up measures designed to collect an additional EUR 160 million more in taxes. These include measures to increase voluntary payment of taxes such as expanding payment methods and advancing tax literacy among the young, and improving inspection procedures.

In this way they hope to collect EUR 50 million more social contributions, EUR 45 million more VAT and EUR 40 million more personal income tax. A further EUR 25 million could be gained from more aware tax payers and better oversight of how legal persons calculate and pay tax and of tax on motor vehicles.

The proposed changes include increasing general tax credit and tweaks to the income tax brackets to reduce the tax burden on the middle class. This is to be offset by higher corporate income tax and higher taxation of capital gains and of rental income.

STA, 28 July 2019 - The passenger terminal at Koper, Slovenia's sole maritime port, welcomed 55,000 cruise line passengers by Friday this year with more than 109,000 expected to arrive at the port by the end of the season.

Most of the passengers come on high-end cruise liners, most of which sail in from Venice, as well as from Croatian ports such as Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik or even Korčula.

The city authorities told the STA that three cruise liners were due to dock at the Koper port this weekend.

The Celebrity Infinity arrived in the port for the first time on Friday carrying 2,000 passengers and 1,000 crew members. The ship was due to return as early as Sunday, following the Celebrity Constellation on Saturday.

By the end of the season 71 cruise liner arrivals are expected with a total of more than 106,000 passengers on board, so the port may even trump the boom year of 2010, when it welcomed more than 109,000 passengers on board of 78 ships.

The biggest this season are the Mein Schiff 6 and the Koningsdam, each carrying 2,500 passengers. The former is scheduled to visit Koper four times and the latter three times.

Most of the cruise liners arrive in June, July, September and October. Some estimates are that Koper could receive between 180,000 and 200,000 passengers a year in the coming years, but these should be distributed evenly throughout the year.

Many of the cruise line passengers stay in the town to explore the historic centre, or take a trip to some other coastal town, or even the rural Istria with a wine fountain in Marezige one popular draw.

There is also high demand for visits to Lipica, the home of the white Lipizzan horse, the Postojna Cave, the alpine lakeside resort of Bled or the capital Ljubljana.