What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.
If you’d like to keep up on the daily headlines then follow those here, or get all our stories in your feed on Facebook.
FRIDAY, 6 December
LJUBLJANA - Simona Drenik Bavdek, the official at the centre of the arbitration scandal, demanded the withdrawal of an incriminating report by the parliamentary Commission for Oversight of Intelligence and Security Services. She later lodged a claim with the Administrative Court demanding that the report be taken from the website because the parliamentary inquiry violated her human rights.
ROME, Italy - FM Miro Cerar and his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio called for EU-level solutions to tackle migrations, including enhanced protection of the EU's external borders, reform of asylum law and cooperation with third countries.
LJUBLJANA - A productivity report compiled by IMAD, the government's macroeconomic think tank, showed that increasing productivity would be key to Slovenia's economic and social development, and to achieve the goal, innovation and R&D would have to be enhanced.
LJUBLJANA - Fortenova, the owner of Croatian conglomerate Agrokor's healthy assets, confirmed the goal of resolving open issues regarding Slovenian retailer Mercator by the end of the year, highlighting the role of local suppliers' interdependency with Mercator and the importance of keeping the headquarters in Ljubljana for the next several years.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Slovenia's European Commissioner Janez Lenarčič appointed Matjaž Malgaj as head of his team, while it was reported that Maja Kocijančič was the only Slovenian in a cabinet of another commissioner.
NEW YORK, US - Slovenian NBA star Luka Dončić was named Sports Illustrated's 2019 Breakout of the Year. The Dallas Mavericks small forward, who made his NBA debut in 2018, was also awarded NBA player of the month for October and November.
SATURDAY, 7 December
LONDON, UK - The acclaimed SNG Maribor Ballet company led by choreographer Edward Clug put on two guest performances of Clug's celebrated work Radio and Juliet at the London Coliseum, the West End's largest theatre.
SUNDAY, 8 December
LJUBLJANA - The latest data released by the Statistics Office showed that international trade in goods and services remained Slovenia's most important cross-border economic activity in 2018. The value of exports and imports of goods and services rose annually by 9.3% and 10.4%, respectively.
LJUBLJANA - The Jury Grand Prix of the 16th Animateka international animated film festival was bestowed on Acid Rain by Polish director and animator Tomek Popakul. The film also won the audience award.
MONDAY, 9 December
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina/PRISHTINA, Kosovo - Visiting Slovenian soldiers deployed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, PM Marjan Šarec heard praise of them and stressed Slovenia was not considering diminishing its presence in the region. PM expressed regret over Kosovo transforming KFOR into a professional military force without changing the constitution.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - FM Miro Cerar said Slovenia did not support making decisions by qualified or any other kind of majority in the EU foreign policy. The country had signed an informal document which could be interpreted as paving the way for qualified majority, but FM stressed the document did not endorse this.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - FM Miro Cerar backed the decision by the EU's Foreign Affairs Council on launching preparations for a new EU regime to sanction human rights abusers. Meeting the foreign ministers of North Macedonia and Albania, FM called for starting EU accession talks with both countries by March next year.
BERLIN, Germany - Speaker Dejan Židan met President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schäuble for informal talks about the six-month EU presidency spells (July 2020 - December 2021) held successively by Germany, Portugal and Slovenia.
LJUBLJANA - The coalition Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) nominated Angelika Mlinar, a former Austrian MEP and a member of the Slovenian minority in Austria, for cohesion policy minister. The govt granted her citizenship request on 12 December, but her dual citizenship request in Austria is pending.
LJUBLJANA - The permanent consultative climate policy committee, a body attached to President Borut Pahor's office, recommended to the government and both chambers of parliament to consider declaring a climate and environmental emergency.
KRANJ - A fire broke out at Ekol, a hazardous waste processing plant, causing some EUR 40,000 damage, but the authorities later said it had not polluted the air or water. Nevertheless, it upset the locals, who have been warning for years about the hazard the Laze industrial zone poses to the environment and public health.
LJUBLJANA/LONDON, UK - British business newspaper Financial Times ranked the University of Ljubljana's School of Economics and Business among the 95 best business schools in Europe for the second consecutive years.
TUESDAY, 10 December
LJUBLJANA - The supervisory board of telecoms Telekom Slovenije appointed Tomaž Seljak the new chairman for a full, four-year term. Seljak had previously served as interim chairman following the resignation of Matjaž Merkan in mid-November.
LJUBLJANA - The Statistics Office data showed that Slovenia's external trade in goods continued to grow in October, despite a drop in trade with EU countries. However, imports rose at a faster rate year-on-year than exports, creating a trade deficit.
MADRID, Spain - Paris Agreement implementation will require the cooperation of everyone, Environment Minister Simon Zajc said at the COP25 climate summit. He later welcomed the European Green Deal, saying the strategy ensures a just transition to facilitate a green shift in the most vulnerable sectors and regions, including Slovenia's mining regions.
LJUBLJANA - Iskratel, the company that was outbid in a tender to build a motorway e-tolling system for lorries in 2016, brought a EUR 17.7 million damages suit against the motorway company DARS, arguing that the latter as well as the National Review Commission had abused the selection procedure.
LJUBLJANA - A debate discussing solutions aimed at increasing gender-balanced representation in Slovenia's electoral system heard calls for higher gender quotas and for the adoption of the zipper system. Speaker Dejan Židan expressed support for raising gender quotas from the current 35% to 40%.
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia ranked 44th in the 2020 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), dropping one place compared to last year. The country scored the lowest in renewable energy and climate policy, while it did better in energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - A Ljubljana stadium designed by acclaimed architect Jože Plečnik in the 1920s was shortlisted as one of the 14 pieces of European cultural heritage that could be put on a list of seven most endangered pieces which will be revealed in March 2020.
WEDNESDAY, 11 December
LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg - The EU's Court of Justice Advocate General Priit Pikamäe proposed for the court to rule inadmissible Slovenia's case against Croatia over the latter's failure to implement the 2017 border arbitration award. Top officials expressed surprised and hope the court would heed the country's legal arguments rather than follow the non-binding opinion.
LJUBLJANA - Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar and his Macedonian counterpart Oliver Spasovski agreed joint policy and cooperation of all Western Balkan countries were needed for the effective management of migration on the Western Balkan route, as well as information exchange and fight against organised crime.
LJUBLJANA - Election legislation, provinces and climate change ranked prominently as the country's President Borut Pahor, Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, Speaker Dejan Židan and National Council President Alojz Kovšca met for an end-of-year reception.
ZADAR, Croatia - Defence Minister Karl Erjavec attended the inauguration of an aircraft training centre set up in the framework of NATO's Multinational Special Aviation Programme, saying the centre was very important for strengthening interoperability.
THURSDAY, 12 December
BRUSSELS, Belgium - At an EU summit, PM Marjan Šarec said that the Finnish presidency's proposal for the EU's next long-term budget was very bad for Slovenia, because it proposed cutting cohesion funds for the country by 28% compared to the current period.
LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry reported that Slovenia had joined a Green Group call for more ambitious measures in the face of climate change at the climate conference in Madrid, while Prime Minister Marjan Šarec said in Brussels that Slovenia advocated carbon neutrality for EU by 2050.
LJUBLJANA - The government granted the citizenship request by Angelika Mlinar, a former Austrian MEP who had been nominated to head the government office in charge of cohesion policy, under provisions of the citizenship act typically used to fast-track athletes' applications.
BLED - Defence Minister Karl Erjavec hosted his Hungarian counterpart Tibor Benko, with the pair discussing the security situation in the region as well as bolstering bilateral and regional defence and military cooperation.
ČRNOMELJ - Representatives of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) visited Črnomelj area to assess the migrant situation there, noting good practices as well as a number of issues, including "police violence against refugees".
LJUBLJANA - The office of President Borut Pahor asked the Interior Ministry to closely examine the case of an Afghan who is facing deportation from Slovenia, as it believes it stands out from usual cases. The man has lived in Slovenia since 2015, has a family here and speaks the language.
LJUBLJANA - Petrol shareholders decided that major deals concerning the acquisition and disposal of financial investments, other types of investments and sponsorship contracts that the energy firm has concluded since early 2015 be audited.
LJUBLJANA - The government said it would allocate EUR 10 million in 2021-2026 to support projects hosted by a Slovenian town to be designated a European Capital of Culture for 2025.
LJUBLJANA - Saop and Mit Informatika, which specialise in enterprise software, signed a business combination agreement creating a new major player on the Slovenian IT market.
All our posts in this series are here
