What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.
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FRIDAY, 10 December
LJUBLJANA - After European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson announced that 15 EU member states pledged to provide for the resettlement and protection of nearly 40,000 Afghans, the Interior Ministry told the STA Slovenia did not made a commitment in the scheme.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - EU justice ministers discussed the work of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, with Slovenia's Marjan Dikaučič, who chaired the session as representative of the EU presiding country, noting the body "has already opened hundreds of lawsuits for damages estimated at billions of euros".
LYON, France - Interior Minister Aleš Hojs visited the Interpol headquarters to stress the international police organisation's importance in the fight against international crime and to call with Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock for coordinated action between Interpol, EU member states and various EU agencies.
LJUBLJANA - On Human Rights Day, Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina pointed to the inequalities and distrust reinforced by the Covid pandemic, appealing to everyone to do their bit for society to find a way out of what is a health as well as social crisis. He urged top politicians to lead by example.
KRANJ - The government visited the northern Gorenjska region with talks focusing on plans for a new regional hospital, flood defences, environment issues and protection of architectural heritage.
LJUBLJANA - Urša Zgojznik and Uroš Macerl, two prominent environmental activists, announced plans for a yet another green party to be launched in Slovenia in January to contest the April general election under the name Vesna.
LJUBLJANA - Statistician Anuška Ferligoj of the Faculty of Social Sciences and nanotechnology researcher Julijana Kristi of the Faculty of Pharmacy were honoured with the Zois Prizes for lifetime achievement in science and research.
LJUBLJANA - Slovenian Sovereign Holding confirmed having received a complaint against Miha Rebolj, the secretary of the coalition Modern Centre Party, now named Concretely, for pressuring a member of the supervisory board of postal operator Pošta Slovenije to agree for Tomaž Kokot to be appointed for full term as CEO even though he lacks the required experience for the job.
LJUBLJANA - Statistics Office data put Slovenia's foreign trade in goods in October at a ten-year high for that month. Exports were up by 14.2% year-on-year to EUR 3.6 billion and imports soared by almost 35.7% to EUR 4 billion. The country thus recorded a trade gap for the 7th month running. Both exports and imports were also up on October 2019, by 16.9% and 26%, respectively.
SLOVENJ GRADEC - A Slovenian folk music ensemble called Štirje Kovači (Four Blacksmiths) from the northern Koroška region made it into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest active polka music band in the world. The band was formed in 1954.
KLIGENTHAL, Germany - Ski jumper Urša Bogataj finished third at a World Cup event in Klingenthal for her third podium finish this season.
SATURDAY, 11 December
KOPER - A 10-year-old Kurdish girl from Turkey who went missing after she fell into the river Dragonja two days earlier as her mother carried her on her shoulders across the swollen border river from Croatia to Slovenia was found dead on the Croatian side in what was a second fatality among migrants in the border area in less than a week.
ROME, Italy - The council of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) decided that by merging with the Economically Active Party into Concretely, the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC) ceased to be ALDE member. Under internal rules, the new party can apply for membership.
LJUBLJANA - A poll by Ninamedia showed the ruling Democrats (SDS) leading the field at 15.2% ahead of the opposition Social Democrats (SD) at 13.3%, while a potential party of former GEN-I CEO Robert Golob polled at 9%. If the PM was elected directly,20.6% of those questioned would back Golob and 19.5% incumbent Janez Janša.
LJUBLJANA - The credit rating agencies S&P Global and DBRS Morningstar confirmed Slovenia's credit rating at AA- and A, respectively, both with a stable outlook.
DAVOS, Switzerland - Cross-country skier Anamarija Lampič finished third in the women's World Cup freestyle sprint event to earn her first podium finish in the current season.
MONDAY, 13 December
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Attending a meeting with his EU counterparts, Foreign Minister Anže Logar expressed concern about the Republic of Srpska's parliament triggering a process to withdraw the entity from Bosnia-Herzegovina's institutions. He called for concerted action by the entire EU in cooperation with the US to prevent an escalation in the country. He declined to comment on the possibility sanctions against Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of the country's presidency.
GENEVA, Switzerland - Slovenia, in its capacity as the presiding EU country, requested a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Ethiopia, with more than 50 countries supporting the call.
DUBAI, UAE - Public Administration Minister Boštjan Koritnik started a visit to Dubai along with a business delegation focussing on digital transformation and AI as part of a business forum and a conference on blockchain technology and AI at the Slovenian Expo pavilion. The events underscored the contribution of advanced technologies to progress and sustainability.
LJUBLJANA - The newspaper Delo run a poll showing the ruling Democrats (SDS) gaining three points to 18.9% from November to widen their lead on the opposition Social Democrats (SD), which lost a point to 11.8%.
LJUBLJANA - The Statistics Office released a report showing that immigration to Slovenia is accelerating with the number of residents born abroad rising to 13.9% at the start of 2021 from 8.5% ten years ago. In 2020 a record 23,383 immigrants were recorded. Former Yugoslav republics are by far the biggest source of immigration.
LJUBLJANA - After examining drug procurement practices in three public pharmacy chains, the Court of Audit found the medicine procurement in the country was still in disarray as public pharmacies kept flouting public procurement rules.
TUESDAY, 14 December
LJUBLJANA - PM Janez Janša and the health authorities announced that the highly infectious Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 had been confirmed in Slovenia in a total of four people in two clusters who were tested in Ljubljana between 29 November and 6 December. One of them had already had Covid last year. The confirmed cases jumped to 10 by 13 December and involved both infections imported from Sweden and the UAE and secondary infections within those two clusters. On the whole, coronavirus cases, hospitalisations and deaths kept falling.
LJUBLJANA - Vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 got formally under way as the vaccine for them became available and after the national advisory committee on immunization gave the go-ahead based on a recommendation by paediatricians.
LJUBLJANA - PM Janez Janša told MPs the government would decide on whether to introduce energy vouchers for the poorest households in January, when it had more data about energy price increases. Before that, the main measure to combat rising prices would be the special allowance for pensioners included in the latest Covid relief package.
LJUBLJANA - Centre-left opposition MPs clashed with PM Janez Janša during the questions time in parliament over what they claim is mafia-style governance of the country by Janša, his SDS party and the government. Janša dismissed the allegations, while saying mafia-style governance indeed existed, had very deep roots, yet came from the transition left.
LJUBLJANA - MP Mateja Udovč left the deputy group of the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC) to join the Our Land party of former Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec, which reduces the SMC group to four from the original ten. Udovč plans to act as independent MP, while the SMC said the departure would change nothing for the party or the ruling coalition.
VIENNA, Austria - The interior ministers of the Salzburg Forum, a Central European security partnership, discussed illegal migration at an online conference, with Slovenia's Interior Ministry State Secretary Božo Predalič stressing the importance of cooperation on the Balkan migration route.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Meeting under the chairmanship of Slovenia's Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek, EU ministers in charge of fisheries reached agreement on fishing opportunities in the Atlantic, the North Sea, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea for 2022 based on a proposal drawn up by the European Commission.
LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor received the credentials of three new ambassadors to Slovenia, Kosovo's Valdet Sadiku, the Dominican Republic's Laura V. Faxas and New Zealand's Brian Joseph Hewson. Only the Kosovo ambassador is based in Ljubljana.
LJUBLJANA - Crime investigators conducted a series of house searches at 12 locations around the country on suspicion of abuse of office or rights, including at the National Laboratory of Health, Environment and Food, unofficially over the December 2020 procurement of EUR 1.2 million worth of rapid antigen tests from Majbert Pharm. The tests were verified by the national lab.
LJUBLJANA - The Interior Ministry reported that 9,158 illegal migrants were intercepted in the first eleven months of the year, a 35% decrease on the same period in 2020. During the period a record 4,568 asylum requests were filed but only 15 were granted asylum status as 98% left Slovenia before the procedure was completed.
LJUBLJANA - The French Institute in Slovenia presented its Charles Nodier Award to Ana Barič Moder for her translation of the novel Handbook For Exiles (Priročnik za izgnance, 2020), written in French by Velibor Čolić, a writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
LJUBLJANA - Janja Garnbret, the Tokyo Olympic gold medallist in sport climbing, Tadej Pogačar, the double Tour de France winner and Olympic bronze medallist, and the national men's basketball team, which ranked 4th at the Olympics, took the main accolades at the 2021 Athlete of the Year ceremony.
WEDNESDAY, 15 December
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Attending the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels, Prime Minister Janez Janša said as the EU presiding country Slovenia had been striving for EU accession of Eastern partners and for the enlargement timeline to be set down. "In the next ten years both sides should take concrete steps towards enlargement," he told foreign media. Janša met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan and Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor described Slovenia's EU presidency as a success in an interview with Radio Slovenija, including with respect to the Western Balkans where he regretted Bulgaria's blocking North Macedonia's accession talks. Pahor also proposed a group of friends of Bosnia-Herzegovina should help the three nations create a more functional country.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly failed to take a vote on a government-sponsored bill designed to reduce taxation of salaries across the board and cut capital gains tax as a majority endorsed a proposal by an MP for the ruling Democrats (SDS) to move the vote to a next session, unofficially because the coalition could not secure a majority. Meanwhile, the opposition Left submitted a bid for a consultative referendum on the bill.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly passed amendments to the act on deployment in civilian missions and international organisations, legislation designed to make it easier to nominate and deploy Slovenian experts.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly passed changes to the audiovisual services act which were drafted by unaffiliated MPs to transpose a relevant EU directive after the government bill failed to be passed in a re-vote in September to override the upper chamber's veto. The act no longer contains a controversial 6% levy providers would pay from their gross annual revenue to finance a special fund for European audiovisual production.
LJUBLJANA - The government's macroeconomic forecaster IMAD projected that Slovenia's end-year GDP growth will have exceeded its latest projection, driven by buoyant private spending and a robust labour market. It estimates the growth rate will be between half a percentage point and a full percentage point above its September forecast of 6.1%.
LJUBLJANA - A high-profile conference on the future industry and the Slovenian economy's internationalisation, which was also addressed by PM Janez Janša and Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek, heard the pandemic should be an opportunity to change patterns of thinking and focus on strengths and abilities while the country's future was in the green transition and digitalisation.
LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor presented the Order of Merit on the Slovenian Emigrant Association for its invaluable contribution to efforts to preserve the Slovenian identity and culture among Slovenian expatriates. He awarded the Medal of Merit on the SDGZ business association of the Slovenian minority in Italy, and on Saša Verbič, the head of the Slovenian community's umbrella organisation in Serbia.
NOVI SAD, Serbia - Slovenian writer Drago Jančar won the Milovan Vidaković International Literary Prize, awarded at the 15th iteration of the Prosefest international prose festival in Serbia's Novi Sad.
THURSDAY, 16 December
STRASBOURG, France - The European Parliament adopted a resolution on fundamental rights and rule of law in Slovenia which expresses concern over deep polarisation in the country and calls on prominent public figures to engage in a respectful and civilised public debate. The resolution was carried by 356 votes in favour ans 284 against with 40 abstentions. 33 of the latter were MEPs of the European People's Party, the political family of PM Janez Janša. Earlier in the week Foreign Minister Anže Logar said the resolution did not merit special attention, while President Borut Pahor regretted Slovenia squandered its reputation by not tackling delegated prosecutor appointments and STA financing earlier.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - PM Janez Janša hinted at possible new talks with Russia within the Normandy Format, which also brings together Ukraine, Germany and France, as he arrived at the EU summit but would not speak about specific sanctions that might be discussed against Russia.
PARIS, France - Foreign Minister Anže Logar met his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian to discuss key EU dossiers as Frances takes over as EU Council president from Slovenia on 1 January. The pair also discussed bilateral relations.
WASHINGTON, US - The combat against terrorism, migrant smuggling, instrumentalisation of migrations and cyber crime ranked prominently on the agenda of the EU-US ministerial meeting on justice and home affairs which was also attended by Interior Aleš Hojs and Justice Minister Marjan Dikaučič on behalf of the Slovenian presidency of the Council of the EU.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly adopted amendments to the investment promotion act where the focus for incentives shifts from creation of jobs to capital- and productivity-intensive and green investments. The law will allow to tap on EUR 88.5 million in grants from the EU recovery and resilience fund.
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly endorsed the first line-up of the Fiscal Council for another five-year term. Davorin Kračun serves as president and Alenka Jerkič and Tomaž Perše as members. The trio's current terms expire on 21 March 2021.
LJUBLJANA - The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption launched an investigation against Prime Minister Janez Janša on suspicion of a conflict of interest in management reshuffle at the Bank Assets Management Company, unofficially due to appointment of Franci Matoz, who has served as Janša's lawyer, to the board by the government. Janša in turn accused the watchdog of double standards.
LJUBLJANA - The NeP deputy group comprising four unaffiliated MPs and the opposition Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) announced MP Branislav Rajić was moving from the NeP to the SAB. The SAB faction is thus expanding to six MPs.
LJUBLJANA - The council of the ZPIZ public pension and disability fund endorsed the fund's financial plan for 2022, which puts revenue and expenditure at EUR 6.4 billion each. EUR 5.1 billion will be collected from social security contributions, with the rest covered from the national budget and the KAD fund. The document still needs government approval.
LJUBLJANA - NLB shareholders approved the management's proposal that the bank pay a further dividend of almost EUR 67.4 million. This will give shareholders an additional EUR 3.37 gross per share on 24 December, while NLB has thus earmarked EUR 92.2 million for dividends this year.
LJUBLJANA - A feature-length documentary Beli Bojevnik v Črni Obleki (White Warrior in Black Suit), in which auteur Maja Weiss tells the story of Ivan Kramberger (1936-1992), an eccentric populist who ran for president in 1990 in the first multi-party election in Slovenia before he was killed in 1992, premiered in Ljubljana.
