Slovenia joined the Schengen area of free circulation a minute past midnight on 21 December, along with Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Celebrations on many Slovenian border crossings marked the significant event, attended by High Slovenian Officials. The biggest Schengen expansion to date, it created a 24-country area stretching over 3.6m sq. kilometres in which EU citizens will be able to travel without passports.
In this edition we also write about the working meeting between the Slovenian Government and the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament. European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering expressed after the meeting trust and support for Slovenia's EU presidency in the first half of 2008.
The next edition of Slovenia News will be issued on 8 January 2008. The Government Communication Office wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
This afternoon the Prime Minister Janez Jansa, together with ministers of the Slovenian Government, held a working meeting with the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, on a two-day visit to Slovenia. He also met separately with the President of the European Parliament, Mr Hans-Gert Pöttering. More »
Today the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Jansa, met the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union, Javier Solana. More »
Today in Ljubljana, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Jansa, met the President of Businesseurope, Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, who commended Slovenia for a number of its achievements in the last few years, highlighting EU accession, the euro changeover, and the forthcoming EU Presidency. More »
Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk met in Ljubljana on Wednesday Portuguese counterpart Fernando Teixeira dos Santos for talks on Slovenia's presidency over the EU's Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in the first half of 2008, the Finance Ministry said. More »
Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said in Brussels on Thursday that Slovenia wanted to contribute to creating synergies in Europe during its stint as EU president in 2007. For this is reason it has selected "Si.nergy for Europe" as its presidency motto. More »
Transport Minister Radovan Zerjav presented to the press in Ljubljana on Friday Slovenia's EU presidency priorities in transport, which include safety, common EU standards in road transports for both goods and people, as well as interoperability of rails and maritime legislation. More »
The government adopted on Thursday the resolution on the National Programme for Culture for 2008-2011, which lays out the principles and guidelines of culture policy, determines the areas of public interest in culture and defines in 13 points the goals and priorities for the coming four years. More »
Hammer thrower Primoz Kozmus and cross-country skier Petra Majdic have been selected Slovenia's male and female athletes of the year by the Association of Slovenian Sports Journalists, which conferred the awards on Thursday. More »
Gates at Slovenia's border crossings with Italy, Austria and Hungary were lifted a minute past midnight on Friday and border checks were eliminated as the country joined the Schengen border-free area along with eight other newcomers to the bloc. More »
Prime Minister Janez Jansa and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dimitrij Rupel signed in Lisbon on 13 December the new riform treaty of the EU. Jansa hailed the document as crucial for Europe in taking on the challenges of globalisation. "It gives Europe the power to take part in shaping globalisation instead of just fearing it or adapting to it" the Prime Minister said. According to Jansa, Slovenia has made it a priority of its six-month stint at the helm of the EU next year to be a custodian of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, and it plans to be among the first member states to ratify the document to serve as a role model for the other member states.
The Prime Minister added that in other countries, too, there seemed to be no major concerns about the ratification process. He said that efforts would be made by the countries that ratify the treaty quickly to help those with complicated parliamentary procedures or those opting for a referendum.
The majority of the Slovenian parties welcomed the signing of the treaty and also supported its speedy ratification.
Interior Minister Dragutin Mate and Justice Ministry State Secretary Robert Marolt took part in an EU-US ministerial on justice and interior affairs in Washington on Tuesday. Topping the agenda were EU-US relations, legal aid, extradition treaties, data protection and reciprocal visa regime. More »
Prime Minister Janez Jansa and French President Nicolas Sarkozy discussed the tasks of their successive EU presidencies in 2008 as they held a meeting on Monday, in particular the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, a priority for both countries. "It will be one year, two presidencies and one task," Jansa told reporters in Paris after the talks. More »
The fourth National Council held its maiden session on Wednesday and elected Blaz Kavcic its new president in a secret ballot. After taking over, Kavcic said that he would strive for constructive cooperation. More »
The average net wage in Slovenia amounted to EUR 846.38 in October, which was 3.2% more than the previous month, and up 8.9% year-on-year, the Statistics Office said on Monday. More »
Defence Minister Karl Erjavec received on Wednesday a wooden relay baton from his Portuguese colleague Nuno Severiano Teixeira in what was a symbolic hand-over of the presidency over the EU Council in defence matters. Erjavec took the opportunity to reiterate Slovenia's EU priorities in this field. More »
Finance Minister Andrey Bajuk met in Rome on Monday his Italian counterpart Tomaso Padoa-Schioppa and Italian central bank governor Mario Draghi and presented Slovenia's priorities for the EU presidency in the first half of 2008 regarding the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN). More »
Slovenia has entered key talks on the reform of the EU's wine sector with two objections: the labeling of added sugar and financial package, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said as EU ministers in charge of agriculture started negotiations on Monday. More »
In Lisbon Today, Prime Minister Janez Jansa and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitrij Rupel attended the ceremony of signing new European agreement, so-called Lisbon agreement. More »
Today, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia attended the traditional December meeting of the European Council in Brussels, which focused on the Kosovo question, the global challenges facing Europe and its international role. More »
Following a meeting with the EU's Special Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina Miroslav Lajcak in Ljubljana on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel welcomed the recent initialing of the Stabilisation an Association Agreement between Bosnia and the EU and reiterated Slovenia's wish for a European future of the Western Balkans. More »
Slovenia's EU presidency will have its work cut out with the ratification of the recently signed Lisbon Treaty, as EU leaders called on Friday for a swift completion of national ratification processes with a view to allowing the treaty to enter into force on 1 January 2009. More »
Today the Prime Minister of the republic of Slovenia, Janez Jansa, met the European Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, who was visiting Slovenia during the closing stage of preparations for the EU Presidency. The PM and his guest exchanged views on key issues of trade policy, which the European Union will have to negotiate in the first half of 2008. One of the main challenges will be to conclude negotiations on the liberalisation of international trade, which WTO members initiated in 2001 in Doha, as soon as possible. More »
Slovenia could become a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in less than two years, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said in Paris on Monday after meeting Prime Minister Janez Jansa. He added that quality was more important that speed and that Slovenia had so far implemented "very important changes" in all reform processes. More »
Anton Tomaz Linhart (1756-1795), the man credited with bringing the Slovenian language on stage, now has his own permanent exhibition in his hometown of Radovljica. The show opened on Tuesday evening at the Radovljica mansion, which is also home to the famed Museum of Beekeeping. More »
Slovenian swimmers Peter Mankoc and Anja Carman won the gold medal at the 11th European Short Course Swimming Championships in Hungary's Debrecen. More »
Slovenian households will next week receive an information booklet on Slovenia's accession to the Schengen zone entitled "Slovenia, a Schengen Novice", the Interior Minister Dragutin Mate told the press in Ljubljana on Friday. More »
The Prime Minister Janez Jansa attended the 2nd EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon, on 9 December. The meeting in Lisbon, which follows the first one in Cairo from 2000, was aimed at putting the relations between the two continents on a more equal footing, surpassing the traditional relations between donors and aid receivers, and establishing strategic partnership. The PM welcomed the progress made in constructing Africa's peace and security infrastructure, pointing to migration as a specific challenge for European-African partnership.
Against the backdrop of the Summit, Jansa met the President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua to discuss, among other things, cooperation during Slovenia's EU presidency. The Nigerian President wished Slovenia great success, while the Slovenian side much appreciated his views on major security challenges in Africa in the coming period. The Slovenian PM stressed the importance of Nigeria's constructive role as a leading regional power, and commended the country's progress and contribution to stability in the region.
This afternoon the Prime Minister, Janez Jansa, concluded his participation at the 2nd EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon, where Heads of State and Government focused on five major topics: governance and human rights, peace and security, migration, energy and climate change, and trade, infrastructures and development. These are issues that interest both Africa and Europe. More »
Defence Minister Karl Erjavec received his Finnish counterpart Jyri Haekaemies in Ljubljana on Wednesday, discussing with him cooperation in defence and Slovenia's EU presidency priorities, which also include the bloc's peace-keeping missions in the world. More »
Slovenia's EU presidency project will be backed up by 23 Slovenian companies which responded to a public call for partnership with the government during the presidency. They are to participate with their products and services, donations and discounts, a contribution estimated at EUR 500,000, Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk told the press on Friday. More »
Today in Ljubljana the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia opened the new production facilities of the Hella Lux Slovenija d.o.o. company, which specialises in manufacturing lighting equipment for the biggest global brands in the car industry More »
Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc and his Bulgarian counterpart Nihat Kabil discussed in Ljubljana on Monday the implementation and development of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and stressed that cooperation among the two countries in agriculture needs increase, as trade in farm products amounts to only EUR 2 to 3m per year. More »
The European Commission approved on Monday to the financing of 18 programmes for promotion of EU agricultural products in the third countries. Slovenia received EUR 846,253 for the promotion of poultry, a project initiated by the Association for Meat and Meat Products. More »
The Jozef Stefan Institute (IJS), Slovenia's prime scientific institution, founded a new research centre together with the Croatian Rudjer Boskovic Institute, head of the IJS Jadran Lenarcic said on Tuesday. More »
The EUR 41.3m worth business premises of the Ljubljana Technological Park are to open on Friday evening in what its general manager Iztok Lesjak says is a step towards creating the environment conducive to high-tech companies. More »
The Prime Minister Jansa attended the meeting of Prime Ministers of the Visegrad Group (V4) today, where he was a special guest presenting the priorities of Slovenia's EU Presidency in the first half of 2008. Against the backdrop of the meeting, the PM met his host, the Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topolanek, and the new Czech President, Donald Tusk. More »
EU interior minister gave the final green light on Thursday to the expansion of the Schengen no-border zone to nine countries, including Slovenia, which will create a 24-country area stretching over 3.6m sq. kilometres in which EU citizens will be able to travel without passports. More »
Today, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Jansa, met representatives of the second largest party in the European Parliament, MEPs from the Party of European Socialists (PSE), to exchange views on the challenges facing Europe in the first half of 2008 during Slovenia's Presidency of the EU. More »
EU foreign ministers called on Monday on Croatia to refrain from enforcing its ecological and fisheries zone until a common agreement on the issue is reached. "If Croatia's decisions are not corrected, they could severely aggravate relations between Croatia and the EU," Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel commented on the resolution. More »
Representatives of the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) met Transport Minister Radovan Zerjav in Ljubljana on Friday to discuss road transport, civil aviation, the railways, river and sea transport and dockworkers' issues. ETF officials said they wanted to ensure that the social aspects in transport would not be neglected during Slovenia's EU presidency. More »
The Jenko Award for best poetry collection of the past two years goes to Tomaz Salamun, the most widely translated Slovenian author, for "Sinji stolp" (Blue Tower). The award, given out by the Slovenian Writers' Association, will be presented on Thursday. More »
Estonia's animated film "Kleit" (The Dress), by Jelena Girlin and Mari-Liis Bassovskaja, won the Grand Prize at the conclusion of the 4th Animateka festival of animated film on Sunday evening in Ljubljana. More »
The IEDC Bled School of Management on Friday presented for the first time honorary doctorates to three individuals who contributed greatly to the development of the region, business- and leadership-wise. The doctorates were conferred on changes management expert Ichak Adizes, acclaimed European leader figure Erhard Busek and education expert Aleksandra Kornhauser Frazer. More »
Actual equality needs to be secured in every society, apart from formal equality, President-elect Danilo Tuerk said on Monday ahead of a conference dubbed "Diversity Is Society's Wealth", organised by several NGOs on Human Rights Day. More »
The government has put forward measures in a bid to improve the dire situation in the public health care system, which the trade union of doctors and dentists (Fides) has welcomed. More »
With the day of Slovenia's entry into the Schengen border-free zone only two weeks away, the demolition of checkpoints on the border with Italy has already begun. The works on the Vrtojba/San Andrea border crossing, the biggest in the Gorisko region, kicked off on Thursday. More »
The Congress Centre Brdo, which will be the main venue for events related to Slovenia's EU presidency, was opened at Brdo pri Kranju on Saturday 1 December, exactly a month before Slovenia assumes the six month spell at the helm of the EU. The opening of the building was accompanied by unveiling of Slovenia's presidency logo, and the launch of the official EU presidency website, which will be the information backbone of the presidency. As of 1 January 2008, the website of the Slovenian EU Council presidency will be accessible online in three languages (Slovene, English, French) at the web addresses www.eu2008.si and www.ue2008.si. Until 31 December 2007, a limited version of the presidency website will be accessible.
The National Electoral Commission released the official results of the presidential election on Thursday, confirming Danilo Tuerk as the winner with 68.03% of the second-round votes against 31.97% for Lojze Peterle. Tuerk is to take oath at the National Assembly on 22 December. More »
Slovenia and Germany are not prepared to unilaterally recognise the independence of Kosovo, but will aspire for unity in the EU, Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel told a joint press conference with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin on Friday. More »
Today the Prime Minister Janez Jansa visited the Vatican and Rome. At the Holy See, he met Pope Benedict XVI and the Cardinal Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, to whom he presented the priorities of Slovenia's EU Presidency, and discussed with them outstanding bilateral issues. In Rome, the Slovenia PM met the Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, to discuss bilateral relations, the future of the EU, and the situation in the neighbourhood. More »
Issues of bilateral cooperation and European themes topped the agenda as Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel hosted his Norwegian opposite number Jonas Gahr Store in Ljubljana on Monday. More »
Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel received Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa Cantellano in Ljubljana on Tuesday for talks focusing on Slovenia's EU presidency and plans for the EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit, which will take place in Peru's Lima in May 2008. More »
The government adopted on Wednesday a set of measures for the elimination of administrative barriers in 2008 and 2009. The 45 measures constitute a continuation of the push to fight red tape in the public administration, Public Administration Minister Gregor Virant told the press. More »
A delegation of the European Parliament's Monetary Committee, headed by Pervenche Beres, met Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak on Tuesday as part of its official two-day visit to Slovenia. The meeting focused on Slovenia's priorities as the EU president, notably the Lisbon strategy, the legislation on electronic communications and insurance. More »
The Institute for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (IMAD) expects inflation to stabilise in March or April 2008 and then begin to abate. This is provided a right response of social partners to wage policy, the acting chief of the government think-tank told reporters in Ljubljana on Monday. More »
Irish Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan is on a visit to Slovenia on Wednesday dedicated to Slovenia's EU presidency plans and talks on the EU priorities in agriculture. Slovenian Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc pointed out after the meeting that the countries were similar in many respects. More »
European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Mariann Fischer Boel told the final day of a conference of young farmers of Europe that farmers were facing better times. According to her, the current trends are favourable for farmers, who are an essential element of society. More »
The Congress Centre Brdo, which will be the main venue for events related to Slovenia's EU presidency, was opened at Brdo pri Kranju on Saturday. The EUR 15m building was opened by Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel and the director of the company running the Brdo estate Iztok Puric. More »
A month before taking over EU presidency from Portugal, Slovenia has put on a special promotion event in Brussels on Friday night, featuring the country's cuisine and a performance by a Slovenian pop star, Neisha. More »
French Minister of the Environment, Sustainable Development and Planning Jean-Louis Borloo told reporters in Ljubljana on Friday that France had big expectations for the Slovenian EU presidency as this would be the period of energy- and environment-related decisions for the next century. More »
The priorities of Slovenia's EU presidency in the area of education and youth policy will revolve around the promotion of creativity, innovation, intercultural dialogue and multilinguality, Education Minister Milan Zver told the press on Thursday. More »
Today the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Jansa, met the EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, to discuss the Coordinator's plans for and Slovenia's EU Presidency in the first half of 2008. The PM and his guest confirmed mutual interest in strengthening cooperation during this period. Today the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Jan¹a, met the EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, to discuss the Coordinator's plans for and Slovenia's EU Presidency in the first half of 2008. The PM and his guest confirmed mutual interest in strengthening cooperation during this period. More »
EU transport ministers approved on Friday the Galileo satellite navigation system, a multi-billion euro project that is considered vital for small telecoms and IT companies. The decision has also relaunched lobbying for the seat of the Galileo supervisory authority, with Slovenia one of the contenders. More »
An international exhibition marking the 90th anniversary of the WWI Isonzo Front opened in the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels on Monday. "So that all of us remember it together," MEP Lojze Peterle and his Czech colleague Jana Hybaskova said in the invitation to the exhibition, on display until 8 December. More »
A part of the Codex Suprasliensis which is kept by the National and University Library (NUK) was presented to the public on Monday presented as the first document owned by a Slovenian institution to be put on the UNESCO Memory of the World list. More »
Slovenia's best cross country skier Petra Majdic took her first World Cup victory of the season in Saturday's classic sprint event in Kuusamo. The 27-year-old Majdic crossed the finish line with a healthy lead over Astrid Jacobsen of Norway and Alena Prochaskova of Slovakia. More »