STA, 14 June 2019 - Ascent Resources, the UK developer of the Petišovci gas field in eastern Slovenia, plans to take multi-pronged legal action against Slovenia after it was ordered to get a separate permit for hydraulic fracturing.

Ascent will submit a "robust response to this manifestly wrong decision contrary to EU law," the company said in a permitting update posted on the website www.investegate.co.uk on Friday.

The statement comes after the Environment Ministry upheld a decision of the Environment Agency on the controversial gas extraction project in Petišovci.

The ministry agreed that an environmental impact assessment and a separate environmental permit were necessary because the location of the gas wells was close to water sources and because underground waters and agricultural land in the area do not have very good ability to regenerate.

The decision mistakenly concluded that the project fell within a conservation area and misapplied EU case law in relation to mitigation measures, Ascent said.

Aside from challenging the decision at the Administrative Court, Ascent plans to submit a claim for damages against the state for breach of EU law including for the unreasonably long time it took for the decision to be reached.

The company will seek damages for loss of future income from the project "which would have been expected to have been a multiple of the historic investment of some EUR 50 million."

It also plans to lodge an investment treaty arbitration claim under the Energy Charter Treaty.

"It was the strong desire of the board to avoid such litigation and obtain the permits necessary to develop the field which it was legally entitled to. As it has now become apparent that the possibility of achieving these goals has significantly diminished, the company will move ahead with filing this claim," the statement reads.

As a result of these developments, the company's focus in Slovenia now "inevitably shifts away from the development of the Petišovci Project towards obtaining legal redress for the damages inflicted on shareholders by the actions of the government."

All our stories about this project are here

STA, 12 June 2019 - The government adopted an intervention bill ordering the culling of overgrown bear and wolf populations on Wednesday. The move comes after a decree with the same order was successfully challenged by an environmental NGO in Administrative Court, leading to a steep increase in wolf and bear attacks on farm animals this year.

The bill stipulates the "removal" of 200 bears, of which 175 are to be culled, while the rest is expected to perish naturally or in car accidents or other incidents. Moreover, 11 wolves are to be culled.

Slovenia is home to 12 wolf packs, each five to ten strong, Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec said as she announced this bill earlier this week. She also said that wolves alone had killed 72 sheep, 19 cows, 15 horses, a donkey and two other farm animals this year.

Slovenia's bear population, which was on the brink of extinction in early 20th century, is estimated at about 1,000, whereas a population of some 400 bears is deemed optimal.

While bear attacks have also caused significant damage in agriculture, with livestock herds decimated in some cases, the government also says that there is a significant risk of bear attacks on humans.

Experts believe that Slovenia's bear population has reached a number that should not be exceeded, underlining that acceptance of big carnivores by the population is key in successful management of their population.

Slovenia has been nearing a boiling point in this respect, with farmers and agricultural associations staging rallies to protest against the government's inaction in the face of their decimated herds.

The bill, drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture, has been filed by the Ministry of Environment, which is in charge of large carnivores management in Slovenia.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary environment and agriculture committees will hold a joint session this afternoon to discuss the attacks of bears and wolves on livestock.

STA, 12 June 2019 - The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning has confirmed the decision of the Environment Agency on the controversial gas extraction project in Petišovci (NE), thus rejecting an appeal by UK investor Ascent Resources. In line with the decision, a separate permit procedure will be needed for hydraulic fracturing.

The agency granted the investor the permit for a planned gas processing plant but demanded a separate environmental impact assessment to determine whether the UK company can step up extraction via hydraulic fracturing, which is crucial for the refinery that would be allowed to process 280,000 cubic metres of natural gas and a tonne of oil per day.

The March decision of the Environment Agency came after the original permit for the refinery, issued in 2015, had been successfully challenged by environmentalists.

The Ministry agrees with the agency that an environmental impact assessment and a separate environmental permit were necessary because the location was close to water sources and because underground waters and agricultural land in the area do not have very good ability to regenerate.

Operating in a joint venture with Geoenergo, which is co-owned by the Slovenian state-controlled energy companies Petrol and Nafta Lendava, the UK company wants to extract gas on a large scale in Petišovci.

The separate permit procedure could further delay the implementation of the project in which more than EUR 50 million has allegedly been invested so far.

The UK company holds 75% interest in the project, Geoenergo's concession for the Petišovce gas however expires in 2022.

Hydrocarbon extraction in Petišovci started in 1943 and boomed in the 1980s. But after the oil refinery there was closed, the activity slowly died down.

Last December, Ascent Resources stepped up pressure on Slovenia to issue the environmental permit for its project by threatening to sue the government for damages.

This was after the then Environment Minister Jure Leben ordered an internal inquiry at the Environment Agency to see "whether inappropriate pressure has been exerted on employees" in relation to two Petišovci-related procedures.

The inquiry showed that there had been pressure and threats in both procedures and that the autonomy and independence of the decision-making authority had been violated. The findings prompted Joško Knez to resign as the agency's director.

All our stories on this project are here

STA, 6 June 2019 - Bathing water quality in 41 of 47 bathing waters included the European Commission's report for 2018, released on Thursday, were classified as being of excellent quality, with all 21 coastal bathing waters receiving this grade. Five waters were labelled good, one as sufficient and none as poor.

"All reported bathing waters are in line with the minimum quality standards of the directive on bathing waters and thus classified 'sufficient' or better," wrote the European Environment Agency, which examined 374 samples from 21 coastal and 26 inland locations.

The tested sites

With the exception of 2011 when one bathing site was classified as good, all coastal bathing waters in Slovenia have persistently been labelled as excellent since 2009.

The inland bathing waters have all also been receiving at least good or sufficient grades since 2010, with half persistently classified as excellent.

EU-wide, minimum quality requirements were met by 95.4% of the 21,831 bathing waters monitored last year, with 300 waters in Albania and Switzerland also included.

Cyprus, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta and Romania were the only other countries besides Slovenia without a single poor quality case.

The full report on Slovenia can be read here, while an interactive map showing all the tested site, all over Europe, is here

STA, 30 May 2019 - The government has formally aborted plans to build hydro power stations on the river Mura in the north-east. The decision, expectedly inviting mixed responses, was taken after the former environment minister announced in January the project was not viable due to environmental concerns.

The government on Thursday halted the drafting of the zoning plan for the Hrastje-Mota hydro power station upon the Environment and Spatial Planning Ministry's proposal.

The ministry had examined three proposed options for the new facility, finding them all environmentally inappropriate.

Speaking after the government session, Minister Simon Zajc said it was impossible to find a suitable location that would not affect the environment, even if measures to alleviate its impact were taken.

"Without a valid national zoning plan, nothing can be constructed, not even the power stations," he said, recalling this was in line with the coalition agreement, in which the coalition parties pledged there would be no power stations on the Mura.

Environmentalists, who have campaigned for this for years, welcomed the decision, hoping it would be followed up by stripping the investor, power utility Dravske Elektrarne Maribor (DEM), of the licence to build eight power station on the Mura.

Andreja Slameršek of the Let's Save the Mura! campaign said she expected DEM to seek the reimbursement of the funds it had already invested in the project.

Environment Ministry data shows the company has so far spent over EUR 12 million on a variety of studies, measurements and other activities related to the project.

But this is nothing "compared to preserving the Mura, the sources of drinking water and possibilities for sustainable development of the people in the Mura area", she said.

However, Zajc said he was not afraid of the potential claims for the invested funds. "They can of course demand it, but they have no legal grounds to do so."

DEM regretted today's decision, attributing it to pursuing partial interests of one sector (the environment) to the detriment of other broader goals (social, agricultural, climate and energy ones).

DEM also said in a release studies had shown the Hrastje-Mota project would have been environmentally viable if measures to alleviate the impact on the environment had been taken.

It did not say whether it would seek reimbursement of the incurred costs. But back in February, DEM and its parent company HSE called against rushing any decisions, saying a solution that would be in Slovenia's long-term interest should be found.

The river Mura is one of the areas with the highest level of biodiversity not only in Slovenia but also in Europe. Last July, UNESCO declared it a biosphere reserve.

STA, 29 May 2019 - Several local civil initiatives demand legislative changes and an immediate cull of bears and wolves in areas where livestock is being attacked, in what is an escalation of long-simmering tensions over how to deal with Slovenia's growing population of large carnivores.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Marjan Šarec earlier this week, three civil initiatives demand that hunters immediately shoot the number of bears and wolves designate for culling by the Forest Service.

They also want jackal, whose numbers have been growing rapidly in recent years, to be designated as game animal.

Related: Hunting an Ageing Pursuit in Slovenia, and Killing a Bear Costs Between €600 and 6,500 (Feature)

The appeal is the latest instalment of a long dispute that has pitted environmentalists against farmers, scientists and hunters in a fight over what to do with large game in Slovenia.

The bear and wolf population is kept in check with an annual cull and this year the Forest Service proposed that 200 bears be shot, a decision based on scientific estimates of the bear population. Wolves are not slated for culling this year.

But environmentalists challenged the subsequent government decree at the Administrative Court, which refrained from deciding on the cull as such but ordered the government to adopt a new decree setting the number of animals slated for culling.

In the meantime, farmers are reporting increasing damage by bears and wolves and have recently staged a protest in Ljubljana bringing cadavers of animals killed by bears.

The civil initiatives from Kočevje, Notranjska and Primorska, areas in western Slovenia that are home to Slovenia's bear population, now demand that the government also change the law to give expert institutions including the Forest Service, Hunting Association and Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry exclusive say over culling.

Related: In Search of Brown Bears in Slovenia

"The decision-making procedure must be exempt from the legal frameworks of the administrative procedure law and preclude the option of appeal from anyone," the associations said.

Locals would have majority say in any culling decisions and no projects involving large carnivores or other game would be possible without local approval.

Another major demand is to bring the population levels of large carnivores, deer and wild boar to 1990 levels to reduce damage to forests and farmland.

Slovenia is considered by many as a role model for management of large carnivores, but its linchpin has been the regular culling of a very healthy and growing population.

From near extinction in the early 20th century, the population rose to an estimated 700 animals by 2015, according to data by the Biotechnical Faculty.

Scientists have warned that acceptance by locals is key to management as well, with Klemen Jerina, one of the most prominent bear researchers in Slovenia, recently saying that they support the cull of 200 animals.

"But we've come to a point where we believe there are enough bears. If the number continues to grow, the number of conflicts will increase as well," he said in February.

Environmentalists, on the other hand, base their opposition to the cull on the animals' inherent right to live.

STA, 27 May 219 - Animals and natural habitats in Slovenia are not doing very well, suggests a report by the Institute for Nature Conservation, calling for measures to protect the environment. The conservation status of more than half of species has been labelled as unfavourable, while almost a third of habitats are doing poorly.

The conservation status of less than a third of animal and plant species in Slovenia (30%) has been assessed as "favourable". More than half of them are in an unfavourable situation, of which 38% are in an "inadequate" state and 14% are in a "bad" state.

There is no sufficient data to assess the situation for 18% of species.

The situation is the most worrying for amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies, followed by beetles, fish, crabs, reptiles and bats.

The biggest threat to Slovenia's biodiversity is agriculture, urbanisation, industrialisation and human interfering with aquatic ecosystems.

The conservation status of some 38% of habitats has been found to be good, while for 30% of the habitat types it has been found to be "bad" and for some 32% as "insufficient".

Maritime, coastal and inshore habitats, rocks and screes and forests are doing well, while the most problematic areas are inland waters, grasslands, moors and marshes.

"Although Slovenia declares itself a green, wonderful country, our nature is not doing well," said Martina Kačičnik Jančar of the Institute for Nature Conservation, who presented the report in line with the EU habitats directive.

The institute also pointed to a recently published report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which suggested that globally a million species face extinction.

STA, 22 May 2019 - Slovenia is among the European countries with the biggest diversity of flora and fauna. Some 24,000 species have been recorded, among them 800 animal and 66 plant species that are endemic, which means they are found only in Slovenia.

This data was released by the United Nations in a recent report that highlights the dangers of extinction faced by millions of plant and animal species, the Environmental Ministry pointed out on International Day for Biological Diversity.

According to a report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), in the past ten years biodiversity around the world has declined.

The report can be found here

The main reasons for this are changes in land and sea use, the direct exploitation of animals and plants (for example for food), climate change, pollution and invasive species.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation has launched its first-ever global report on the state of biodiversity, which underpins humanity's food systems. The report that points out how declining biodiversity poses a threat to food sources, human health and the environment.

The Slovenian Agriculture Ministry says that in areas of high natural value, agriculture can ensure the appropriate biodiversity levels are maintained, provided the right technological solutions are employed. Extensive agriculture helps preserve the diversity of species and habitats.

This year's International Day for Biological Diversity, celebrated every year on 22 May, bears the slogan Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health. The theme focuses on biodiversity as the foundation of food and health and as a key catalyst to transforming food systems and improving human well-being.

The day marks the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity, signed in 1992. In Slovenia, it has been celebrated since 1996 when Slovenia became one of the signataries of the convention.

STA, 19 May 2019 - Slovenia has the worst draft energy and climate plan among all EU member states, according to a report by NGOs that highlights lack of ambition and credibility and absence of a clear path to carbon neutrality by 2050.

In the report Planning for Net Zero: Assessing the draft National Energy and Climate Plans, the European Climate Foundation looked at how credible national goals are, how comprehensive and detailed policy proposals are, and how good the drafting process was.

A graphic from the report (a link to which is at the end of this story)

Slovenia performed dismally across all areas, getting only 3.2 out of a maximum of 100 points; the second worst performed, Slovakia, got 12.5 points, while the best performers got over 40.

Focus, the Slovenian NGO that published the report, said the score showed "a carbon neutral economy will not just happen automatically, it requires being goal-oriented and planning accordingly."

All member states, but Slovenia in particular, must improve the plans in the coming months; the final versions are due by the end of the year.

Slovenia's draft plan was drawn up by the Ministry of Infrastructure. One of its main aims is to reduce carbon emissions by 25% by 2030 compared to 2005.

 A PDF of the full report can be found here

May 9, 2019

Environmentalists warn of imminent drinking water pollution for people living in the municipalities of Bled, Gorje, Žirovnica and Radovljica, whose water source is situated at Ovčja jama water protection area in Pernik.

Water originating from Triglav National Park is, or rather, should be, among that with the best quality in the entire country. Nevertheless, water coming from Pernik now has added chlorine since contamination with faeces was discovered several years ago due to the spread of farming on Mežakla and cutting down of the forests.

This April, a passer-by noticed a loaded truck from a construction company from Kranj driving up in Mežakla and unloading what appeared to be construction waste soil into a sinkhole in the otherwise pristine nature of a protected water area.

Bled Environmental Protection Society immediately informed the relevant authorities. The same day an inter-municipal inspector managed to catch the driver in action, and prevent any further dumping of the problematic soil.

When a few days ago the camera team of the national broadcaster headed to the site to take footage of the waste, the owner of the land first almost ran over the journalists with an excavator, then jumped out and scare them away with a pickaxe. The journalists called the police while the landowner and his son allegedly spent the night in a psychiatric ward in Begunje, claiming insanity.

The inspector ordered the problematic waste soil to be removed by the company that brought it there, while special supervision of the company’s activities has also been launched.

The problematic soil, which includes plastic, plaster, adhesives, concrete, asbestos plates and asphalt, according to the Bled Environmental Protection Society, for now remains where it is. However, according to colourant marker studies, conducted by the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering of the University of Ljubljana, water from the problematic area in Mežakla can trickle down the karst floor to the drinking water wells area in a mere 13 hours.