STA, 19 April 2022 - The Public Administration Ministry warns of a fake eUprava portal, urging users not to use it because of risk of data abuse. The ministry was informed of the fake website today.

The website looks identical to the eUprava portal, but has a different address - euprava-vd.si, while the authentic portal can be found at https://e-uprava.gov.si/.

Efforts are under way to protect users and prevent any inconveniences, the ministry said.

STA, 15 April 2022 - Easter is the biggest holiday of Christianity but apart from religious ceremonies, it is mainly about traditions handed down for centuries that are still observed both by religious and non-religious people in Slovenia. This year it will be especially festive with in-person events returning after two years of Covid restrictions.

Stores will be closed on Monday, April 19th

Days immediately after Palm Sunday are spent cleaning up, tidying and decorating the home in preparation for Easter. Some will have started preparing dishes typical for this time of year, which have not changed much for centuries.

Good Friday is more of a quiet day as believers remember Jesus's suffering and death on the cross. It is the only day on the Catholic calendar that masses are not celebrated. The believers observe a strict fast.

Meanwhile, the smaller Protestant community, centred in the north-east of the country, will hold their main Easter service on Friday. The altar will be covered in black cloth with a thorn crown placed on top.

All Easter dishes need to be ready on Saturday to be taken for blessings in wicker baskets and many a home will be sprinkled with holy water and blessed with holy fire.

A typical Easter basket includes "pirhi", the elaborately decorated hard-boiled eggs, ham, horse radish, the potica cake, and selected local specialities.

These have not changed much since the times of the celebrated polymath Janez Vajkard Valvasor. In his 1689 Glory of the Duchy of Carniola he lists smoked ham, salted beef, hard-boiled eggs and a wreath-shaped cake weighing up to 17 kilos as the dishes that were taken to blessings at the time. He also describes regional variations of the basket.

Evangelical Bishop Leon Novak says their community does not bless Easter dishes. Instead, kids hunt for Easter Bunnies.

The culmination of Easter for the Catholic community will start with Easter vigils at churches on Saturday evening. Sunday morning will start with resurrection masses with Easter processions, accompanied by bell-ringing.

Anton Jamnik, the auxiliary bishop of Ljubljana, says that the rich and festive liturgy, involving a lot of symbolism, singing as well as silence, attracts more people than usual to churches.

This year will be the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic that Easter ceremonies will be held in person. Moreover, churchgoers will no longer have to wear facemasks.

STA, 14 April - The Murska Sobota synagogue (Sinagoga Murska Sobota), which was demolished in 1954, has been revived in virtual form as part of the Interreg Danube project based on a few photos and incomplete plans for the building dating to 1908-1954. Using virtual reality headsets, visitors can now enter the synagogue or take a stroll around it.

The goal was to present this "extraordinary element of Jewish cultural heritage" to locals and visitors again, said
Brigita Perhavec and Daniel Ulčar from the Institute for Culture, Tourism and Sport, head of Pomurje Museum Metka Fujs and Art Rebel 9 CEO Matjaž Požlep as they presented the project.

The synagogue in Murska Sobota was the work of renowned Jewish architect Lipot Baumhorn, who designed 25 synagogues and Jewish temples, and was build in the Hungarian architectural style in 1908.

During the Second World War, when local Jews were taken to concentration camps, mostly Auschwitz, the town bought the building and decided to demolish it in 1954.

The decision was made because the building was in poor condition, so it could not be used, while the few dozen Jews who returned from concentration camps had no money to finance the renovation.

The virtual synagogue is part of the Rediscover project of exploring the hidden Jewish heritage of the Danube region within the Interreg Danube project, featuring partners from Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Germany.

Apart from the virtual synagogue, the Murska Sobota Institute for Culture, Tourism and Sport also made records of tangible and intangible Jewish cultural heritage and organised various activities, including the Days of Jewish Culture in Murska Sobota, a Jewish trail, and an exhibition presenting Baumhorn's work and the Jewish community in Murska Sobota.

STA, 14 April 2022 - Foreigners in Slovenia have problems because of lengthy procedures at administrative units (Upravne enote), warned participants of a round table debate hosted on Thursday by the Legal Network for Protection of Democracy, an NGO. The delays occur because of understaffed offices for foreigners, inefficient organisation, and the nature of administrative procedures.

The delays in administrative procedures involving foreigners in big cities, especially Ljubljana, go beyond what is reasonable and justifiable, said the participants.

Currently, 15,000 applications by foreigners are waiting to be processed at the Ljubljana administrative unit, which said that it would introduce special staffing measures to process them within six months.

Ukrainian refugees who have requested temporary protection have further increased the workload.

Different categories of foreigners are in a tough spot because of the lengthy procedures, including students (some 4,100 in Ljubljana and 15,000 in Maribor) as well as guest lecturers and researchers, the University in Ljubljana said.

Vice-chancellor for student affairs Ksenija Vidmar Horvat said the "system was completely out of control", as people were not notified of the phase their application was in, received false information, and the proceedings were lengthy. She reported of financial and emotional distress and the feelings of stigmatisation.

She warned that this damaged the university's reputation. "We at the university see them as our ambassadors. Sooner or later they will signal to their environment that things are not organised well here," she stressed.

Vice-chancellor for internationalisation and quality Boštjan Markoli echoed this, saying the problem was affecting the university's quality assessments and was causing it to drop in rankings and preference lists. Problems are emerging in winning and implementing projects with time restrictions, he said.

Matija Urankar from the Senica Law Firm said that many foreign investors had cancelled their projects amid administrative procedures because they were too slow and the staff unresponsive. He believes damage was being caused to Slovenia.

According to him, the general administrative procedure act is a big problem, because proceedings based on it are rigid. For example, foreigners must submit documents that do not even exist in their country, he illustrated.

Goran Lukić from Delavska Svetovalnica, an NGO specialising in the rights of migrant workers, said foreign workers waited months, even years for their applications to be processed. He said that in recent months there had been increased interest in employers in Germany, while Slovenia lacked labour force.

Andrej Šter, the head of the Foreign Ministry's consular service, admitted there were problems. "In Slovenia, a foreigner is directly and indirectly considered a security problem and is treated as such. They need to be read, their background checked. Clerks are told to do detailed investigation on them," he said.

State institutions should understand that the "situation as it is now cannot be solved". He proposes several changes, including processing of foreign parties in Slovenia rather than "sending them to be fingerprinted in Ankara". Another problem is an "unbalanced and meagre diplomatic network".

The head of the Trade Union of State Bodies, Frančišek Verk, who was in the audience, said that pay was low, state bodies understaffed and employees under pressure. He was critical of the politicians who he said had in the past ignored warnings that the situation would get worse.

STA, 8 April 2022 - A new creative centre that is emerging from the defunct Ljubljana bicycle factory Rog will open its doors in the summer of 2023. Rog Centre will promote cultural and creative activities, especially product making, applied arts, architecture and design.

The building of the former factory, which at the end of the 19th century housed a tannery, is part of Ljubljana's key industrial heritage and will as such be preserved at the new centre, deputy head of Rog Centre Renata Zamida told the press on Thursday.

The new creative centre will feature seven production labs, including for textile, wood processing, ceramics and glass, and green and culinary labs, for which there will be a membership fee similar to a library fee.

A total of 25 production facilities will be available free of charge based on calls for applications. The use of the facilities will be limited to three to four years. The first call is to be published this autumn.

Five residential areas will be available to users from other countries, also to encourage a cultural exchange with their countries.

The centre will also have a large area for socialising and exhibitions, a library and cafes. There will also be two smaller shops where products manufactured at the labs will be sold.

The building will have four floors and a total of 8,500 square metres. Outside the building a park will stretch at 8,000 square metres.

The building will have a solar roof and will be partly energy self-sufficient. The centre will be open around the clock.

A car park will be partly used by the centre users and partly rented out to near-by residents.

How it might look. Image: www.ljubljana.si

The Rog building, where the first bicycles were made in 1953, was the first reinforced concrete building in Slovenia, according to Zamida. A part of its façade with elements of Czech Cubism will be preserved.

The investment is estimated at about EUR 20 million and the project is partly funded by the EU.

Meta Štular, acting director of strategic development and programmes, said a very diverse programme would be offered at Rog. It will be open and accessible to all citizens.

Particularly young women will be invited to head the technological labs, while older users will be encouraged to share their knowledge as mentors to Rog users.

Rog Centre was founded by the Ljubljana municipality last May. The renovation started after an autonomous social and cultural community was evicted from the premises in January 2021 with the help of police.

Meta Štular regretted that a solution had not been found through dialogue at the time and expressed hope that some of the former Rog users would return to the renovated centre.

There are guided tours of the construction site every first Thursday of the month.

STA, 1 April 2022 - Slovenia is among the five European countries with the highest recorded concentrations of the PM 2.5 fine particulate matter, shows the latest annual assessment of air quality by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The report includes the official data for 2020 and provisional data for 2021 on concentrations of key air pollutants measured at more than 4,500 measuring stations in 37 European countries.

The report says that 96% of the population of European cities was exposed in 2020 to concentrations of the PM 2.5 fine particulate matter that exceed the annual value of five micrograms per m3 recommended by of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The highest concentrations of PM 2.5 in EU member states were observed in Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland and Slovenia.

In Slovenia, values between 11 and 17 micrograms of PM 2.5 particulates per m3 were measured at four measuring points - in Ljubljana, Maribor, Celje and Nova Gorica.

According to the EEA, the higher concentrations of particulate matter in these countries are mainly a result of burning of solid fuels such as coal and wood for heating in households and the use of fossil fuels in industrial production.

You can explore the data for cities around the EU here

STA, 31 March 2022 - The third season of the Netflix hit fantasy drama series The Witcher will be shot in three European countries, including Slovenia. According to the unofficial website of the series, the cast and crew have already started gathering in Slovenia, and shooting is to start soon in the Alpine resort of Kranjska Gora.

The main stars of the series, Henry Cavill and Freya Allan, have already arrived in Kranjska Gora, according to The Redanian Intelligence website and social media posts by cavill.

After the ski resort in north-west of the country, the film crew is expected to move to Postojna. While the exact location of the shooting there is not known, the website notes that Predjama Castle near Postojna will be closed on April 5.

This coincides with the shooting of The Witcher, so the website notes that this could be one of the locations for the third season of the popular series, which has not been officially confirmed yet.

The new season of the series will also reportedly be filmed in Croatia, on the island of Krk and in the vicinity of the coastal city of Pula, and in Italy, reportedly in South Tyrol.

Based on the book series of the same name by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher is created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, and is set in a fictional land and tells a story about monster hunters with supernatural powers.