Slovenia News - February 2008

Slovenia News 26 February 2008

Former President and former prime minister Janez Drnovsek died on 23 February, at the age of 57. Dr. Janez Drnovsek was a seminal figure in Slovenia's transition to a market economy and its membership of the EU and NATO, leading Slovenia as prime minister for most of the 1990s and in the last five years as the president. He battled cancer for most of his last ten years in office. Condolences over the death of Former President Janez Drnovsek were sent on Saturday by all Slovenian politicians and religious officials. Numerous high-ranking foreign officials paid tribute to deceased Former President Janez Drnovsek, including the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and presidents of Croatia and Italy, Stipe Mesic and Giorgio Napolitano. Hundreds of people signed the book of condolences for Former President Janez Drnovsek. The government meanwhile declared Monday a day of mourning and decreed that flags on state institutions fly at half-mast from Saturday until the end of the day of the funeral. Slovenian embassies will meanwhile open their doors to people who want to sign books of condolences on 26 and 27 February. Former President and Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek died on 23 February at his home in Zaplana, at the age of 57. Having led four governments between 1992 and 2002 with a brief intermission in 2000, Former President Janez Drnovsek was the longest-serving Slovenian prime minister. He steered Slovenia through the transition to a market economy and towards the EU and NATO. More » The Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitrij Rupel and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Rangin Dadfar Spanta focused in their talks on Slovenia's contribution to the stability and reconstruction of Afghanistan. They concentrated on developments in the region, analysing the situation in Afghanistan and the influence exerted by Pakistan and Iran. Minister Rupel showed great interest in the democratisation of Afghanistan and assessed some developments, especially in education, as positive. More » Slovenian Defence Minister Karl Erjavec and his Finnish counterpart Jyri Hakamies signed on Friday a letter of intent on cooperation in defence, which Hakamies labelled as a good basis for future cooperation in defence industry. More » The government adopted on Thursday several laws from the area of judiciary, including the amendments to the attorneys act, the criminal procedure act and the bill on mediation in civil and business cases. More » Belgium plans to open its labour market for Slovenians in May, the Belgian Interior Ministry confirmed for STA on Friday. This would make Belgium the 11th EU country to open its labour market to Slovenians. More » Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk highlighted progress in European Commission legislative proposals and financial stability as he presented the priorities of Slovenia's EU presidency to the executive committee of the European Banking Federation (EFB) in Ljubljana on Friday. More » Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak welcomed on Thursday the passing of a key legislative package on the internal market in goods which the European Parliament adopted in first reading earlier today. Vizjak told the press in Ljubljana that the package mainly benefited small and medium companies (SMEs). More » The hardware retail chain Merkur had a very successful 2007, according to preliminary business results. The Naklo-based group managed to increase revenues by over 15% to EUR 1.15bn, while operating profit stood at EUR 24.1m. More » The Anglo-German private equity consortium of Bain Capital & Axos Capital & BT notified the commission overseeing the privatisation of Telekom Slovenije that it was withdrawing its bid to acquire a 49.13% state-owned stake in the telco. More » Analysts at banking group Raiffeisen Bank expect Slovenia's economy to expand by 5% and inflation to stand at 3.5% this year, according to its Strategy Slovenia 2008 publication. More » EU ministers responsible for research reached an agreement in Brussels on Monday on the establishment of a fuel cells and hydrogen joint undertaking. Slovenian Minister Mojca Kucler Dolinar and Science and Research Commissioner meanwhile noted that the EU would need more funds for energy research. More » President of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, headed a meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the EU Troika and Afghanistan held at Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia. Apart from Minister Rupel, the EU was represented by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations, Francesc Vendrell from the EU Council General Secretariat, and Rama Yade, French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights. The delegation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was headed by Foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta. More » Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said on Monday he hoped Bosnia-Herzegovina would sign the already initialled Accession and Stabilisation Agreement (SAA) with the EU in late March or early April. The precondition for the agreement, the police reform, could be adopted in March, said the Bosnian Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj. More » The EU is upbeat about the situation in Kosovo and the broader Balkans despite the fallout from Kosovo's declaration of independence. "The situation as a whole is much calmer...I think it will evolve in this direction," the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after Thursday's informal meeting of EU defence ministers. More » The EU mission to Chad and the Central African Republic is getting back on track after delays caused by a rebel attack earlier this month. "We will be deployed with full operational capabilities before the rainy season, mid to late March," the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after a meeting of EU defence ministers on Thursday. More » Speaking on the occasion of International Mother Language Day (21 February), Marko Stabej from the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts said that Slovenian was far from being an endangered language and that in case it dies out within a few generations, it will do so along with most other Europe's languages. More » A festival of Slavonic literatures dubbed "Slavonic Bridge" will kick off on Thursday. The event, running until 8 May, will host a number of established Slavonic authors, including Russian Vladimir Sorokin and Polish Ewa Schilling. More » The government adopted on Thursday amendments to the medicinal products act. The amendments are needed to align the rules on setting the prices of drugs, Health Minister Zofija Mazej Kukovic told the press after the government's session. More » Calendar of Events for 26 February - 2 March More »

Slovenia News 19 February 2008

Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel led the meeting between the EU Troika and Russia, which took place in the castle of Brdo on 13 February. The EU was represented by Javier Solana, High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union, Dr Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, and Jean-Pierre Jouyet, State Secretary responsible for European Affairs at the French Foreign Ministry. The Russian delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. At the meeting, Minister Rupel stressed the long-standing successful cooperation between the European Union and the Russian Federation, and pointed out that Slovenia is the first Slavic country to have assumed the presidency of the EU Council. Slovenia plans to mark this fact by organising a special event in Brussels – an exhibition entitled The Slavs of Europe. Presenting the key goals of the Interior Ministry and the police force for 2008, minister Dragutin Mate told the press on Tuesday that the ministry wished to see the death toll on Slovenian roads drop beneath the 2006 level, when traffic accidents claimed 262 lives. More » Prime Minister Janez Jansa was upbeat as the government revisited eastern Slovenia on Wednesday, saying the region of Posavje posted an above-average rate of strong Slovenian development over the past two years, which he believes augurs well for the future. More » The government adopted on Thursday a bill on arbitration, which will help decrease the workload of courts, State Secretary at the Justice Ministry Robert Marolt told the press. The bill speeds up and specifies procedures in more detail as well as provides better legal security for parties involved. More » This afternoon, Prime Minister Jansa took part in a consultation of mayors of Slovenian municipalities organised with a view to debating regional legislation. After a thorough and lively debate, the majority of mayors supported the suggestion that the Government should resubmit the proposal for a law on the establishment of regions but, this time, partially amended since, as PM Jansa pointed out, the prevailing opinion is that establishing regions is a project Slovenia needs as soon as possible in order to ensure faster and more uniform development. More » Below is the statement released by the Prime Minister Janez Jansa on 17 February after Kosovo’s declaration of independence. More » Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel met on Friday with the Speaker of the Sobranje of the Republic of Macedonia. The main subjects under discussion were the bilateral cooperation between Slovenia and Macedonia and Macedonia’s drawing closer to Euro-Atlantic structures. More » Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic and Trieste Mayor Roberto Dipiazza committed to boosting cooperation between their cities in education and culture, tourism, public services and city planning as they met Monday in Trieste. More » The regional GDP per capita in Western Slovenia in 2005 amounted to 104.7% of the EU average, while GDP in Eastern Slovenia reached only 71.6% of average EU GDP, shows a statistical comparison published by Eurostat on Tuesday. More » The group around Slovenia's largest bank, NLB, posted a pre-tax profit of EUR 184.9m for 2007, up 20% year-on-year. Total assets increased by 27% to EUR 18.3bn, the bank said on Thursday. More » The Cleveland Slovenian Business and Professional Association (CSBPA), an initiative bringing together US entrepreneurs with Slovenian roots, conducted its inaugural reception in Cleveland on Thursday. Established a year ago, the CSBPA already numbers around 200 members. More » Some 27,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the border areas of Slovenia, Italy and Croatia are to be listed on a new web portal by the end of the year as part of a cross-border project involving Slovenia, Italy and Croatia. More » Zavarovalnica Triglav, Slovenia's largest insurer, holds a 15% market share in SE Europe, Triglav chairman Andrej Kocic told the press on Tuesday as he presented the group's unconsolidated business results for 2007. More » A delegation from France, comprising representatives of national, regional and local authorities as well as hunters and sheep breeders from the Pyrenees, is visiting Slovenia this week to try to find the key to successful cohabitation between people and brown bears. More » FM Rupel headed a foreign ministerial level meeting between the EU Troika and Russia, which took place on 13 February at Brdo Castle. Apart from Minister Rupel, the EU was represented by Javier Solana, High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy and Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union, Dr Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, and Jean-Pierre Jouyet, State Secretary responsible for European Affairs at the French Foreign Ministry. The Russian delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. More » The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and President of the European Council, Janez Janša, today received the leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Mr Martin Schulz. More » The government has declared 27 January Holocaust Remembrance Day in Slovenia. The government is aware of the fact that historical remembrance is a key factor preventing such events from repeating, government spokesman Valentin Hajdinjak told the press on Thursday. More » The idea of "personal adoptive language" as a sort of second mother tongue is a "concept for the future", Education Minister Milan Zver said on the sidelines of the first EU ministerial on multilingualism in Brussels on Friday. He added that this was possibly a "step coming ahead of its time", but a "reality" in the future. More » Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc opened in Brussels on Monday "The Solar Flowers Dancing for Europe - United in Diversity", an installation of 10,000 little solar powered flowers, which aims to highlight the issues of energy and climate change and point to the potential of renewable energy. More » Slovenian Violinist Anja Bukovec is getting ready for her first world tour, which will take her to 14 cities worldwide. Bukovec will play 18 concerts, starting in Sarajevo on 22 March and concluding in the Israeli national opera house in Tel Aviv. More » Calendar of Events for 19 - 24 February More »

Slovenia News 12 February 2008

Foreign Minister Rupel, who is the current President of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, accompanied by the EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Dr Benita Ferrero-Waldner, completed on 6 February a three-day visit to the South Caucasus States, which started on 4 February with a visit to Azerbaijan. As the head of the EU Troika, the Slovenian Foreign Minister had meeting with high officials of Georgia and Armenia. Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel also participated in the EU-Arab League ministerial meeting in Malta, on 11 and 12 February. In Valletta, Dr Rupel stressed the importance of mutual understanding and dialogue among cultures for peaceful and successful coexistence. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr Janez Jansa, today received representatives of the Pension and Disability Insurance Institute of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian Federation of Pensioners’ Organisations ’in order to discuss options for improving the social position and social inclusion of pensioners. More » The government has adopted a law that would reform judicial procedures in a bid to speed them up. In a key change, a court of second instance would now be tasked with adjudicating on the whole case rather than just on the appeal. More » The President of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, Dr Dimitrij Rupel, together with the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Dr Benita Ferrero Waldner, today visited Georgia as part of the three-day EU visit to the South Caucasus countries. More » Today in Armenia, the current President of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, Dr Dimitrij Rupel, accompanied by the EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Dr Benita Ferrero-Waldner, completed a three-day visit to the South Caucasus States. More » Dr Dimitrij Rupel, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and President of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC), participated today in the EU-Arab League ministerial meeting in Malta. The first part of the meeting will focus on the situation in the region, with particular emphasis on the Middle East crisis. Seven EU and ten Arab League foreign ministers will be attending the meeting. More » Slovenian and Montenegrin foreign ministers Dimitrij Rupel and Milan Rocen signed on Thursday an agreement on technical assistance in EU issues and on development cooperation, confirming excellent bilateral relations. Montenegro is one of Slovenia's favourite partners, Rupel said after the signing at Brdo pri Kranju. More » The Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, Mr Kostas Karamanlis, paid a working visit to Slovenia this evening at the invitation of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and President of the European Council, Mr Janez Jansa. The meeting, the third of its kind in the past year, was mainly devoted to an exchange of views on the issues of common concern which are at the forefront of the Slovenian EU Council Presidency, especially those pertaining to the Western Balkans. More » Defence Minister Karl Erjavec opened on Thursday in Vilnius this year's first informal NATO ministerial, where NATO defence ministers agreed that the situation in Kosovo was very tense. Erjavec said that NATO's KFOR mission was vital for the stability of the region. More » Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak and his visiting Irish counterpart John McGuinness discussed on Tuesday the Doha round of world trade talks, whose successful conclusion is main trade-related priority of Slovenia's EU presidency, the ministry said. More » Slovenians are the most satisfied among the 2004 EU newcomers, as 87% of the respondents in the latest Eurobarometer survey said they were happy with their lives, a 4 percentage points drop over the spring edition of the survey. More » Topical EU issues in agriculture, biomass as an energy source, and research in the field of organic farming topped talks between Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc and his Danish counterpart Eva Kjer Hansen in Ljubljana on Thursday. More » Commissioner Siim Kallas said on Monday that EU states had reached the point when they should move from e-government to i-government, based on interoperability. Addressing an e-government conference at Brdo pri Kranju, Kallas said that digital barriers should be eliminated in the EU. More » Discussion focused primarily on enlargement of the European Union and also on Albania’s European perspective and its endeavours to enter the European integration process. The assistance to the Western Balkans countries is one of the priorities in Slovenia's foreign policy, also during its Presidency of the EU Council. More » The port of Koper has become the first port in the world to have obtained the International Organisation for Standardisation's (ISO) 22000:2005 standard for food safety, port operator Luka Koper said on Thursday. More » The Preseren prizes for lifetime achievements went to author and translator Janez Gradisnik and graphic designer Miljenko Licul. Preseren Fund prizes for individual achievements were also conferred at tonight's ceremony in Maribor. More » President Danilo Tuerk unveiled a bust of Primoz Trubar (1508-1586) at the National and University Library (NUK) in Ljubljana on Thursday, thus officially launching the jubilee Trubar year, dedicated to the 500th anniversary of this Protestant reformer who gave Slovenians the first books in their mother tongue. More » The Slovenian town of Idrija in west Slovenia alongside two mining towns in Spain and Mexico have filed the first ever serial intercontinental bid for a UNESCO World Heritage Site listing, the Culture Ministry wrote in a press release on Thursday. More » The Slovenian Tourist Board presented on Monday a project called European Destinations of Excellence (EDEN), in which the European Commission will select the best traditional events promoting intangible cultural heritage taking place in less visited tourist destinations. More » The EU is to adopt new guidelines for organising screening programmes for cervical cancer, European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said on Thursday as a two-day conference on cancer kicked off at Brdo pri Kranju. More » Calendar of Events for 12 - 17 February More »

Slovenia News 5 February 2008

"It is only by investing in people and their potentials that Europe will have the opportunity for growth," emphasised the Slovenian Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, Marjeta Cotman, opening the Informal Meeting of Ministers of Employment and Social Affairs which she is hosted as the President of the EU Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council. The EU Ministers of Employment and Social Affairs devoted special attention to the young and the elderly and to the challenges faced by women in the labour market, stressing that flexibility and security were required throughout a person's lifetime at every stage of life. In this issue we also write about Slovenia's ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. By a vast majority of 74 votes out of a total of 90, the Republic of Slovenia has become the second Member State to confirm the new institutional structure for more effective functioning of the enlarged European Union. Minister of Foreign Affairs Dimitrij Rupel met UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today. They talked mainly about the situation of human rights in the world, and in this respect Minister Rupel underlined the "need for drawing attention to this issue". They also commented on cooperation between the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the EU, more specifically, the Slovenian EU Council Presidency. More » The Slovenian EU presidency condemned on Friday the arrest of Mr Riyad Seif, the prominent member of the democratic opposition and former Member of the Syrian Parliament, which took place on 28 January 2008, and the detention of eleven other signatories of the Damascus Declaration. More » The EU troika led by Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, the current president of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, started tour of the Caucasus on Monday with a visit to Azerbaijan, where talks focused on the country's potential as an energy supplier to the EU. More » The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and President of the European Council, Mr Janez Jansa, congratulated Mr Boris Tadic on his victory in the Serbian presidential elections, and wished him every success in discharging that office in future. More » President Danilo Tuerk and Prime Minister Janez Jansa hosted on Monday a traditional reception for the diplomatic corps in Slovenia. Tuerk said in his speech that 2007 had been a successful year for Slovenia. He also emphasised this year's priorities such as the fight against climate change and peace processes in crisis areas around the globe. More » The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark, Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen, payed a two day official visit to Slovenia at the invitation of Prime Minister Janez Janša. After the meeting, PM Janša expressed his satisfaction at today’s visit, which offered an excellent opportunity to exchange views on topics on the agenda of Slovenia's EU Council Presidency, foremost among them the energy and climate change package and the current situation in the Western Balkans. More » Slovenian President Danilo Tuerk and his Croatian counterpart Stipe Mesic called on Friday for cooperation and dialogue between the two neighbouring countries as they held an informal meeting at Otocec. More » The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and President of the European Council, Mr Janez Jansa, this afternoon held a brief working meeting with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovakia, Robert Fico, in Ljubljana. More » Interior Minister Dragutin Mate met French Minister of Migrations Brice Hortefeux on Monday to discuss illegal migration, asylum policy and the legalisation of illegal immigrants, the Interior Ministry said in a press release. More » "It is only by investing in people and their potentials that Europe will have the opportunity for growth," emphasised the Slovenian Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, Marjeta Cotman, opening the Informal Meeting of Ministers of Employment and Social Affairs which she is hosting as the President of the EU Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council. More » At the informal meeting of ministers for gender equality, discussions were held on the participation of women in society, enhancing the role and position of women, the balanced representation of women and men in political decision-making, enhancing the role and position of girls with a view to achieving gender equality, and the importance of gender equality policies in development cooperation. Minister Marjeta Cotman pointed out that one of the key messages was, “We not only need active women, we also need active men.” More » At their informal meeting, the Ministers of Employment and Social Affairs, within the framework of the concept of flexicurity, devoted special attention to the young and the elderly and to the challenges faced by women in the labour market. More » Airport operator Aerodrom Ljubljana said on Tuesday it had recorded a 14.2% increase in the number of passengers in 2007 over the previous year and was planning an additional increase of 11% for this year. More » The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, together with the Minister of Transport, the Minister of the Economy, and the Minister of Finance, today visited the Slovenian railway company - Slovenske železnice (SŽ), where the Prime Minister had separate meetings with the management and with the company's trade union representatives. This visit – the first visit by a Prime Minister to Slovenian Railways since Slovenian independence – focused in particular on the company’s visions for development. More » Trimo, the Trebnje-based maker of prefabricated components for the construction industry, and its 14 subsidiaries posted revenues of EUR 217.7m for 2007, an 26% increase year-on-year. Net profit soared 36% to EUR 8.6m, Trimo chief executive Tatjana Fink told the press on Tuesday. More » By a vast majority of 74 votes out of a total of 90, the Republic of Slovenia has become the second Member State to confirm the new institutional structure for more effective functioning of the enlarged European Union. More » Dr Dimitrij Rupel, Slovenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and current President of the General Affairs and External Relations Council, today presented the programme and priorities of the Slovenian EU Council Presidency to ambassadors at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. His speech placed particular focus on issues falling directly within the Council of Europe’s express remit, cooperation between the EU and the CoE, and relations between the EU and countries that are members of the Council of Europe but not the European Union. More » The launch of negotiations on Slovenia's membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has come in a relatively unfavourable time due to Slovenia's EU presidency, Development Minister Ziga Turk said on Monday, but he added that Slovenia was still on track to become a member within two years. Turk told the press after meeting OECD Deputy Secretary General Thelma Askey that Slovenia had put forward a very ambitious time frame for negotiations so that its positions could be presented to different committees of the organisation by the summer. More » Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, concluded his two day visit to Slovenia with meetings with Prime Minister Janez Jansa, President Danilo Tuerk and Maribor Archbishop and Metropolitan Franc Kramberger. Metzger also visited the Maribor synagogue. More » An informal meeting of EU directors general for sport startedat Brdo pri Kranju on Monday, with the White Paper on Sport topping the agenda. The paper aims at defining joint guidelines in sports and is an important step forward, said Pierre Mairesse, director general for Youth, Sport and Citizenship at the European Commission. More » Calendar of Events for 5 - 10 February More »

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