STA, 24 August 2022 - More than 50 scientists have made an appeal to the government to annul the decision by its predecessor that the public interest of producing renewable energy overrides the public interest of nature conservation in the Mokrice hydropower station project.

"We ask for a professionally and legally consistent reconsideration of the (un)reasonableness of encroaching on nature at the confluence of the Sava, Krka and Sotla rivers," reads the appeal, signed by representatives of natural sciences, including biochemist Tamara Lah Turnšek and researchers Darja Stanič and Al Vrezec.

They believe the government, in prioritising the interest of energy, "failed to take into consideration the legal provision stipulating that natural resources, especially water resources, may not be degraded or destroyed if there are other less harmful options".

Such an approach "is not in the interests of Slovenian citizens and is distinctly contrary to the interests of the future generations". They say that short-term political or capital interests should not prevail in decisions that have a damaging or destructive impact on nature.

The signatories believe the deliberation of which public interest prevails in this case or the assessment of better solutions at the national level have not been conducted, as the procedures concerned have not been carried out in the actual process of adopting the Renewable Energy Action Plan or in the context of the comprehensive National Energy and Climate Plan. The latter does not foresee the construction of large hydropower plants until 2030.

They refer to a decision by the EU Court, which they say has set forth that the absence of better solutions for nature had to be proven, which they said the government failed to do satisfactorily at the national level in the case of the Mokrice plant.

Instead, the signatories support accelerating the construction of unit 2 of the Krško nuclear power plant. "Once the unit is operational, expectedly around 2035, there will be enough electricity in Slovenia and strategic projections show the country will have become a net electricity exporter," the appeal reads, adding that nuclear power plants have a very small carbon or biodiversity prints and that with the second reactor in place hydropower stations will no longer be needed.

As the second key energy potential they see solar power plants of all sizes.

The Administrative Court has recently decreed that the planned Mokrice hydropower station on the river Sava cannot get a building permit until it has ruled on legal action brought against the project by the Slovenian Native Fish Society.

STA, 18 August 2022 - A 1,530-metre tunnel that will make part of on an upgraded rail track connecting Maribor and Šentilj on the border with Austria was broken through on Thursday with the first train to run through it by the end of next year. The old tunnel will make part of a new cycling path.

The Maribor-Šentilj rail upgrade is valued at almost EUR 300 million, which makes it the biggest rail project in the country at the moment apart from the construction of a new rail track between Koper and Divača on the other side of the country.

The cost of the construction of the Pekel tunnel and a 900-metre-long Pesnica viaduct is valued at EUR 101 million.

The Pekel tunnel is located north of Maribor, to the east of the existing rail track, which is running through the Počehova tunnel. The new tunnel also includes a rescue tunnel.

"The new tunnel will make traffic faster and above all much safer, and the old one will be used more sustainably for cycling," Infrastructure Ministry State Secretary Alenka Bratušek said.

"The tunnel is being built using the so-called new Austrian method," Dejan Jurkovič of the Infrastructure Agency said.

The contractor is the Slovenian company Kolektor. "Our workers have proved that we perform work professionally, at high-quality, fast and efficiently," the company's representative Andrej Košir said.

One of the major challenges was the construction of the section below the expressway running through Maribor. "The tunnel is about seven metres below the motorway. Here, the daily progress was between one and one and a half metres, while on the north side it was about four metres," said Jurkovič.

The tunnel's construction is slated for completion by March 2023 after which it needs to be fitted with a track and other equipment. It is to open to traffic by the end of next year. "Traffic is expected to be moved from the old tunnel to the new one in late 2023," said Jurkovič.

Danes smo bili priča preboju predora Pekel, ki je del nadgradnje žel. proge Maribor-Šentilj-d.m.
Predor dolg 1530 m bodo v celoti zgradila slovenska podjetja. Gre za pomemben dogodek, saj dobesedno odpiramo nove poti in povezave in s tem omogočamo gospodarski in družbeni razvoj. pic.twitter.com/poz6vwI0R6

— Ministrstvo za infrastrukturo (@mzi_rs) August 18, 2022

The EU-subsidised upgrade of the 18-kilometre Maribor-Šentilj railway also includes what Jurkovič said would be the longest rail tunnel in Slovenia. The Pesnica tunnel is to be completed in spring next year and will wrap up the rail upgrade project.

Following the upgrade, trains will be able to travel at speeds of up to 120 km/h, up from the current top speed of 80 km/h. The number of trains the track can handle will increase from 63 to 84 a day, and cargo capacity from 6.3 to 9.9 million tonnes a year.

STA, 15 June 2022 - Slovenian citizens have problems accessing some basic services in virtually all municipalities in the country, the Court of Audit has found. The most problematic seem to be access to the internet, banking services and postal services.

The court inquired about this among all of Slovenia's 212 municipalities, with 96.7% of them reporting problems.

The most problems have been reported in areas where municipalities do not have direct influence such as access to ATM services and postal services.

Poor access to banking services were reported in almost 57% of the cases. The only area that is more problematic is access to the internet (almost 71%). Access to postal services is in third place with almost 52% of municipalities reporting of problems.

In some cases, improving the situation would entail large investment in infrastructure, for example renovation of the water supply networks and roads.

Almost 48% of municipalities reported of problems in accessing services for the elderly (accommodation and care), and just over 45% in obtaining appropriate housing.

Almost 43% reported of people's problems with water supply and 42.5% with availability of public transportation.

In almost 39% of municipalities, people have problems accessing basic health services and in just over 37% they have problems accessing administrative services.

The Court of Audit said the most problematic were the high shares of municipalities with problems in accessing internet and public transportation, as the two are crucial for accessing other services.

It urged municipalities to adopt long-term strategic plans to tackle these issues.

STA, 13 June 2022 - The first of the seven tunnels on route of the new railway linking the port town of Koper with the Divača railway junction was broken through on Monday with officials telling the ceremony they could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The hole-through ceremony for the Mlinarji tunnel was attended by the infrastructure ministers from Slovenia and Turkey as the track is being built by the Slovenian company Kolektor CPG in cooperation with its Turkish partners Yapi Merkezi and Özaltin.

Slated for completion in 2025, with the track due to open the following year, the project is valued at little below one billion euros in total, but officials today indicated its price tag could increase by up to EUR 100 million due to rising prices.

In his address, Slovenian Infrastructure Minister Bojan Kumer recalled the long history of the project, expressing pleasure at being able to be present at such an important milestone.

The new track, taking a completely new route to the existing railway between Koper and Divača, is to increase the maximum throughput capacity from 94 to 212 trains daily and the transport capacity from the current 14 million to 36.9 million tonnes a year.

"The distance will be cut from 44 kilometres to 27 kilometres. Travel times and the impact on the environment and local population will be reduced," Kumer said.

Minister za infrastrukturo Bojan Kumer je poudaril, da je preboj predorske cevi Mlinarji izjemno pomemben mejnik v dolgotrajnem projektu izgradnje 2. tira žel. proge Divača – Koper. Kot je dejal minister, je tokrat res primerna prispodoba, da končno »vidimo luč na koncu predora«. pic.twitter.com/ILfmGZYrjZ

— Ministrstvo za infrastrukturo (@mzi_rs) June 13, 2022

He pledged for the new government to fast-track the implementation of a double-track line, which will allow for even more traffic and let the people living along the existing railway live a safe and peaceful life.

Pavle Hevka, the CEO of 2TDK, the state-run company managing the project, said the work on the track was 43 days ahead of the schedule, and in the case of the Milinarji tunnel 10% below the budget of EUR 7 million.

Just days ago they had excavated five out of a total of 37 kilometres of tunnels. "We're still looking at many challenges and concerns ahead, from rising prices of materials to difficulties getting work permits, but I'm confident we’ll beat them off on time."

Hevka said 2TDK was facing demands for annexes to contracts due to rising prices. The proposal was for the contracting authority to cover price hikes above 10%, which would now need to be discussed by the Infrastructure Ministry.

He also announced an update of the investment plan with the rough estimate being that the cost of the project could increase by EUR 100 million. However, he also pointed to "huge savings" that had been made.

The minister said he had been assured by the Turkish contractors they had everything under control and supplies guaranteed. "It's true that prices are going up. We'll see what it means for the investment going forward."

Kumer would not talk about potential replacements at the helm of 2TDK beyond saying the state of play would be reviewed.

The ceremony also featured Alenka Bratušek, a state secretary at the ministry and a former infrastructure minister, Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoglu and representatives of the contractors.

STA, 16 May 2022 - Slovenia met 53% of its energy needs with domestic energy sources last year, which makes an improvement of two percentage points compared with 2020, Statistics Office data shows. The country depended fully on imports for petroleum products.

Total amount of domestic energy sources last year was 3.3 million tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE), which is 9% less than in 2020.

The country's total primary energy supply was 6.4 million TOE, up by 0.2% from 2020.

Petroleum products represented 31% of the energy supplied, followed by nuclear energy (23%), renewable energy sources, including hydro energy (19%), coal (15%) and natural gas (12%).

STA, 8 April 2022 - The state-owned power utility HSE launched on Friday a 3.036-megawatt solar power plant in a rehabilitated and closed section of the Prapretno landfill near Hrastnik. The largest facility of the kind in the country, worth EUR 2.5 million, is expected to provide electricity for around 800 households.

A total of 6,748 photovoltaic modules installed at the former brownfield site will produce more than 3 GWh of electricity a year, and the plan is to expand it to a total installed power of 14 megawatts.

HSE said that the launch of the solar power plant in the former coal mining region was an investment in security of electricity supply that followed EU guidelines on reducing carbon emissions.

HTZ, a subsidiary of the coal mine operator Premogovnik Velenje, was hired to supply the equipment and install and launch the power plant.

The opening ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Janez Janša, who noted that Slovenia now had sustainable and green energy sources at its disposal after decades of production of electricity mainly from fossil fuel sources.

He added that the state would give back to regions where coal had been extracted for electricity production by providing funds from the Just Transition Fund.

The prime minister noted that the energy crisis in the aftermath of Russia's attack on Ukraine made the resources Slovenia had at home more valuable today than in the past, adding that Slovenia needed to continue to build small hydro and solar power plants.

HSE director general Viktor Vračar said that the new installation pursued the objective of secure and reliable electricity supply, adding that international events had forced Slovenia to strategically restructure its energy sector.

The goal is decarbonisation and reduced dependence on foreign energy, and this means investment, he said, adding that the ECB had assessed that EUR 350 billion was needed for this over the next decade.

Hrastnik Mayor Marko Funkl added that the municipality would establish this month an energy cooperative for the "transition from brown to green" that would build the largest cooperative solar power plant in the country.

The 300 KW array will be installed on the roof of a local primary school, Funkl said, adding that "energy is returning to the Zasavje region in green form."

STA, 6 April 2022 - The National Assembly fast-tracked on Wednesday a bill to create a state-owned limited liability company tasked with managing the tactical aspects of passenger transportation on road and rail as a public service.

The company, headquartered in Postojna, will plan public transportation and its financing, participate in infrastructure planning and strategies, and manage the integrated mass transit tickets that Slovenia has had for several years now.

It will act as the tactical layer of public transportation management as Slovenia strives to complete a three-layer approach (strategic, tactical and operational) to public transportation.

The company will manage all financial sources earmarked for public transportation from state and local budgets, and other sources of financing. It will also be able to get commercial funding.

The government labelled the bill as the first step towards optimising the organisation and management of public transportation.

Confirming the bill in a 47:1 vote less than three weeks after it was adopted by the government, deputies said it marked the start of improvement of public transportation in the country after years of neglect.

STA, 31 March 2022 - Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec has pledged that a bypass road would be built to relieve Škofljica, a town just south-east of Ljubljana, of traffic on the very busy Ljubljana-Kočevje road, which cuts through the town centre.

He said as he met Mayor Ivan Jordan in Škofljica on Thursday that the new road would be sited together with a second track planned on the Ljubljana-Ivančna Gorica railway.

Vrtovec could not say where exactly the new road would run, telling the STA that it was premature to say that "but the important thing is that we take steps forward".

The mayor was happy with the meeting, saying: "This is the first time we talked openly. I outlined out problems to the minister and he pledged to solve them if he remains minister" after the general election.

Vrtovec also discussed some other infrastructure projects in the area before the government visits the entire southern part of Central Slovenia on Friday.

He also said that his ministry and the municipality of Grosuplje would sign a EUR 9 million contract to co-finance various projects, from crossroads to cycling routes.

STA, 28 March 2022 - Prime Minister Janez Janša and his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenković talked about cooperation in gas supply and the Krško nuclear power plant as they met in Zagreb on Monday. Talks will be resumed by the ministers in charge next week.

Potential for concrete cooperation will be discussed by Slovenian Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec and Croatian Economy Minister Tomislav Čorić as they meet in Zagreb next Monday.

The ministers will talk about expanding the pipeline from Lučko, a Zagreb suburb, to Zalog, on the eastern outskirts of Ljubljana, and to Logatec, south-west of the Slovenian capital. They will also discuss further cooperation on the Krško N-plant, which is owned jointly by the two countries.

"We're trying to find a common approach to supply, transport routes and the other necessary logistic. Gas, of course, is a small part of the energy we need for a normal life in Europe. Nuclear energy is also very important," said Janša.

The two countries see plenty of potential to cooperate in both energy areas when it comes to satisfying the needs of Slovenia as well as Croatia, he added.

Predsednik vlade ?? @JJansaSDS je prispel v Zagreb, kjer bo opravil delovno srečanje s predsednikom hrvaške vlade ?? @AndrejPlenkovic. pic.twitter.com/7CeUySOd6t

— Vlada Republike Slovenije (@vladaRS) March 28, 2022

"A large part of Europe is fully or partly dependent on energy imports from Russia, and anything that represents an alternative to these imports and dependency is a European priority at the moment," said Janša.

Slovenia would like to have enough capacities to be energy self-sufficient even in case of difficulties on the energy market. "As for our interest to lease capacities, the capacities that have been leased are leased, we're interested in additional capacities," said Janša when asked about lease of Croatian capacities.

Slovenia needs about a billion cubic metres of gas a year. The capacity of the gas pipeline from Lučko to Logatec would be 270 million m3, which Janša said represented an important share of Slovenian gas supply.

While Slovenia is short of gas, Croatia is short of electricity. The Croatian government expressed readiness to take part in the construction of a second reactor in Krško following the model of cooperation so far.

Janša said the relevant government departments would look into potential for cooperation to jointly invest in the second reactor.

The prime ministers also talked about other bilateral issues, including the fishing regime in the Bay of Piran. Plenković said the two countries deepened their relationship in recent years and would also ease them on that point so that fishers would not be fined by Croatian or Slovenian police.

Since Slovenia started implementing the border arbitration award declared by the arbitration tribunal in June 2017 the following year Slovenian police have fined vessels entering waters awarded to Slovenia illegally, while Croatia has been fining Slovenian vessels fishing in the part of the bay it continues to claim as its own because it does not recognise the border award.

The two prime ministers also touched on the refugee crisis with Janša expressing Slovenia's readiness to accept the number of Ukrainian refugees in proportion to its size and the size of its population.

"There're no tensions, all the problems that exist, even if they have for several years, we're solving quietly and to the satisfaction of both governments and nations," said Plenković.

He thanked Slovenia for supporting Croatia in joining the EU, Schengen zone and the efforts to become a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"You have all the support for membership in the integrations that Slovenia is already a member of and Croatia is still a candidate country for," said Janša.

The prime ministers also talked about cooperation in trade and tourism. The volume of bilateral trade has reached EUR 5.6 billion. Plenković noted that some 1,166,000 Slovenian tourists holidayed in Croatia last year.

This was the eighth time that Janša and Plenković have met in the past two years.

STA, 14 January 2021 - The national railway operator Slovenske Železnice (SŽ) has welcomed ten new double-decker trains to its fleet. Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec and SŽ director Dušan Mes took a symbolic first ride to Litija on Friday, agreeing that the new trains will make railway transport more appealing. More train purchases are planned.

"If we want to make railway passenger transport more appealing we need to modernise the railway infrastructure and purchase new trains that make the ride more comfortable for passengers.

"We have ten such new trains that can reach speeds of up to 160 kilometres an hour, which is very good for Slovenian railway infrastructure," said the minister during the symbolic first ride on a new train.

The new trains offer comfort, internet connection and can be a "true office for someone going from one city to another".

The Infrastructure Ministry is very happy with the process of purchasing the new trains and Vrtovec said more train purchases were planned. "I promise that we will start ordering new train compositions in this term to make railway transport even more appealing to people," he said.

The minister pointed to the environmental aspect of expanding the SŽ fleet, saying it should reduce pressure of cars on city centres.

Mes said SŽ had so far welcomed 29 trains - ten double deckers, 13 electric trains and six diesel trains. "By the end of next year, 52 trains from the first two orders are to arrive, and sometime by the end of February or mid-March we will prepare a new call for applications for another 20 trains," he said.

The SŽ fleet is to have 72 new trains by the end of next year or beginning of 2024 in total value of half a billion euro, Mes said.

This will be a huge transformation of the fleet, which will need to be further upgraded, he said. "Passengers deserve trains that are 15-20 years old for the most part, not like today when some were 40 years old."