What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.
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FRIDAY, 3 December
LJUBLJANA - Kajetan Gantar, a translator of classical literature and philosophy, and Mirko Cuderman, a choir conductor, were declared the winners of the 2022 Prešeren Prizes, the highest national accolade for lifetime achievement in culture and arts.
LJUBLJANA - The government adopted a rule under which all those who have had a high-risk contact with a person highly suspected to be infected with the Omicron variant have to quarantine at home. The rule, which entered into force on 4 December, also applies to those who have been vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19.
BRDO PRI KRANJU - An EU-Western Balkans ministerial focussing on judiciary urged cooperation of Western Balkan countries with the EPPO, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and Slovenian Justice Minister Marjan Dikaučič said. The region has expressed readiness for cooperation with the EPPO, said Dikaučič.
KOPER - The supervisory board of Luka Koper appointed Boštjan Napast the president of the management board of the state-owned port operator for a five-year term. Napast had been until recently the head of the board of the gas distributor Geoplin.
LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Policy Committee approved a new bill on deployment in civilian missions and international organisations in second reading. The proposal is intended to enable the timely nomination and deployment of Slovenian experts, said Foreign Ministry State Secretary Gašper Dovžan.
LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary Education Committee endorsed amendments to the organisation and financing of education act, which would change the composition of school and kindergarten councils to increase the influence of the founder - government or municipality, as members of the opposition obstructed the vote.
BUDVA, Montenegro - PM Janez Janša discussed the need to bring the Western Balkans into the EU as he addressed by video link the summit of the Central European Initiative (CEI).
ROME, Italy - Attending the Rome MED 2021 - Mediterranean Dialogues conference, FM Anže Logar said that economic development in Africa was key to reducing the migration pressure.
LJUBLJANA - The government adopted on 2 December a revised 2021 business and financial plan for the Eco Fund under which an additional EUR 71.8 million will be allocated to the fund. The extra amount will go for environmental investment loans, energy efficiency grants and sustainable construction.
FRANKFURT, Germany - Rating agency Fitch affirmed Slovenia's credit rating at A with a stable outlook, Fitch said, adding that this reflected the agency's expectations of a permanent recovery of the Slovenian economy thanks to the expected increase in investment and continued exports.
LJUBLJANA - The government decided to ban as of 4 December the serving of food and drinks at outdoor stalls, with the exception of roasted chestnut. As for outdoor fairs, organisers are required to observe Covid-19 rules.
LJUBLJANA - A collection of Slovenian cultural and natural heritage, folk tales, stories and traditions was presented as part of the Google Arts & Culture portal to promote the country. Google Arts and Culture Director Amit Sood said that Google's new service was available free of charge, online or as a smartphone app.
SATURDAY, 4 December
LJUBLJANA - A group of protesters against government Covid-19 measures and the new bill on additional measures to curb the epidemic and mitigate its impact gathered in the Ljubljana city centre. There were some clashes with police and a few protesters were detained.
CELJE - The coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC) and the non-parliamentary Economically Active Party (GAS) merged at a congress into a new party called Concretely that will focus on the social and economic development of Slovenia.
LJUBLJANA - Dnevnik reported that Police Commissioner Anton Olaj had allegedly signed dismissal warnings for the heads of the two police trade unions. The main trade unions in the country later said that this constituted an abuse of the dismissal warning institute.
BRNIK - Fraport Slovenija's managing director Babett Stapel, who took over at the helm of the company operating Ljubljana's international airport in October, told the STA she was optimistic about the airline industry and airport's future despite the pandemic, but she expected a full recovery only in 2025.
SUNDAY, 5 December
KRANJ - Six Italian military doctors and nurses arrived in Slovenia to help the medical teams of the Slovenian Armed Force assisting at Covid-19 hospitals. Another nine joined them a day later. Under the current agreement, the Italian medical staff will help in Slovenia until the end of the year.
LJUBLJANA - The 37th Slovenian Book Fair ended with an awards ceremony, which saw art editor Pavle Učakar receiving the Schwenter Award for his contribution to publishing and Erica Johnson Debeljak winning the Book of the Year Award for her book about widowhood Devica, Kraljica, Vdova, Prasica (Virgo, Queen, Widow, Bitch).
LJUBLJANA - The Jury Grand Prix of the 18th Animateka international animated film festival was conferred on Impossible Figures and Other Stories I by Polish director Marta Pajek as the festival ended. The award is given to a film competing in the Eastern and Central European section.
MONDAY, 6 December
LJUBLJANA - The EU's chief prosecutor Laura Kovesi said, as she visited Ljubljana, no one could dismiss European delegated prosecutors without her consent. The Slovenian pair have been appointed for fully-fledged five-year terms, she added. She told the STA that given the statistics so far, she has no doubts that the pair will be kept "very busy".
LJUBLJANA - The Constitutional Court found the government's regulation imposing Covid-19 recovery or vaccination mandate (PC) on state administration employees at work place in disagreement with the constitution for not being aligned with the relevant law.
PTUJ - Silvo Drevenšek, who had pleaded guilty to murdering his former spouse and her parents in front of his four-year-old son on Christmas Eve 2020, was sentenced to life in prison, the first time a Slovenian court has handed down this sentence since it was reintroduced to the criminal code in 2008.
LJUBLJANA - As a representative of the Slovenian EU presidency, FM Anže Logar expressed strong support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) on behalf of the EU and its member states as he addressed via video call the 20th session of the assembly of states parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC.
LJUBLJANA - Some estimates suggest Slovenia could be losing up to EUR 3.5 billion a year due to corruption, which amounts to 13.5% of its GDP, Robert Šumi, the head of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, said ahead of International Anti-Corruption Day.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The EU's Employment and Social Policy Council reached an agreement on a minimum wage directive which is aimed at securing fair pay. Labour Minister Janez Cigler Kralj said he was happy such an important agreement had been reached after intensive talks.
KLAGENFURT, Austria - An umbrella organisation of the Slovenian minority in the Austrian state of Carinthia urged new Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and his government to immediately initiate reform legislation on ethnic minorities.
LJUBLJANA - The economy is held hostage by higher energy costs, which makes development and investment funds the victims, said the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) as it presented its proposals for a state aid scheme to help companies, especially energy-intensive ones.
LJUBLJANA - Marica Uršič Zupan, a journalist for the regional newspaper Primorske Novice, was appointed ombudsman at public broadcaster RTV Slovenija. She will start her five-year term on 18 January pending approval by the public broadcaster's general manager.
LJUBLJANA - The government approved a EUR 9.8 million subsidy for a Li-ion battery plant that TAB, the Slovenian maker of starter and industrial batteries, plans to set up with its Chinese partner Haidi Energy Technology.
KOPER - A 31-year-old citizen of Bangladesh was found dead in the Dragonja valley in the border area between Slovenia and Croatia with initial information indicating hypothermia as the cause of death, the Koper Police Department reported.
LJUBLJANA - Aljoša Rehar took over as the new editor-in-chief of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) after serving as the head of the agency's digital strategy group for the last seven years. He succeeded Barbara Štrukelj, who was the content chief for 12 years and decided not to seek another term.
TUESDAY, 7 December
BRUSSELS, Belgium - EU finance ministers reached political consensus to upgrade the EU rules on reduced VAT rates. The meeting failed to clinch agreement on review of the 1997 Code of Conduct on Business Taxation, with Slovenia's Andrej Šircelj saying a new proposal would now have to be drawn up.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - EU health ministers called for fast and coordinated action to tackle the surge in coronavirus and the spread of the Omicron variant. Slovenia's Janez Poklukar said the ministers did not discuss mandatory vaccination, which he believes should be a last resort measure.
LJUBLJANA/BRUSSELS, Belgium - Defence Minister Matej Tonin and Slovenia's EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič hosted a virtual event on knowledge exchange and dialogue in civil protection and disaster management at EU level.
LJUBLJANA - Defence Minister Matej Tonin took part in the 2021 annual conference of the European Defence Agency (EDA), which focused on innovation in the field of defence. He highlighted the role of defence innovation for the development of strategic and technological sovereignty, said the ministry.
BERN, Switzerland - Slovenia sold to Serbia its stake in a property in the Swiss capital of Bern which used to house the embassy of the former Yugoslavia and is currently home to the Serbian embassy in Switzerland, for 1.089 million Swiss francs (EUR 1.046 million), the Foreign Ministry announced.
LJUBLJANA - A parliamentary inquiry looking into allegedly unlawful financing of the ruling Democrats (SDS) heard allegations about shady financing deals involving Nova24TV being dismissed by several persons with links to the media outlet, including Interior Minister Aleš Hojs, a former director of Nova24TV.
LJUBLJANA - Prosecutor Blanka Žgajnar said she did not know why the Supreme Court had annulled the verdict in the Balkan Warrior drug trafficking case and released the defendants, as she was yet to get the ruling. She doubts a retrial could be completed in two years before the case becomes statute barred.
WEDNESDAY, 8 December
LJUBLJANA - FM Anže Logar told the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee that he would visit the US on 20 December to meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss Slovenian-US cooperation.
LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee confirmed a bill ratifying the agreement between Slovenia and the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation for the purchase of 45 eight-wheeled Boxer armoured personnel carries.
STRASBOURG, France - The EU Parliament will take a vote on a resolution on the rule of law and fundamental rights in Slovenia at the plenary session in Strasbourg on 16 December, followed from the agenda endorsed by the Conference of Presidents.
LJUBLJANA - Tatjana Bobnar, who was replaced as police commissioner as the Janez Janša government took over, told a parliamentary inquiry into alleged political interference in police that she was being bullied for the past year and a half. Commissioner Anton Olaj rejected the allegations about the political interference.
LJUBLJANA - Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek noted at a virtual conference that the main file of the Slovenian EU presidency in agriculture, environment and climate change had been the reform of the common agricultural policy to make it fairer and greener.
LJUBLJANA - The anti-viral drug molnupiravir will be available for treatment of Covid-19 in Slovenia expectedly from 13 December after doses for over 5,700 treatments have already arrived in the country. Slovenia's national medical ethics committee said earlier it had no reservations towards the drug.
LJUBLJANA - Equal Opportunities Ombudsman Miha Lobnik found the permanent ban on blood donations for men who have sexual relations with men discriminatory, noting this exclusion was in place despite the fact that the safety of blood donations is ensured by additional testing for viruses.
THURSDAY, 9 December
LJUBLJANA - Government officials met with representatives of the US tech giant Google to discuss the achievements of the Slovenian EU presidency in digital transformation and sign a cooperation agreement under which Google will invest EUR 2.5 million over the next two years to support Slovenia's digital transformation.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly passed in a narrow vote the act on long-term care that brings a number of measures for adults who depend on other people's assistance to perform basic activities. This field is now being systemically regulated after some 20 years of efforts.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Following a meeting of EU home affairs ministers, Slovenia's Aleš Hojs said it had been agreed that Croatia meets the conditions for entering the Schengen Area. Hojs believes other steps towards a final decision on the expansion of the no-passport zone will follow relatively soon.
BRUSSELS, Belgium- Interior Minister Aleš Hojs expressed the hope that progress could still be made by the end of 2021 on changes to the European Asylum Dactyloscopy Database (EURODAC), a part of the new Migration Pact. He noted that there would not be a major breakthrough regarding the pact during the Slovenian EU presidency and it had not been expected either.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The Council of the EU, currently chaired by Slovenia, reached a provisional agreement to extend the EU's "roam-like-at-home scheme", which allows for roaming without extra costs, until 2032.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The Slovenian EU presidency and the EU Parliament reached a provisional agreement on a proposal for a regulation on the e-CODEX system. The system aims to enable digitalisation of cross-border judicial communication and provide better access to judicial protection.
NEW YORK, US/LJUBLJANA - Slovenia formally announced its candidacy for a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2024-2025 period. Elections in the General Assembly will be held in June 2023.
LJUBLJANA - The government decided to increase the monthly wages of employees of the police force and the Interior Ministry by EUR 100-130 gross due to the increased volume of work and special workload related to support tasks of the police.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly passed changes to the medical services act that facilitate licensing of doctors, transfer the jurisdiction of professional exams to the Medical Chamber and simplify hiring of foreign doctors with regard to Slovenian language skills.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly passed an amendment to the identity cards act under which new biometric ID cards will start to be issued on 28 March 2022, instead of 3 January 2022, as initially planned. In line with the change, it will be possible to use expired ID cards until the end of March.
WASHINGTON, US/LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor called for a respectful dialogue at US President Joe Biden's virtual summit for democracy. Pahor said Slovenia and other countries could and must do more for liberal democracy, which was based on the rule of law and full respect for human rights.
LJUBLJANA - The latest government figures showed that Slovenia logged 1,687 new coronavirus infections for Wednesday as a week-on-week drop in cases continued. Hospitalisations decreased to 948, of which 248 were ICU cases. This week saw the former figure drop below 1,000 for the first time since mid-November.
LJUBLJANA - After failing to get another term as CEO of the energy trader GEN-I, Robert Golob announced he was entering politics through a non-partisan movement. He is not ruling out a bid in the April general election.
LJUBLJANA - The anti-graft watchdog has not established any breach of integrity in 12 procedures targetting five employees of the Commodity Reserves Agency over suspicion of irregularities in the purchases of protective equipment last year.
