Janša urges focus on military assistance to Ukraine
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Janez Janša, the outgoing prime minister, urged the EU and the West to focus on military assistance to Ukraine rather than on sanctions as he arrived for the second day of meetings at the EU summit. Sanctions are not the key issue, he said, adding that the EU needed to step up military assistance to Ukraine given the Russian army's rapid advances in Donbas. He also assessed that the embargo on oil imports from Russia should not have a significant impact on energy prices in Slovenia.
Interim chargé d'affaires leaving Kyiv, ambassador to return
LJUBLJANA - Boštjan Lesjak, Slovenia's interim chargé d'affaires in Kyiv, is returning to Slovenia after his term has expired, and Slovenia will again be represented in Ukraine by Ambassador Tomaž Mencin. He will return to the Ukrainian capital as soon as adequate security is ensured, the Foreign Ministry told the STA. As Russia invaded Ukraine, Mencin and his staff moved from Kyiv and continued their work from a town on the Polish-Ukrainian border where most other ambassadors accredited to Ukraine operate from. Lesjak, a lieutenant-colonel, worked as Slovenia's interim chargé d'affaires in Kyiv since 27 March.
Slovenian EPP members clash over reasons for election defeat
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Slovenian MEPs Ljudmila Novak (NSi) and Milan Zver (SDS) clashed over the reasons for the centre-right bloc's defeat in the 24 April election in Slovenia at a meeting of the European People's Party (EPP). According to web portal N1, Zver labelled the winner Freedom Movement an extreme left party and said the Robert Golob government would be pro-Kremlin. Novak denied that, blaming Janez Janša for the defeat, saying Golob was in fact "created by the Janša government".
Bešič Loredan announces Covid strategy, boosting of primary level
LJUBLJANA - Health minister candidate Danijel Bešič Loredan announced as one of his first measures a clear strategy to deal with possible new waves of the Covid-19 epidemic, which he said would be ready by 15 September. He also intends to boost the primary level of healthcare with various measures in order to relieve the burden on the secondary level, including an additional EUR 500 million to be earmarked in the next 18 months. He also said that one of the first steps will be paying all performed healthcare services this and next years, regardless of the upper limit.
Kumer to bet on green transition as infrastructure minister
LJUBLJANA - Bojan Kumer, the candidate for infrastructure minister, pledged to make green transition the guiding principle of energy and infrastructure policies as he set out his vision to the relevant parliamentary committee before getting endorsed. He promised further investment in railways and renewables, and measures to mitigate soaring energy prices. To step up investment in renweables, he announced a special law to favour siting of such energy facilities in locations where this is possible.
Šinko to strive for sustainable farming
LJUBLJANA - Farming in Slovenia has to be sustainable with an emphasis on economically efficient production, environment protection and social sustainability, said Irena Šinko, the candidate for agriculture, forestry and food minister, in her presentation at the relevant parliamentary committee. "Our goal must be to ensure future generations will have a healthy environment and enough clean natural resources such as water and soil for survival." Like the other candidates, she was endorsed by the committee.
Labour minister candidate to fight against poverty and precarious work
LJUBLJANA - Luka Mesec, the candidate for minister of labour, the family, social affairs and equal opportunities, told the relevant parliamentary committee before his nomination was confirmed that he will advocate welfare of all. He would put an emphasis on fighting poverty and precarious forms of work, and cutting red tape in welfare procedures. His ministry will work to ensure pension for the full-time pensionable service is at least EUR 700 net and the minimum wage at least EUR 800. Also in the plans is "reviving social dialogue" and enabling a 30-hour working week, while Mesec also wants to establish "another two foundations of welfare state" - housing and long-term care.
Brežan announces changes to environment protection act
LJUBLJANA - Candidate for environment and spatial planning minister Uroš Brežan announced changes to the recently passed environment protection act as he presented his priorities before being endorsed by the parliamentary Committee for Infrastructure, Environment and Spatial Planning. He also announced action in water management, climate and housing policy. Stressing the importance of environment protection, he announced the setting up of an environmental information system, systematic repairing of degraded areas and better oversight over emissions.
Culture minister nominee wants modern culture policy
LJUBLJANA - Asta Vrečko said her priorities as culture minister would be a development-oriented and inclusive culture policy, an overhaul of media legislation and of the status of the self-employed, as well as systemic investment in culture. Vrečko, a 37-year-old with a PhD in art history, announced a thorough review of the decisions taken by her predecessor and restoration of dialogue with all stakeholders. She urged an end to political staffing and to the conflict between NGOs in culture and the ministry. In the field of media, the first priority will be taking urgent measures to curb the political subjugation of the media. The second step will be a thorough overhaul of legislation by adopting a new media law and a new law on public broadcaster RTV Slovenija, she said before her bid was endorsed by the Culture Comittee.
Annual inflation accelerates to 8.1% in May
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's annual inflation hit 8.1% in May, the highest rate since 2002, on the back of soaring fuel and food prices, the latest Statistics Office figures show. The monthly rate stood at 2%. Liquid fuels were almost 43% more expensive than a year ago, contributing 1.9 percentage points to the headline rate. Food prices, having risen by more than 11%, added another 1.7 points. The harmonised index of consumer prices, an EU benchmark, rose by 8.7% at the annual level.
Unemployment rate down to 4.3% in first quarter
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's registered unemployment rate in the first quarter was at 4.3%, down by 0.2 percentage points from the last quarter of 2021. The survey unemployment rate for April was at 4%, flat with the rate a month ago but down 0.8 points from April 2021, the Statistics Office reported. Based on the labour survey, the office estimates 41,000 people were unemployed in the 15-74 age group in April 2022. The unemployment rate among men was 3.8% and among women 4.3%.
Air France to fly to Ljubljana twice a day
BRNIK - The French flag carrier Air France will operate two daily flights to Ljubljana airport from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport during the summer months. Starting from today, the carrier will fly to Paris in the morning and in the afternoon with flights to Ljubljana scheduled in the afternoon and in the evening. Air France-KLM's regional sales manager Ildiko McPartlin-Kiss said the time slots were ideal for a weekend getaway and would bring more tourists to Slovenia.
Former exec Bavčar released from prison
LJUBLJANA - Igor Bavčar, a former executive of Istrabenz convicted of money laundering, was released on parole six months before the end of his five-year prison sentence, several media reported. His request for parole was granted by a Justice Ministry commission under rules that allow a convict to be released after they have served more than half of their prison sentence and if it is reasonable to expect that they will not commit the same crime, Večer newspaper reported.
Ownership changes at weekly Demokracija, web portal Škandal24.si
LJUBLJANA - Nova Obzorja, the company which publishes weekly Demokracija and web portal Škandal24.si, has a new majority owner as a 65.85% share has been transferred from Hungarian company R-Post-R to NovaTV24.si, the company running the Nova24TV TV news channel. R-Post-R is owned by Peter Schatz, one of the key players in Hungarian PM Viktor Orban's media expansion in the Balkans. As of 25 May, the new majority owner is NovaTV24.si, while the remaining 30.14% is still owned by the Democrats (SDS) and 4% by SDS MP Dejan Kaloh. According to unofficial information by portal Necenzurirano, the ownership changes are part of preparations for the sale of the entire media empire associated with the SDS and withdrawal of the Hungarian capital.
Criminal charges to be filed over treatment of soil with gypsum
CELJE - Four individuals and two legal entities are suspected of the criminal act of burdening and destroying the environment in relation to the dumping of over 500 tonnes of waste gypsum containing high levels of heavy metals on agricultural land in the northern region of Koroška earlier this year, the Celje Police Department said. With environmental crime becoming increasingly sophisticated, the General Police Administration (GPU) is planning a new team of six members to investigate the most complex cases.
Monday count of new Covid cases halves
LJUBLJANA - 380 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Slovenia on Monday, a 51% drop from a week ago, while no Covid patient died, Health Ministry data shows. A total of 31 patients were still hospitalised for Covid-19 as their main condition on Tuesday morning, 5 fewer than on Monday, including two in intensive care. The National Institute of Public Health estimates that 4,405 people are still actively infected.
Strong bora wind devastates cherry harvest in Vipava Valley
AJDOVŠČINA - The upper Vipava Valley, SW, had been looking at an exceptional harvest of cherries this year, but the plans of local fruit growers were thwarted by the strong bora wind which virtually swept away the ripened cherries, also tearing down branches and young cherry trees at the weekend. "The damage is immense," Bogdan Slokar, a fruit grower from Lokavec near Ajdovščina, told the STA. Fruit growers nevertheless expect the unripened cherries will recover and fully develop.
Renovated exhibition space opens at space technology centre
VITANJE - The Herman Potočnik Noordung Center of Space Technologies in Vitanje inaugurated renovated premises that now feature four exhibitions with additional interactive elements, following eight months of work. Director Dominik Kobold said that the centre was now complete for the first time in its ten-year history. "The experience of various space-related topics of interest to the general public is educational, and is accompanied by multimedia experimental applications," said the director of the centre that is visited by some 15,000 annually.
Fresh dose of art cinema from around the world at Izola festival
IZOLA - The coastal town of Izola will host the 18th Isola Cinema International Film Festival from Wednesday to Sunday. Lovers of art film can look forward to 41 carefully picked feature and 71 short films, which will mostly be screened at three open air and two indoor venues in Izola. Screenings and events are also planned in Ljubljana, Cerknica, Idrija, Sežana and Tolmin. The festival's director Tanja Hladnik has told the press the scope of the programme is comparable again to the pre-pandemic years.
Machines to vend Slovenian poetry in Leipzig
LEIPZIG, Germany - Three vending machines offering poems by Slovenian, Austrian and Leipzig-based poets will be set up in Leipzig, eastern Germany, on Wednesday. The project is the brainchild of poet and writer Matthias Göritz, currently serving as a professor of creative writing in Louisiana. The project is linked to the Frankfurt Book Fair. In 2023, Slovenia will be its guest of honour country while Austria will be the the guest of honour at the Leipzig Book Fair.
