Below is a review of the headlines in Slovenian dailies for Wednesday, 27 February 2019, as summarised by the STA:

DELO

Public transportation
"Where is Graz better than Ljubljana?": Ahead of the increase in prices of public transportation in Ljubljana, the paper compares the system in the Slovenian capital and in Austria's Graz. (front page, 10)

Tax changes
"Higher wages, lower savings": The lowering of taxation of wages that is being prepared by the Finance Ministry is more noticeable that in the past tax changes, but wages will still be taxed more than in the countries Slovenia "competes" with. (front page, 3) - TSN will have a story on this up by 10:30, 27/02/2019

Trump-Kim meeting
"Denuclearization in two acts": The second meeting between US President Donald Trump and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un in Vietnam is expected to result in more concrete steps towards denuclearization. (front page, 5)

Skiing
"Splint and rest instead of surgery": Good news are coming from the camp of Ilka Štuhec, as the women's downhill world champion will not require surgery on a partial tear of the posterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, suffered last Saturday. (front page, 18)

DNEVNIK

Government
"Jure Leben's ministerial days are numbered": Environment Minister Jure Leben will probably be the third minister in the Marjan Šarec government who will need to go, as the evidence of his interference in the tender for the scale model of the Koper-Divača rail project as the Environment Ministry state secretary is overwhelming. (front page, 2)

Real estate in Ljubljana
"Center Bellevue with 70 apartments instead of warehouse": The Austrian-owned company Bellevue Living intends to build a commercial and residential complex at the location of the former warehouse of the brewer Pivovarna Laško Union in the centre of Ljubljana. (front page, 2)

FINANCE

Tax reform
"How much higher wages and holiday allowance will be": The paper analyses the changes to the tax legislation announced by the Finance Ministry in the sense of who will get more and who will get hit with higher taxes. (front page, 2-4)

Banks
"Will Hungarians buy SKB?": Unofficially, the French banking and insurance group Societe Generale has put up the Slovenian bank SKB for sale, with the prospective buyer being Hungary's OTP Bank. (front page, 5)

Healthcare
"Slovenia dropped on the list, Serbia overtook us": Slovenia has dropped five spots to 21st on the list rating the performance of healthcare system in 35 European countries by the Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI). (front page, 6)

Energy
"Greeks get EUR 123 million deal in Ljubljana": The public utility Energetika Ljubljana has signed a deal with the Greek industrial company Mytilineos Holdings to install two gas-steam generators, worth EUR 123m, in the TE-TOL co-generation plant. (front page, 8-9)

VEČER

Maribor local government
"Motley coalition": Maribor Mayor Saša Arsenovič signed yesterday a coalition agreement with representatives of nine parties and lists in the city council, with two more potential partners expected to join in. (front page, 2, 8-9)

Trump-Kim meeting
"Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump looking for peace": US President Donald Trump and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-un are expected to meet today in Vietnam's Hanoi, with nuclear and missile disarmament of North Korea topping the agenda. (front page, 5)

Tax changes
"Less personal income tax, higher wage": Under the tax changes planned by the Finance Ministry, the state will take less personal income tax from citizens for wages, holiday allowances and performance bonuses. (front page, 2-3)

STA, 26 February 2019 - Frans Timmermans, the lead candidate of the Party of European Socialists (PES) for president of the European Commission, argued in an interview with the STA that the European Commission had been "crystal clear" in its reaction to the Slovenian-Croatian border dispute. He also warned against the instrumentalisation of history by politicians.

The first vice-president of the European Commission, who is to visit Slovenia on Thursday as part of the EU election campaign, does not share the view that the European Commission allowed politics to get in the way of law in the case of Croatia's refusal to implement the border arbitration award.

"Thank you for this open and very unbiased question... First of all, this is a bilateral matter. Second, we've been very clear the award needs to be implemented," the Dutch politicians said, arguing that Slovenia and Croatia could "not discharge responsibility and say the Commission should resolve this".

"This is not our role," he added, also dismissing claims about the Commission completely ignoring the opinion of its legal service that confirmed a link between the arbitration award and EU law.

"This is an oversimplification. The link is that if you don't have clarity on the border, you have problems with EU policies, such as fisheries and other policies. This is the link with EU law. These are the consequences of the award not being implemented and the parties should start implementing the award."

"The Commission has been crystal clear about that and I really don't understand why our position is not understood."

Commenting on the state of social democracy in Europe, Timmermans said he does not "believe this doom and gloom about social democracy".

"There's a more general point that the traditional popular parties on the centre left and centre right are both no longer the huge parties they used to be. It's not just a problem of social democracy but of the European People's Party (EPP) as well. So we are not alone in that.

"I want to warn about the temptation in both, centre left and centre right, to think that you can regain your position by going to the extremes. I don't agree with that analysis because if you want to go to the extremes there's already somebody there and they are the original.

"Or you stay true to your own soul and you stay centre left and that's what we are. Looking at Europe today, the central left is staying more in the course of the lines we believe in than the central right which is courting to the extreme right everywhere," Timmermans said, adding he was constantly warning the EPP against getting its soul changed by extremes.

Tajani wrong to rewrite history

Asked in this context about the statements by European Parliament President Antonio Tajani that were understood as Italy's territorial claims against Slovenia and Croatia, Timmermans said he hates it when politicians start instrumentalising history or rewriting history.

"And this is what Tajani did. I disagree with him fundamentally. I'm not asking for his resignation but I want to make it clear that I strongly disagree with him.

"As Churchill put it, the history of Europe is written by rivers of blood and we overcame rivers of blood after the Second World War...Please, please leave history to the historians, they deserve to be writing history not the politicians."

Timmermans, who said he was aiming for the post of European Commission president and had, contrary to rumours in Brussels, "no interest whatsoever in being the EU's high representatives for foreign affairs", also elaborated on his call for a new social contract for Europe.

Tech firms must be taxed

"We're in the fourth industrial revolution, everything is changing, which means the relationship between people and states also needs to change and adopt to this new reality," he said.

People across Europe feel "that our society is not fair for many reasons", he said, listing fairer taxation as the first step towards changing this.

"It's completely inadmissible that the biggest corporations in the world would make profits here but don't pay a single euro of tax. You don't allow your local café to live like that, so why would you let Google, Facebook or Amazon do it?"

Other necessary steps listed by Timmermans include fair minimum wages in all members state, EU legislation that would secure fair job contracts for the young, and affordable housing.

STA, 26 February - Women's downhill world champion Ilka Štuhec, who is out for the season with injury to both of her knees, has announced on Instagram that she does not need surgery, as initially believed. It is not yet known when she will return to skiing, but it will definitely be earlier than in the case of surgery.

The injuries happened last Saturday as Štuhec competed in the downhill World Cup race in Crans Montana. She crashed into the protective fences on the course, but managed to get up herself and get to the finish line.

See the accident here

Her team decided to have her checked at the local hospital, with the initial tests showing she suffered a posterior cruciate ligament tear in the left knee and a bruised right knee.

The injuries ruled her out for the remainder of the season and it was initially believed that she would require a surgery.

But the 28-year-old from Maribor announced on Instagram today that the "outcome is not that bad as first thought. Torn PCL, but I can make it without surgery."

The announcement comes after Štuhec was examined in Basel by Niklaus Friedrich, the doctor who already performed surgery on a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee in the past.

Her team later explained that it was actually a partial tear of the PCL in her left knee, while the ACL, which she tore in September 2017 to miss out the entire 2017/18, was undamaged.

Surgery is not planned for the time being, but it will be required if the knee does not respond to the more conservative approach, the team added.

"A new examination is scheduled in Basel in 14 days, and it will be known in a month whether the rehabilitation is progressing as planned."

The team quoted Štuhec saying that she needed to accept the situation. "I have proven to myself many times that I can return after an injury and the plan is the same also this time."

No surgery means that she will return to skiing much earlier than if she needed one, when rehabilitation would take at least nine months.

The injury came as Štuhec made a comeback after missing the Olympic season, winning the World Cup downhill and super-G in Val Gardena in mid-December and defending her gold in the downhill at the recent world championships in Sweden's Aare.

STA, 25 February 2019 - Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj told European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in Ljubljana on Monday that Slovenia remained committed to the privatisation of Abanka. The pair also disused a potential lifting of management restrictions for the NLB bank before the state sells another 10%.

After Slovenia recently sold 65% in the country's largest bank, it is also in the process of privatising Abanka, the country's third biggest bank, by July this year as part of commitments made during the 2013 bank system bailout.

While there have been individual political calls in Slovenia for renegotiating the Abanka commitment, including from Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek, Bertoncelj told the commissioner the sale is progressing in an independent fashion and according to the timeline.

The minister said Slovenia had not asked for a postponement or cancellation of the sale.

Commenting on the situation, Vestager said Slovenia's commitments needed to be perceived in a comprehensive fashion and by considering the reasons why Slovenian banks had found themselves in trouble.

She acknowledged Abanka had met most of its commitments and was in much better shape, but added that negative experience with state meddling in corporate management had been a key reason for including the bank on the commitments list.

As regards NLB, the majority of which was sold in an IPO last autumn, Bertoncelj said the sale procedure for another 10% minus one share was proceeding in line with plans.

While the timeline envisages a sale by the end of this year, there is speculation that it will occur in mid-2019.

Vestager confirmed that talks were under way about the possibility of lifting all the remaining restrictions in the management of NLB - leasing services, factoring, the closure of branch offices, and above all the sale of NLB Vita, the bank's insurance subsidiary.

Vestager, who praised the NLB sale so far and the clear signal about plans to proceed, expressed satisfaction that Slovenia was proactive in the talks about the restrictions, but she would not comment further.

Bertoncelj already mentioned a few days ago in Brussels the idea of securing the lifting before the full execution of the sale in exchange for the state freezing its voting rights for the unsold 10%. He said the intention was securing the bank's development.

The Finance Ministry said today that it was proposing lifting the restrictions that presented the biggest burden for NLB's operations and were thereby also hurting the new private owners.

Bertoncelj added that the talks were complex and would take a while, meaning it was not possible to say whether the agreement with the Commission or the sale would occur first.

Meanwhile, the pair also discussed the European Commission's past changes and future reevaluation of rules governing state aid.

Bertoncelj said Slovenia supported changes towards a modernised system of state aid, strived for a further simplification of procedures and greater harmonisations with other EU policies, for instance cohesion policy.

While Vestager welcomed Slovenia's support, Bertencelj noted that Slovenia, having a centralised system for state aid, had no major problems in the transition to the new rules that gave more oversight competences to member states.

He pointed out that Slovenia was one of only five member states without any open claims for the return of illegal state aid.

STA, 25 February 2019 - A dentist from north-eastern Slovenia has been found guilty of discriminating against an HIV patient in what is the first such ruling in Slovenia, a decision considered a key milestone in discrimination case law.

This is the first time a healthcare employee was found guilty of discriminating against an HIV patient, the newspaper Večer says on Monday about the court case that was closed to the public.

The dentist was ordered to pay EUR 2,700 in compensation to her former patient by the Maribor Higher Court in mid-2018.

The HIV-infected man saw the dentist in March 2016 and told her during the first visit that he was being treated for HIV. The dentist sent him for a dental x-ray.

The next week, when he came back for treatment, she told him he should get a new dentist. In court, the dentist claimed that she sent him away because she had only one set of particular instruments, which she could not sterilise in one afternoon.

However, both the first and the second instance courts ruled against her. The patient was eventually admitted by another dentist working at the same health centre, Večer reports.

The man reported the incident to Patient's Rights Ombudsman Vlasta Cafnik, who turned for help to the Medical Chamber but did not receive any response despite sending several emails and letters to several people in the organisation.

The patient also turned to the healthcare inspectorate, which responded that the Medical Chamber was in charge of such issues. He wrote to the chamber as well but received no answer and ultimately opted to hire a lawyer.

A mediation with the dentist was launched. It took a year before she wrote him an email, saying that she was aware that her treatment was demeaning and discriminatory.

The patient, who felt that the apology was not sincere, decided to take the dentist to court after her malpractice insurance company rejected his complaint.

She was found guilty at the first instance in April 2018. She appealed but the Higher Court upheld the first instance ruling in July 2018 and she ultimately paid the EUR 2,700 fine.

In response to the newspaper report about the case on Monday, the Medical Chamber said it was unacceptable to turn away a patient infected with a contagious disease.

"It needs to be taken into consideration, however, that such a case may affect organisation of work in the sense of rescheduling the appointment of the patient or other patients to ensure safe treatment of everyone present.

"All health staff has a duty to act in a way so as not to expose other patients to the risk of infection," the chamber said in a release.

The chamber said that it had received queries about the case from the patents' rights ombudsman in the previous term. In this term oversight was conducted with the dentist but "no departure from expert doctrine or work in comparable doctor's offices was established".

STA, 25 February 2019 - A nurse from the UKC Maribor hospital is being investigated for forging more than 200 prescriptions for medicines in high demand on the black market. She and a male accomplice are suspected of defrauding the national healthcare insurer ZZZS from 3,000-5,000 euros.

The Maribor criminal police assistant chief, Andrej Kolbl, told the press on Monday that a healthcare worker and an accomplice had been temporarily detained while the police searched six houses, commercial offices and cars on Friday.

The pair is suspected of fraud, a crime that carries a three year sentence, but the investigation will also look into other potentially criminal activities such as illicit sale of medicines, and the reason for the crime.

The police will also investigate whether any other persons were involved in the scheme.

The suspect allegedly forged more than 200 prescriptions since 2017, using the green-coded prescription pads used to prescribe medicines fully or almost fully funded by the ZZZS.

The suspect had made the prescriptions out to herself and the accomplice, forging the signatures of some 20 doctors in the process.

More than 600 cartons of Sanval, Zaldiar, Lexaurin and Doreta have been issued by several pharmacies based on the prescriptions.

Kolbl said these medicines, which are mostly tranquillizers or insomnia drugs, were in high demand in particular among drug addicts.

It was a pharmacist who had suspected the signature on one prescription did not belong to the doctor who had issued it, explained Roman Košir, UKC Maribor's emergency unit head, who spoke to the press later in the day.

The pharmacist also realised the person to whom the prescription had been issued, received very large amounts of tranquillizers, and notified the doctor in question.

Košir explained UKC Maribor had been notified of the suspicious activity a week ago by the community centre for which the doctor worked.

They had checked with several doctors to establish the signature on the prescriptions were not theirs, and reported the case to the police.

The nurse had mostly forged signatures of doctors from the community centre who regularly helped at the emergency unit, according to Košir.

He also explained it was not unusual for a nurse to have access to prescription pads or stamps.

"This is how we do things. Doctors, nurses, prescriptions, stamps are available at any moment due to the very nature of the work process."

Košir said the nurse had worked for the emergency unit for more than two years and the procedure to dismiss her had already been launched.

He said UKC Maribor was not harmed financially by the wrongdoing, as prescription drugs are paid by the national health care insurer.

It is yet to be established how much the two suspects have gained from the illegal activity.

Below is a review of the headlines in Slovenian dailies for Tuesday, 26 February 2019, as summarised by the STA:

DELO

Visit by Commissioner Vestager
"The lady that tamed Apple talks about NLB and Abanka": The paper runs an interview with visiting European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager who is excited about the progress in the privatisation of the NLB and Abanka banks. (front page, 8, 9)

Police force issues
"The blue uniform attracts, but...": Continuing to struggle with staff shortages, the police force is upgrading the recent wage increases and promotional activities with a career building system. (front page, 3)

Science awards
"Apple of Inspiration for astrophysicists": President Borut Pahor conferred this year's science achievements awards to Gabrijela Zaharijaš and Tanja Petrushevska, two astrophysicists working with the Nova Gorica University. (front page, 5)

DNEVNIK

Real estate tax
"Is the new govt also afraid of the real estate tax?": Some say that the bill introducing a real estate tax will not be ready before the end of 2020. (front page, 2)

Visit by Commissioner Vestager
"Commissioner: Sale of NLB and Abanka proceeding in line with plans": Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager was cordial but determined during her visit to Slovenia: the European Commission insists that Slovenia honour its bank privatisation commitments. (front page, 2)

Ljubljana Science Centre
"Science Centre to be located in Trnovo, it will cost EUR 26m": The architectural studio Dekleva Gregorič Arhitekti has won an international competition to pick the architectural solution for Slovenia's future Science Centre. (front page, 8)

FINANCE

Tax reform
"Exclusive: the first outlines of the tax reform": According to unofficial information, capital gains are to remain excluded from personal income tax base in the new tax reform, while personal income tax is to go down for everybody. (front page, 2-3)

Visit by Commissioner Vestager
"You need to sell the banks because they were led into trouble by 'external influences'": The paper says the competition commissioner indicated during her visit to Slovenia that those arguing for "national interest" will fail with proposals not to sell Abanka and another 10% in NLB. (page 5)

VEČER

Pharma fraud
"Securing drugs via fake prescriptions": The paper reflects on the scandal that had a nurse using doctors' stamps and fake signatures to get free drugs. (front page, 21)

HIV dentist scandal
"Reaction by experts: Unacceptable": The Medical Chamber and Health Ministry say that rejecting an HIV-positive patient - like done by a dentist later found guilty of discrimination - is unacceptable. (front page, 2-3)

The Oscars
"America first": Večer's commentator argues that the Academy got scared of the large number of foreign movies in important categories. (front page, 17)

STA, 24 February 2019 - Slovenia has a great variety of dialects and accents, and these have made their way into the social media through creation of profiles popularising local vernaculars. One of the most popular is Štajerski Argo (Štajerska Argot), a profile documenting the quirky language of Maribor, Slovenia's second largest city.

Štajerska Argot's Facebook profile (see here) has 12,500 followers and its Instagram account as many as 17,000. "Within a few months since inception Argot has attracted quite a few people from Štajerska and elsewhere who enjoy their daily dose of dialect," the contributor told the STA on condition of anonymity.

She came up with the idea for such a portal "just for a laugh". "A Maribor girl, born and bred, I obviously talk in a strong Štajeska accent at home. Talking with my sister we always have lots of fun. This is why once, out of sheer boredom, I started writing down words and phrases the way we speak them."

In July last year she started an Instagram profile called Štajerski Argo, following it up with a Facebook profile a few months later. Every day she posts a new word or a phrase, always using the same graphic images.

"I was absolutely amazed by the response. I still am, every day. Ever since the beginning our argot family has been growing fast and keeps growing ... I believe I've succeeded in bringing the Štajerska dialect closer to non-Štajersko people as well, help them understand, it but the main purpose of the site is to make Slovenians at home and abroad laugh."

She also wants her posts to evaluate the Štajerska dialect. "Broaden the horizons, spicing something as obvious and everyday with some fun, and, most of all, tell people that we can be proud of our super funny dialect, that we can say 'zdravo' wherever we come."

Impressed with the idea, the Maribor Library has put on a show dedicated to the Štajerska Argot profile, to celebrate International Year of Indigenous Languages. Some of the phrases have been printed on bookmarks, which are very popular among the library's visitors.

All our stories on the Slovene language can be found here

STA, 25 February 2019 - Slovenian President Borut Pahor will be received by Queen Elizabeth II as he makes an official visit to Britain from Wednesday to Friday designed to enhance the friendly relationship between the two countries ahead of Brexit.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his trip, Pahor said one of the main reasons for the visit was that Slovenia would like to continue to foster the excellent relationship with the UK after the country leaves the EU on 29 March.

The UK remains an important partner and a close ally of Slovenia as well as a reliable advocate of the rule of law and multilateralism in the world, the president's office said, expressing the hope that the visit would give fresh impetus to bilateral relations.

Pahor will start the visit on Wednesday with a meeting with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who visited Slovenia last week. After talks with his Slovenian counterpart Miro Cerar, Hunt said the two countries were trying to protect the status and the rights of both countries citizens in case of a hard Brexit.

Pahor is scheduled to meet Slovenians living in the UK on Thursday. Data from the Slovenian Foreign Ministry size the Slovenian community in Britain at around 5,000.

The Slovenian president will discuss the challenges that the European continent is facing as well as his vision for the global positioning and future of Europe in a lecture at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, on Wednesday.

On Thursday, he will be received by Queen Elizabeth II, the world's longest serving monarch, who has been on the throne since 1952 and who, as Pahor told reporters during his recent visit to Brussels, co-shaped the post-war period.

Pahor understands his meeting the British monarch as an expression of respect for Slovenia. Queen Elizabeth II visited Slovenia on a state visit in 2008.

Pahor will also meet several members of both chambers of the UK Parliament, the House of Commons and House of Lords, on Thursday, including House of Commons Speaker John Bercow.

It is possible that he will also meet Prime Minister Theresa May, expectedly on Friday, provided the developments related to Brexit will allow such a meeting.

On Friday, the final day of his visit, Pahor will visit the City to ring the bell of the London Stock Exchange and meet key financiers. He expects them to assess how Brexit will affect City's role as a major global financial centre.

Apart from Brexit, other topics of the visit will include the future of Europe, the prospects of membership of the EU and NATO for West Balkan countries and global challenges, in particular migration, new security threats and climate change.

All our stories on Slovenia and Brexit are here

STA, 25 February 2019 - As tourism in the capital is booming and the city is venturing into congress tourism, investors are looking for ways to meet the demands of the market. The latest such project is a new luxury hotel to be built very close to the city centre.

The construction of the hotel, which will be located near the headquarters of the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija in Kolodvorska Street, is expected to start before summer.

The investor, the company Clippus, has estimated the project at EUR 8m.

The approximate locaton of the new hotel

The Neuhaus Kolodvorska building with big glass windows and green terraces will feature 49 hotel rooms and seven luxury apartments.

The seven-storey building will also boast an outdoor pool, a protected parking lot and basement.

See images of the planned hotel, and learn more about it (in Slovene) here

Being close to the city centre, it will offer a view of Ljubljana Castle, a landmark of the capital, said Peter Cesar of the architectural studio Arhitektura 2211, which is designing the building together with the Kosi studio and other partners.

According to Cesar, this will be the first building in Ljubljana where owners or users of apartments will be able to use hotel services such as a 24-hour reception, security, cleaning and maintenance and a restaurant.

Buyers of the apartments will also be able to rent them out as part of the hotel.

The builder Kolektor Koling plans to finish the project at the end of 2020.

The hotel is to be run by Clippus, which has been founded by Iztok Lampič, who runs one of the biggest land surveying companies in Slovenia, Gekom, and Cesar.

The apartments have not been put up for sale yet.