STA, 5 July 2019 - The police continues to detect a rising trend in the number of illegal crossings of the Slovenian border, with the number standing at 5,345 in the first half of the year or 47.1% more than in the same period in 2018. There is an increasing number of illegal migrants from Pakistan, Algeria and Morocco.

The biggest number of illegal crossings of the borders in the first half of the year was processed by police officers from the Koper, Novo Mesto and Ljubljana police departments.

By the end of June, 2,718 of illegal migrants expressed the intention to ask for international protection, which is 7.5% less than in the first half of 2018 (2,355).

According to the latest report, migrants who express the intention to ask for international protection frequently continue on their way to their actual target countries after being accommodated in asylum centres.

In the first half of the year, police officers recorded 355 cases in which foreigners crossed an internal Schengen border to Slovenia without valid documents or permits, which is 13.2% less than in the same period in 2018.

Pakistanis accounted for the most of such illegal entries, while they also dominate the statistics of illegal crossings of the external Schengen border.

A majority of such cases were recorded on the Slovenian border with Italy (226). The police notes that this is a relatively small number of cases, with the number of illegal entries on the border with Italy having dropped.

A total of 2,178 third country nationals were denied entry at border crossings for failing to meet the conditions to enter Slovenia or other EU countries, which is 10.8% more than in the first half of 2018.

Most of them were rejected on the border crossings with Croatia, and the biggest number of them were citizens of Afghanistan, followed by citizens of the Balkan countries.

The number of foreigners who were processed because they were not permitted to reside in Slovenia or other EU countries increased by almost a third to 2,728.

A majority of the cases related to expired residency permits, mostly involving citizens of the Western Balkan countries. An increasing number of Moldovan citizens are also being processed for this reason, as a consequence of visa liberalisation.

Slovenian police officers returned a total of 3,534 foreigners to the authorities of neighbouring countries in the first half of the year (up from 1,174), most of them to the Croatian authorities.

Foreign authorities meanwhile returned 333 persons to Slovenia in this period, including 23 Slovenian citizens, the report says.

The Slovenian National Theatre (Slovensko narodno gledališče – SNG) Drama Ljubljana recently posted an advertisement for a job that’s attracting attention for the broad range of duties the successful candidate for the position of associate in graphic design, public relations and marketing is expected to have.

While no details on the salary have been released, we present the following job and task description, along with a details of how to apply at the end, if, along with Slovenian language skills, you’re capable of the following:

• designing promotional materials for print and the web (knowing how to use Illustrator, Indesign, Photoshop, Premiere and Lightroom tools),
• photographing events and editing photos for print and online use,
• creative writing and editing of texts,
• editing the website and sending e-news,
• independent content and design management on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube),
• organisational skills to help organise and promote press conferences, premieres, concerts and other external and internal events,
• precision for administrative tasks,
• a sense of aesthetics and manual skills for taking care of outdoor displays, framing photographs and decorating

We are looking for an associate in the 2019/20 season for the period from 19 August 2019 to 19 July 2020, with the possibility of extension.

Please send written applications with past promotional materials and written products up to 21 July 2019 to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the title "Application for an associate coworker". Interviews with selected candidates will take place on August 12, 2019.

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 05 June 2019

Mladina: Eastern Europe did not deserve any key EU posts

STA, 5 July 2019 - The left-wing weekly Mladina says in its latest commentary that the countries from Eastern Europe have no business lamenting the fact that none of its representatives have been tipped to get one of the top four jobs in the EU, as they do not deserve any respect.

"In the days following the selection of the leading staff of the European Union for the next five years, it could also be heard in Slovenia how bad it is that there are no candidates from Eastern Europe for any of the posts.

"That it would be symbolic and good as a gesture of respect to the new members. Respect? Why? The Eastern European countries have been a great disappointment of Europe, turning out to be fascistic, nationalistic, introvert, narrow-minded and democratically immature fifteen or twenty years after the enlargement."

In the commentary headlined On the Right Side of History, editor-in-chief Grega Repovž wonders whether Poland, Hungary, Slovakia or Croatia deserve any respect, adding that "this Eastern Europe is nothing but a disappointment."

Last year, Slovenia escaped by a hair becoming a part of this part of Eastern Europe owing to the maturity of a majority of political parties and the clearly expressed will of the civil society, he adds.

Referring to Marjan Šarec being appointed prime minister in a minority government, the commentator says that with Janez Janša of the opposition Democrats (SDS) in power, "today we would be a part of the problem and one of the countries which were pushed out from the so-called core Europe this week."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron played out a game which exposed the Eastern European nationalists, including Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, whose mouths are otherwise full of Europe.

"What is being formed is not automatically a Europe which we would like. We will perhaps get some headaches. But nevertheless, we are watching an attempt at stemming the growth of populism. This is good. Slovenia has fortunately found itself on the right side."

This is so because Slovenia has a normal, democratic government, and partly because it has the euro, and because Šarec, like Macron, became a liberal on the European scale at the right moment. "We have no serious influence on the developments, but we are on the right side of history. It could have been completely different."

Demokracija: New media legislation introduces censorship

STA, 4 July 2019 – Left-leaning politicians in Slovenia have no sense of responsibility and show no respect for the rule of law, the right-wing weekly Demokracija says in its latest editorial. They set the boundaries for what is allowed and now, with the new media bill, they will also decide on what constitutes hate speech, says editor-in-chief Jože Biščak.

According to the draft media bill, a state official called the media inspector will decide on what constitutes media-sponsored inciting of hatred and intolerance.

This person will be able to order a media outlet to remove certain content and even slap it with a fine.

"This is not only an inadmissible interference with the autonomous editorial policy but an interference with the freedom of speech from the position of political power," says Biščak.

It is not surprising that the Slovenian Journalists' Association (DNS) welcomed this form of censorship.

First, it welcomed it because it will directly decide on what is appropriate and what is inappropriate content and second, because the DNS has shown many times it could not care less about media freedom.

Most recently it illustrated this by supporting Prime Minister Marjan Šarec's call to state-owned companies not to advertise in certain media outlets.

"It is more than obvious that Slovenia is again or (still) deeply in the Communist totalitarian system that tramples on human rights, of which the freedom of speech is the most important," Biščak says, adding that the deep state does not even bother to hide this anymore.

"The question is whether liberation from these chains is even possible in a peaceful way," concludes the commentary headlined In the Beginning Was the Word.

All our posts in this series can be found here, while you can keep up-to-date on Slovenia politics here, and find the daily headlines here

STA, 4 July 2019 - The Ministry of Labour has come up with a calculation of the effect of the planned rise in the minimum wage in 2020 on the entire economy, establishing that, coupled with the elimination of bonuses from the minimum wage, it would cost the private sector EUR 197.1 million or 1.77% of the wage bill.

The calculation comes as a response from the government to the criticism from employer representatives about it having failed to make proper projections before adopting legislative changes raising the minimum wage.

In a recently published document, the ministry says that the effect of the raise of the gross minimum wage could be estimated relatively precisely based on data from previous years, while it is much harder to estimate the effect of the elimination of bonuses, as there are no relevant databases.

The ministry has established that the financial effect of the expected raise of the minimum wage in 2020 would be EUR 63.6 million or 0.57% of the wage bill, and the elimination of bonuses an additional EUR 133.5 million or 1.2% of the wage bill.

In commerce, where the number of employees on minimum wage is the highest, the added cost is expected to be EUR 37.3 million or 1.81% of the wage bill.

The ministry has assessed that the cumulative financial effects at the level of the entire economy will not be significant, while it is aware that they could be higher in industries with lower wages and a higher number of permanent bonuses.

It does not expect that a large number of companies will get into trouble considering that the total net profit posted by Slovenian companies last year increased by 16% and that the economic situation and the situation on the labour market are favourable.

Employer representatives are disappointed with the calculation, with Jože Smole, the secretary general of the Employers' Association, telling the STA that the analysis was very modest, featuring only three pages of text.

Smole is convinced that it does not take into account the complexity of the matter and is critical of the ministry for relying too much on the general data about profit and disregarding the possibility that companies which do not make profit would get into further trouble.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) reiterated in its response that it was against the changes to the minimum wage act, which it believes will hurt vulnerable individuals and companies the most.

The changes, which were passed last year without the approval of all social partners, raised the minimum wage this year from EUR 638 net to EUR 667 net, and next year it is expected to increase to EUR 700 net.

All our stories on pay in Slovenia are here

https://www.total-slovenia-news.com/tag/salary

Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also ollow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

A schedule of all the main events involving Slovenia this week can be found here

Visiting Ljubljana? Check out what's on this week, while all our stories on Slovenia, from newest to oldest, are here

This summary is provided by the STA:

Govt adopts guidelines on division of 2020, 2021 budget funds

LJUBLJANA - The government divided among its departments budget funds for the next two years. The 2020 budget has previously been capped at EUR 10.450 billion, while the 2021 budget is capped at EUR 10.455 billion. The cabinet set the upper limits for individual departments, which now have a few weeks to draft their financial plans for the two periods. Despite what are to be record high budgets, coalition partners are not happy with the funds allocated to the ministries. "Even if there were additional EUR 100 million available, there would still be dissatisfaction," said Igor Zorčič, deputy group head of the Modern Centre Party (SMC) as he was coming out of a coalition meeting this morning.

Krka's net profit up 37% to EUR 140m in H1, dividends up 10% from last year

NOVO MESTO - The drug maker Krka generated EUR 761.8 million in sales revenue in the first half of the year, which is 12% more than in the same period last year. Net profit rose by 37% to EUR 139.9m, the Novo Mesto-based company said. Estimated operating profit grew by 14% to EUR 154.9 million and estimated gross operating profit rose by 10% to EUR 210.3 million. The shareholders also decided that EUR 101.66 million out of last year's distributable profit of EUR 189.47 million will be allocated for dividends at EUR 3.20 gross per share. This is a 10.3% increase compared to last year's dividend.

Govt adopts changes to law on integrity and corruption prevention

LJUBLJANA - The government adopted at its weekly session changes to the law on integrity and the prevention of corruption which change the appointment of corruption watchdog officials and reorganise the work of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. The changes bring new standards governing the appointment of officials on the commission. A new condition that a vetting commission will have to take into account is "personal suitability". Some changes will also be made to the commission selecting the candidates for the three posts, but the final selection remains in the hand of Slovenian president.

Ministry says minimum wage increase in 2020 will cost EUR 200m

LJUBLJANA - The Ministry of Labour has come up with a calculation of the effect of the planned rise in the minimum wage in 2020 on the entire economy, establishing that, coupled with the elimination of bonuses from the minimum wage, it would cost the private sector EUR 197.1 million or 1.77% of the wage bill. The calculation comes as a response from the government to the criticism from employer representatives about it having failed to make proper projections before adopting legislative changes raising the minimum wage.

Govt orders adoption of overdue national zoning plan for Poček

LJUBLJANA - The government decided that a new national zoning plan be adopted for Poček, the main training area of the Slovenian Armed Forces. A new zoning plan is needed after the Constitutional Court, petitioned by the Postojna municipality, which hosts Poček, annulled the old one in December 2017. The court argued the zoning plan had not been adopted by considering all environmental risks, giving the government a year to amend the situation.

NSi requests another debate on Slovenian-Italian police patrols

LJUBLJANA - The deputy group of the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) has requested a session of the parliamentary foreign policy and interior policy committees to discuss the newly introduced mixed police patrols on the Slovenian-Italian border. The party believes the joint patrols were a mistake that could have long-term consequences. The NSi argues that the mixed police patrols on Slovenia's border with Italy undermine Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar's claims that Slovenia is protecting the border with Croatia well.

Cerar says preserving W Balkan's EU accession prospects a must

POZNAN, Poland - Foreign Minister Miro Cerar attended a conference on the Western Balkans as part of a Berlin Process summit, saying that preserving the region's EU accession prospects was a must, and that young people in the region must be enabled to develop their potential. In the discussion on the Berlin Process and the EU accession prospects of the Western Balkans, Cerar expressed Slovenia's support for the enlargement process and the expectation that the EU will take strategic decisions regarding the accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania this year.

Pahor receives credentials of four new ambassadors

LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor was presented with the credentials of Peruvian Ambassador Eric Anderson Machado, Colombian Ambassador Miguel Camilo Ruiz Blanco, Malaysian Ambassador Cheong Loon Lai and Afghan Ambassador Khojesta Fana Ebrahimkhel today. All of them are concurrent ambassadors based outside Slovenia.

Slovenia gets fmr Yugoslav embassy in Guyana

BELGRADE, Serbia - Nearly three decades after the start of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, the countries that emerged from it continue to settle their succession issues. As part of the process, Slovenia got the building of the former Yugoslavia's embassy in Georgetown, Guyana, at the most recent succession meeting in Belgrade. The Foreign Ministry said in a press release that the meeting also assigned to Slovenia several artworks that used to adorn the former Yugoslavia's diplomatic and consular properties.

Insurance market stable in 2018, regulator says

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's insurance companies generated a cumulative net profit of EUR 132.7 million in 2018, up 6.5% annually, with re-insurers posting a 17% rise to EUR 46.4 million. The director of the Insurance Supervision Agency, Gorazd Čibej, said the industry had operated in a stable manner last year, meeting all capital adequacy standards. Collected gross premiums reached EUR 2.1 billion, up 5.7% over 2017, rising by 6.3% in property insurance and 3.9% in life insurance. Loss ratio improved by 2.1 percentage points because 2018 was more favourable than 2017 for the industry. For reinsurers, 2017 was the fourth worst year in 40 years, Čibej said.

Rail operator firm wins EUR 21.5m project in Croatia

RIJEKA, Croatia - The rail construction firm SŽ-ŽGP of the national railways operator Slovenske Železnice has been picked for a project of reconstructing the railway network in the Croatian Rijeka port. The subsidiary signed the EUR 21.5 million contract today. Apart from reconstructing the network, the firm will also perform demolition work, modernise a logistics platform as well as reconstruct a link to a passenger train station. The project is expected to be completed in two years' time.

Court of Audit honoured with state decoration

LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor has honoured the Court of Audit with the Order of Merit as the institution watching over the use of public funds celebrates its 25th anniversary. The president's office praised the court for its independent, efficient and responsible supervision of taxpayers' money. Court of Audit president Tomaž Vesel said the decoration was a great honour and encouragement, which also brought responsibility to keep up the good work.

Debate warns about youth exodus from Slovenia

LJUBLJANA - A debate which was part of an annual get-together of Slovenians living abroad, hosted by the parliamentary Commission for Relations with Slovenians Abroad, discussed youth brain drain, with participants being critical of the state and sharing their views on homeland and personal experience. The vice-president of the commission Karla Urh pointed out that economic growth and higher recruitment rate did not curb the emigration. She thus called for determining causes for that and developing mitigation strategies.

Ministries urge sacking medicinal products agency members

LJUBLJANA - The newspaper Dnevnik reported that health and agriculture ministries had recently launched the procedure of dismissing four members of the board of the Agency for Medicinal Products and Devices on the grounds of negligence and lack of expertise. The members deny the accusations, deeming them absurd, and are appealing the dismissals.

UKC Ljubljana ordered to rehire main defendant in line-skipping trial

LJUBLJANA - UKC Ljubljana hospital has been ordered by the Ljubljana Labour and Social Court to rehire Uroš Smiljić, who is standing trial for allegedly taking kickbacks from patients wanting to skip waiting lines for exams and procedures at the country's biggest hospital. The court said that the reasons for dismissal stated by the hospital were fabricated. The hospital said that the stocktaker was being fired because his post was being abolished, with the court now establishing that the need for services he provided did not cease to exist after he was fired.

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

STA, 4 July 2019 - A debate which was part of an annual get-together of Slovenians living abroad, hosted by the parliamentary Commission for Relations with Slovenians Abroad, discussed youth brain drain, with participants being critical of the state and sharing their views on homeland and personal experience.

At the debate focusing on the issue of the young emigrating from Slovenia and returning to their native country, the vice-president of the Commission Karla Urh pointed out that economic growth and higher recruitment rate did not curb the emigration. She thus called for determining causes for that and developing mitigation strategies.

The slogan of this year's get-together reflects the issue, posing a question of why the young are still leaving despite the improvements.

Speaker Dejan Židan said that the nation is not defined by genetics, but mostly by the "memory, language, culture and awareness of being part of the community". According to him, globalisation and internationalisation pose a threat to national identities.

Minister for Slovenians Abroad Peter J. Česnik said that he himself was an expatriate, having lived in Australia for a long time, and highlighted that living abroad was not easy. He pointed out that Slovenian national awareness at home was not as strong as that found in Slovenian communities outside the country, where the culture was maintained voluntarily.

The event was addressed by keynote speakers, including constitutional judge Klemen Jaklič, Jure Leskovec, an IT associate professor at Stanford University and co-founder of the American-Slovenian Education Foundation, an EU Parliament assistant Nežka Figelj and secretary at the Ministry for Slovenians Abroad Dejan Valentinčič.

Leskovec said that a lot of people emigrated from Slovenia to transcend the system of wage levelling, which forced them not to stand out or achieve exceptional results, adding that some also left to open a company abroad due to excessive red tape and high taxes at home.

Around half a million Slovenians or people of Slovenian descent identifying as such live outside Slovenia, representing some 20% of the Slovenian nation.

STA, 4 July 2019 - Police have apprehended 97 illegal migrants trying to cross the state border in different parts of the country in the past couple of days. The Koper police department have dealt with most of them. The majority were Pakistani citizens.

The Koper police department apprehended 73 between Wednesday and Thursday morning - 62 of them were Pakistani citizens, with the rest coming from Bangladesh, Iran, India, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia.

Two of them have asked for international protection, while the rest are expected to be handed over to the Croatian authorities.

Tuesday was particularly busy for the coastal region. According to the newspaper Primorske Novice, locals in the south-western village Hrušica spotted a large group of illegal migrants, at least 100, late in the afternoon.

Furthermore, a police car involved in the pursuit that followed crashed into a tree and flipped onto its side. Four police officers suffered minor injuries in the collision.

The Novo Mesto police department apprehended on Wednesday 14 illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. The processing has not yet been completed.

Meanwhile, the Maribor police department processed 7 foreigners in the past 24 hours, including citizens from Algeria, Iraq and Iran. All of them will be handed over to the Croatian authorities. Some of them have already been apprehended in April this year or September last year.

The Ljubljana police department apprehended three illegal migrants in the south-eastern Kočevje and central Grosuplje area in the past 24 hours, with the processing still ongoing.

STA, 2 July 2019 - The share of electricity from renewable sources in gross end use in Slovenia in 2018 rose by 3.4 percentage points to 21.8% from 2005, the Energy Agency, the national regulator, says in its 2018 report.

This was facilitated by a support scheme which has since 2009 involved more than 2,500 producers with almost 3,860 production facilities running on renewables.

But in line with national goals stemming from the EU's climate and energy package, the share of renewables in gross end use will have to be raised to 25% by 2020.

To achieve this goal, progress will have to be made in transport and in power production, the agency says in the report, which has been sent to the National Assembly.

In transport, Slovenia was by 4.7 percentage points behind the target 10.5% share in 2018, while the gap for electricity output to the 39.3% goal was over 7 points.

Renewables-based power was generated mostly by hydro plants and other plants running on renewables, reaching 34.5% of the country's total power output in 2018, up almost 5 points annually.

The rest of Slovenia's power output came from coal-fired power stations (29%) and the Krško Nuclear Power Plant, the country's only nuclear power station (36.5%).

Domestic electricity production covered almost 85% of domestic electricity consumption, up 1.7 points from 2017.

However, the agency said the output did not reflect the actual potential of the country's electricity production facilities.

It was rather a result of the structure of production facilities, their competitiveness and the emerging electricity market target model, says the report.

For instance, hydro power stations' output depends on water levels, while coal-fired power stations and plants running on liquid and gas fuels strongly depend on daily power consumption as well as on market variables such as the prices of emission coupons, fuel or wholesale.

The agency also says market concentration in the retail market somewhat decreased last year, which shows there is more competition among electricity suppliers.

However, the end price of electricity for an average household edged up 0.3%, while it rose by more than 8% for other users.

While there is still much room to save on electricity bills by changing suppliers, the number of those did so in 2018 dropped by one point to 5.7% over 2017, a second consecutive annual drop.

The Energy Agency is the country's national regulatory authority which directs and supervises electricity and gas energy operators.

Its mission is to act in the interest of all market stakeholders, so it is not financed from the state budget but from network charges.

STA, 3 July 2019 - The production of the fifth generation Renault Clio was officially launched at Revoz, the Novo Mesto-based assembly plant of the French car maker on Wednesday. The project to establish the assembly line for the latest Clio is worth EUR 90 million, with the Slovenian government chipping in a EUR 6 million incentive.

The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Marjan Šarec and Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek, with Šarec saying that Slovenia was proud to have had a factory such as Revoz for the last 60 years.

He said the EUR 90 million investment was a milestone in the development of the automotive industry in Slovenia and in industrial development in general.

Počivalšek noted that the Slovenian car industry boasted 284 companies, which generated 10% of the gross domestic product and more than 20% of exports while employing more than 16,000 people.

Slovenia recorded EUR 15.2 billion in foreign investments last year, which is EUR 1.2 billion more than in 2017.

Počivalšek said the Environment Agency was processing more than a hundred applications for environmental permits, "which means a lot of investments are planned in Slovenia".

Announcing the launch of the new generation of the B-segment supermini, Revoz CEO Kaan Ozkan said that it would bring new jobs, additional investments and a technological breakthrough as a major milestone for the plant and the local environment.

According to Ozkan, the predecessors of Clio V have been among the best selling car models in Slovenia, with the plant producing almost more than two million units since 1995.

As the government announced the project investment at the end of last year, it said that it expected the new investment in Novo Mesto to increase added value per employee at Revoz, which employs 3,400 people.

So far, more than 270 people have been hired because of the new investment.

The government said that Renault intended to invest EUR 4.2 million in buildings and EUR 85.8 million in new machines and equipment as part of the project.

According to the Economy Ministry, the investment will return multiple times as Revoz is expected to pay more than EUR 14 million in taxes and social security contributions in the first three years alone.

Revoz produced older Clio generations between 1993 and 2015, with the last Clio II car produced there at the end of April 2015.

The plant produced almost two million and a half of these vehicles before launching the production of Clio IV in June 2017. It also assembles the Renault Twingo and the Smart Forfour, including its electric version.

STA, 3 July 2019 - The Serbian AIK Banka, a new sole owner of Gorenjska Banka since April, decided at Wednesday's annual general meeting that EUR 12 million, or almost two-thirds of last year's distributable profit of Gorenjska Banka of EUR 18.9 million, will be earmarked for dividends at EUR 33.75 per share.

The rest - EUR 6.9 million - will remain unallocated, with EUR 4.3 million being at the bank's disposal for unlimited and immediate use to cover risks or losses the moment they occur.

The assembly granted discharge of liability to the management and supervisory boards for last year as well as passed a number of amendments of the company's articles of association today.

The supervisory board, currently including six members, is as of now required to have a minimum of three members and a maximum of seven, while the management board, currently featuring two members, is required to have at least two members and at most five.

Gorenjska Banka generated EUR 20.68 million in profit before taxes last year, thus doubling the 2017 gross profit. The net profit in 2018 was EUR 17.1 million. The bank's total assets amounted to EUR 1.83 billion at the end of the last year.