STA, 13 August 2019 - Nearly two months after almost 11,000 litres of kerosene leaked from a derailed cargo train near the village of Hrastovlje in the south-west, the national railways operator completed repair works on Tuesday.

The final stage of works saw one of Slovenia's busiest routes closed since last Saturday, reopening tonight, as Slovenske Železnice replaced 150 metres of tracks.

The track reopened already four days after the 25 June derailment, but there was a speed limit in place in the tunnel where the accident took place.

Apart from replacing the tracks, the railway operator has also installed additional tarps under the tracks and improved the drainage system in the tunnel.

Some 11,000 litres of kerosene leaked from two damaged cisterns after six cars derailed in the tunnel of Dol due to a broken rail switch.

Shutting down the only track connecting the port of Koper with the rest of the country, many believe the incident showed that Slovenia really needed an additional railway link between Koper and the railway hub of Divača, a project that is finally underway after decades of back and forth.

Moreover, the accident happened quite close to the main source of potable water for the entire coastal region, whose population soars from 90,000 to about 130,000 during the summer. The water source is being monitored closely and so far no kerosene has been found in water.

In total, the repair works cost the rail operator EUR 1.5 million, the public broadcaster TV Slovenija reported on Monday. Moreover, the company suffered a loss of more than EUR 1 million per each day the track was fully closed.

STA, 7 August 2019 - The company managing construction of the new Divača-Koper rail track has annulled a public tender for the first of several bridges on the new track after weeks of very public controversy that has renewed concern about the mega project going off the rails financially.

"It has turned out that the cheapest bidder was not the best," Dušan Zorko, the head of 2TDK, told the press on Wednesday after the company determined the selected bidder had apparently forged its prior experience with the construction of such infrastructure.

A consortium led by Markomark Nival was initially selected to build a 170-metre bridge over Glinščica Valley. Its price, EUR 8 million, was significantly lower than rival bids by consortia led by Kolektor CGP (EUR 13.5 million) and Godina (EUR 14.3 million), but both have now been ruled as invalid because of excessive price.

Zorko said the tender would now be repeated as soon as possible. It will not be changed much, but 2TDK plans to impose a price cap. It also expects more builders to bid. "We had expected more offers, domestic and international. Unfortunately, there were only three."

The winning bid for the Glinščica bridge had originally been selected in mid-June, but it quickly became apparent things would not run smoothly.

One of the failed bidders reported noticing that an Excel spreadsheet form used to submit the bids had errors resulting in an incorrect final price, and then unofficial sources started questioning whether Markomark Nival, a little known builder, had in fact sufficient prior experience to build the bridge.

In general, Slovenian public tenders for construction projects tend to get bogged down in appeals and accusations that can significantly delay the start of construction works. The Karavanke tunnel expansion, for example, has been delayed by more than a year already as bidders fight it out among each other.

The popular perception is that the biggest construction industry players are adept at turning tenders in their favour, especially when they are up against foreign bidders.

In recent years two subsidiaries of industrial conglomerate Kolektor and the Murska Sobota builder Pomgrad in particular have been in the spotlight, having grown from mid-sized company into market leaders after the financial crisis bankrupted almost all major industry players.

Infrastructure Minister Alenka Bratušek, a staunch advocate of the EUR 1 billion-plus rail project, said today she supported the decision of 2TDK to annul the tender.

"I stand firmly behind their decision not to succumb to the construction lobby," she said, adding: "I will not permit old practices of siphoning [taxpayer] funds."

Referring to the bid headlined by Kolektor CPG, Bratušek said three of the largest Slovenian builders had joined forces for the bid, which is "an indication of the creation of a monopoly and the desire to overcharge for construction services."

"Despite attacks targeting me, I will not let builders rig the system and offer prices up to 40% higher in public tenders. If necessary, tenders will be repeated."

All out stories on infrastructure in Slovenia are here

STA, 5 August 2019 - Four men from Koper have been sentenced to a total of more than 11 years in jail for transporting illegal migrants who crossed into Slovenia from Croatia in the south, a regional newspaper reports.

According to Primorske Novice, the group went into the business of smuggling migrants early in 2018, after a Croat crashed a vehicle full of migrants into a Slovenian police patrol car before fleeing home.

The Croat allegedly got in touch with a Koper man, now aged 29, who recruited three more men from Koper and its vicinity. They are now aged 30, 35 and 28.

The group did their business as part of a criminal ring, other members of which gathered illegal migrants in the Zagreb area and organised their transport to the border with Slovenia.

The migrants crossed the border on foot with the help of guides, and two of the four Koper men then organised their transport ahead, performed by the other two defendants.

Facing the charges at the Koper District Court in the spring this year, two of the four pleaded guilty, the 29-year-old and the 28-year-old.

The latter was given a year and 8 months for transporting migrants twice. He will serve the sentence by performing 1,200 hours of community work. He was also slapped with a EUR 2,000 fine.

The 29-year-old was sentenced to eight and a half years for smuggling of migrants, reckless driving and abandoning an injured person in an accident, all of which happened during his arrest.

The other two pleaded not guilty. They were sentenced to three and a half and three years in prison and fines of EUR 1,000 and 2,000. The sentences are not yet final, Primorske Novice writes.

The four were involved in the illegal business between February and May 2018 in the areas of Ilirska Bistrica and Mlini in Istria.

STA, 2 August 2019 - The operator of Slovenia's sole maritime port of Koper is hosting on Friday a delegation from Nagoya, the largest Japanese port in terms of transshipment, for talks on how to expand cooperation. Koper has no direct commercial maritime link with Japan, while it does cooperate with the Japanese Ocean Network Express (ONE).

The delegation featuring more than 30 representatives of the public and private sectors, the port of Nagoya and the chamber of commerce and industry from the city is in Slovenia before making stops in Italy and Croatia.

Representatives of Luka Koper presented the Japanese with the advantages of the port of Koper and the Adriatic Sea in general.

Japan is a major trade partner to Luka Koper, with last year's transshipment reaching almost half a million tonnes. The bulk of the transshipment are containers and cars, with Japan being one of the largest car producers in the world.

The port of Nagoya is the largest and busiest trading port in Japan, with an annual transshipment of 197 million tonnes, including 2.7 million container units and 1.4 million cars.

Luka Koper chairman Dimitrij Zadel told the press on the sidelines of the visit that efforts were being made to establish a direct link with Japan, noting that the port had been cooperating with ONE as of last year.

Today's presentation was also attended by representatives of Japanese companies which are already present in the region.

Tamas Tanarki of the Hungarian subsidiary of Yusen Logistics said that in the last decade, Japanese investors had started taking the Adriatic route into account and perceiving it as a good solution for their cargo transport.

He sees no much room for the Adriatic ports to compete with the North Sea ports in the near future, but he said it was realistic to expect that trade with these ports could increase by between 10% and 15%.

Tanarki thinks that what is important for the ports in north Adriatic is to agree on cooperation, as Trieste, Koper and Rijeka are only 70 kilometres apart, which is considered as one sole port on the global scale.

STA, 28 July 2019 - The passenger terminal at Koper, Slovenia's sole maritime port, welcomed 55,000 cruise line passengers by Friday this year with more than 109,000 expected to arrive at the port by the end of the season.

Most of the passengers come on high-end cruise liners, most of which sail in from Venice, as well as from Croatian ports such as Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik or even Korčula.

The city authorities told the STA that three cruise liners were due to dock at the Koper port this weekend.

The Celebrity Infinity arrived in the port for the first time on Friday carrying 2,000 passengers and 1,000 crew members. The ship was due to return as early as Sunday, following the Celebrity Constellation on Saturday.

By the end of the season 71 cruise liner arrivals are expected with a total of more than 106,000 passengers on board, so the port may even trump the boom year of 2010, when it welcomed more than 109,000 passengers on board of 78 ships.

The biggest this season are the Mein Schiff 6 and the Koningsdam, each carrying 2,500 passengers. The former is scheduled to visit Koper four times and the latter three times.

Most of the cruise liners arrive in June, July, September and October. Some estimates are that Koper could receive between 180,000 and 200,000 passengers a year in the coming years, but these should be distributed evenly throughout the year.

Many of the cruise line passengers stay in the town to explore the historic centre, or take a trip to some other coastal town, or even the rural Istria with a wine fountain in Marezige one popular draw.

There is also high demand for visits to Lipica, the home of the white Lipizzan horse, the Postojna Cave, the alpine lakeside resort of Bled or the capital Ljubljana.

STA, 22 July 2019 - The Slovenian Armed Forces deployed on Monday an additional 35 soldiers to assist police protecting the border. The reinforcements will work with the Koper police department, with the soldiers using surveillance equipment as well as armoured vehicles.

Slovenian Armed Forces representative Miha Kuhar told the press that this put the total number of troops on the southern border to 130.

The main task of the soldiers is participating in mixed patrols with the police, but they also conduct independent patrols and monitoring tasks, as well as maintain the border fence, Kuhar explained. The soldiers are also allowed to protect police officer in case the latter are attacked.

Kuhar said additional powers for the army, which have for instance been urged by Ilirska Bistrica mayor Emil Rojec, would only be possible if the government again decided to activate article 37.a of the defence act.

"We are also ready for that option," he said about the additional tasks, such as helping police control and guide groups of immigrants and refugees, which were in force between February and May 2016.

The Koper police has been overstretched in coping with an increase in illegal border crossings this year and has asked the army for assistance, the Slovenian Armed Forces said.

The deployment of additional troops comes just weeks after Prime Minister Marjan Šarec said security on Slovenia's southern border would be beefed up, including with additional soldiers and new equipment such as drones.

The army may exert limited police powers on the border since the passage of legislation to this effect in October 2015, while soldiers have been helping police patrol the border since February 2016.

Since then, soldiers have been part of almost 51,000 patrols. Soldiers are mostly sent to strengthen patrols but they also help with setting up and maintaining temporary barriers and conducting surveillance.

The army also provided assistance to the national Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief during the peak refugee inflow in 2015 and 2016, with soldiers assisting at migrant reception centres.

All out stories on illegal migration are here

STA, 22 July 2019 - A total of 4,066 ships were recorded in the Slovenian coastal towns of Koper, Izola and Piran last year, which is 7.2% less than in 2017. However, passenger traffic was up by 23.2%, mostly on account of cruise ships, the Statistics Office said on Monday.

The number of cargo ships was down by 8% compared to 2017 and the number of passenger ships by 4%.

A total of 132,814 ship passengers were recorded on the Slovenian coast last year, 108,682 of whom arrived on cruise ships, which is 55% more than in 2017.

Some 11.873 came with passenger and other ships, while 12,259 departed from the three coastal towns. Both numbers are 36% lower than in 2017.

The cargo ships docking at or departing from the Koper port were mostly container ships, followed by general cargo ships, ships transporting liquids and bulk cargo, and specialised ships.

The port operator Luka Koper transshipped 23 million tonnes of cargo last year, up almost 4% from 2017. Workers mostly unloaded dry bulk goods and large containers, while they loaded mainly large containers.

STA , 21 July 2019 - The majority of migrants who were apprehended in a large group in Ilirska Bistrica area on Friday (as reported here) have been handed over to Croatian authorities, the Koper police department told the press on Sunday.

Police spokesman Tomaž Čehovin said that 108 out of 123 apprehended migrants, mostly from Afghanistan, had been handed over to Croatia, while 15, mostly minors, had requested international protection.

According to Čehovin, there was no violence in the course of the police procedure, nor were any weapons or other dangerous items found. The migrants were given food and essentials and no one got hurt.

Some 40 police officers were part of Friday's operation, including reinforcements from other police departments.

Čehovin noted that cooperation with the Croatian police was good and pointed out that the Slovenian Armed Forces' assistance had come in handy.

He was also understanding of the locals' feelings of unease regarding the migrant situation since the Ilirska Bistrica area is quite big and the response time is not always as good as the people would wish.

Ilirska Bistrica police are getting assistance from the army and the Koper police due to a bigger inflow of refugees recently, said Čehovin.

On Friday several camps clustered in the woods near the village of Šembije were discovered, an unusual situation since in the past most migrants would try to cross the border in smaller groups.

STA, 20 July 2019 - Koper police apprehended on Friday over 120 migrants in the Ilirska Bistrica area close the southern border with Croatia's and the western border with Italy. Most of the migrants, the bulk of which are Afghan citizens, will be returned to Croatia today.

The Koper Police Administration said it discovered several small camps in the woods near Šembije on Friday afternoon. Reinforcements, police dogs and a helicopter were called in as the migrants started to flee.

Police have assessed that the group numbers around 200 in total and the search continues, with 122 people apprehended so far.

Most of them, 94, are Afghan citizens, while 27 are either from Pakistan or Bangladesh. Most will be returned to Croatia today. At least five of the migrants are minors and have been taken to an asylum centre.

July 16, 2019

Summer street festivals are not only a feature of the capital, but take place in other parts of the country as well.

In its 17 years of existence the Littoral Street Festival has hosted around 800 street performers and puppeteers from some 40 different countries, and among a variety of shows we will this year see also some of the earliest, Commedia dell’arte originating puppet characters such as Mascarredas, Harlequin and Colobina, Pulcinella and a Slovenian version of the character, Pavliha.

The festival will last till the end of August and will feature shows along the main promenade path of Koper/Capodistria every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Thursday shows take place at Hlavaty Park, Friday shows at Ukmar Square and Saturday shows on the corner of the Hlavaty Park and Semedela promenade. In case of rain, shows will move under the roof of Taverna.

For information on shows, please visit: https://www.mclu.info/puf

PUF started as a puppet street festival and later extended its programme into other fields of performative arts.

In the last week of the festival from August 26 to 30 PUF will move to the villages in the outskirts of Koper/Capodistria in Slovenian Istria: Sokoliči, Hrvoji, Gračišče and Truški.

The grand finale of the festival will take place in Koper on August 30 with Etno HistEria concert, which will then move to Snežnik Castle as Floating Castle festival, which will only last for one day this year.