Slovenia News - May 2008

Slovenia News 13 May 2008

At the Conference of European Affairs Committees and European Parliament (COSAC), held in Slovenia on 7 May, Prime Minister Jansa said the EU success in the coming 50 years will be measured by how successfully the EU takes on key global challenges. Addressing at Brdo pri Kranju representatives of parliaments from EU members and candidate states, the current president of the EU Council highlighted the preservation of the environment, the fight against world poverty, and peace and security as the main global challenges. In this edition of Slovenia News we also write about the WDR Europa Forum. The leaders of the main EU institutions, assembled in Ljubljana on 8 May, agreed that the fight against climate change, the Lisbon Treaty and intercultural dialogue are EU's main achievements over the past year, but these are also areas where the 27-member bloc faces the biggest challenges. Foreign Ministry State Secretary Andrej Ster and Bosnian Ambassador to Slovenia Izmir Talic exchanged on Monday documents on the ratification of the agreement on social insurance between Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is to enter into force on 1 July. More » Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel met in Strasbourg on Wednesday Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Giorgi Baramidze. The officials discussed the situation in Georgia, which has been rather tense recently. More » Labour, Family and Social Affairs Minister Marjeta Cotman and Croatian Minister of Families, Veterans' Affairs and Intergenerational Solidarity Jadranka Kosor signed on Monday a reciprocal agreement on war graves. "We have added a piece into the mosaic called historical truth," said Kosor. More » The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and President of the European Council, Janez Jansa, today held a meeting with the Chairman of the 11th National Committee of the People’s Political Consultative Conference of the People’s Republic of China, Jia Qinglin. More » Slovenian National Assembly Speaker France Cukjati and his Austrian counterpart Barbara Prammer met for a second time in two days on Saturday, agreeing that national parliaments should better define their role in cooperation with the European Parliament. More » The Slovenian Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investment (JAPTI) has been awarded by the World Finance magazine as the most promising foreign direct investment (FDI) location 2008-2009 in Central and Eastern Europe, JAPTI said on Monday. More » The role of innovation in improving energy efficiency and fighting climate change topped the agenda as the European Patent Forum kicked off on Tuesday, featuring over 350 innovators, intellectual property experts and government representatives. More » Samo Hribar Milic, the chief exec of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS), has called for more Chinese investment in Slovenia, especially such with a higher value added. Numerous opportunities for cooperation are still open, Hribar Milic told a visiting Chinese economic delegation on Monday. More » The government adopted on Thursday the supplementary 2008 budget bill, cutting expenditure by almost EUR 50m, while revenues are projected to grow by EUR 250m. This will change the EUR 230m budget deficit, planned for 2008, into a EUR 69.4m surplus. More » As many as 59% of Slovenians used the internet in 2007, or 942,500 people aged between 16 and 75. This puts the country on the average among EU member states. More » EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik called on EU member states on Thursday to bolster their share of R&D spending. Only by becoming a knowledge-based society can Europe maintain its welfare model, Potocnik said at the close of a COSAC meeting at Brdo pri Kranju. More » Innovations in antiviral treatment, car manufacturing, eye examination and robotic surgery were honoured on Tuesday as top inventors received European Inventor of the Year Award for 2008 at the European Patent Forum, which is underway in Ljubljana. More » The Sostanj coal-fired power plant connected its first gas unit to the power grid on Friday, a 42 Megawatt (MW) project that will improve the environmental footprint of Slovenia's largest power plant. Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak and Health Minister Zofija Mazej Kukovic applauded the achievement. More » While peace and prosperity formed the basis on which the success of the EU was measured in its first 50 years, the coming 50 years will be measured by how successfully the EU takes on key global challenges, Prime Minister Janez Jansa told the Conference of European Affairs Committees and European Parliament (COSAC) on Wednesday. More » The leaders of the main EU institutions see the fight against climate change, the Lisbon Treaty and intercultural dialogue as the EU's main achievements over the past year, but they told the WDR Europa Forum on Thursday that these were also areas where the 27-member bloc faces the biggest challenges. More » Prime Minister Janez Jansa and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso visited on Thursday the Ljubljana Technology Park, with Jansa saying that the facility demonstrated Slovenia's desire to become an even more modern and development-oriented country. More » Mayors and other representatives of 18 European capitals, meeting for a two-day conference in Slovenia's capital, adopted on Thursday the Ljubljana Declaration on the relationship between states and their capital cities. They also signed a declaration on the role of capitals in intercultural dialogue. More » The importance of the photo of the incumbent Prime Minister Janez Jansa's arrest for the democratisation of Slovenia was stressed at the opening of an exhibition marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Human Rights Committee, one of the cornerstones of democratisation efforts in the then Socialist Republic of Slovenia. More » The Franja WW II hospital is one of the most noble Slovenian symbols and its destruction last year was a great tragedy, President Danilo Tuerk told STA in Sezana on Thursday, as he attended a fund-raiser for the reconstruction of this monument. More » A new private higher education institution, the Academy for Visual Arts (AVA), is to open in Ljubljana in response to what its founders call a lack of art studies in Slovenia. With classes starting in October, a year at the academy will cost prospective students from EUR 2,000 to EUR 3,000, the founders told the press on Monday. More » Palestinian universities Birzeit and An-Najah signed an agreement during the visit of a Slovenian delegation on the West Bank on Monday to cooperate in the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI) in Slovenia. More » The author of a book on the Roma believes that stigmatisation is the main obstacle to intercultural dialogue. "Speaking up in public as a representative of an ethnic community should be a positive value, it should not put the speaker in danger of being stigmatised," Vera Klopcic told Wednesday's panel on intercultural dialogue. More » As many as 30,000 people took part in a 35-long hike around Ljubljana on Saturday to remember the liberation of the capital 63 years ago. The hike follows the track of the barbed wire which enclosed the city during World War II. More » Slovenian gymnast Mitja Petkovsek won gold on the parallel bars at the the European Gymnastics Championships in Lausanne on Sunday with a 16.025 point performance. He defended his 2007 title from Amsterdam and took third consecutive European gold. Aljaz Pegan meanwhile came third on the high bar with 15.3 points. More » Calendar of Events for 13 - 18 May More »

Slovenia News 6 May 2008

At the Informal Meeting of EU Transport Ministers, held in Brdo pri Kranju on 6 May, the European Commission called for additional spending for priority transport infrastructure projects. The morning session of the meeting was dedicated to the progress in building the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). According to European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, who attended the meeting, additional spending is needed to complete the TEN-T priority projects in time. The Comissioner stressed that the completion of the network was essential for the achievement of EU's ambitious goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Slovenian Transport Minister Radovan Zerjav, who chaired the meeting, stressed that Barrot's department had prepared a thorough report on progress in TEN-T, with the aim of highlighting delays, which the ministers examined at the meeting. According to the minister, the EU had to be aware that a high-quality transport network was needed to promote trade with the rest of the world, including with the rapidly developing Asian economies. Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel received his New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters in Ljubljana on Wednesday, ahead of the plenary meeting between the EU troika and New Zealand later in the day. The ministers discussed the potential for cooperation, particularly in trade and tourism. More » Slovenian and Croatian prime ministers, Janez Jansa and Ivo Sanader, met briefly on Wednesday at the Obrezje border crossing as part of a Labour Day meeting organised by the unions. They stressed the need to build on mutual interests. More » Attending a summit of presidents of Central European countries in Ohrid, Slovenian President Danilo Tuerk held several bilateral meetings on Friday and Saturday. He also met Croatian counterpart Stipe Mesic, with whom he expressed support for the latest joint efforts to solve open issues between the two countries. More » President Danilo Tuerk addressed the 27th Labour Day meeting near Mirna on Thursday, saying in his speech that workers contribute considerably to economic stability and company profits but are not always adequately awarded for doing so. More » Labour, Family and Social Affairs Minister Marjeta Cotman said on Wednesday that demands by workers for a secure, humane and justly rewarded work are still topical in her Labour Day address. More » EU transport ministers heard a strong call from the European Commission for additional spending to be provided for priority transport infrastructure projects at their informal meeting at Brdo pri Kranju on Tuesday. More » Tuesday's signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and Serbia will attract foreign investors to the country and bolster trust of the international public and economic organisations in Serbia, Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said on Wednesday. More » Participating in a meeting of EU officials and religious leaders in Brussels on Monday, Slovenian Prime Minister and President of the EU Council Janez Jansa pointed out that climate change was a fact and that it was high time to act. What Pope John Paul II called an "ecological conversion" is crucial, he told a press conference. More » Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel summed up his talks in Ankara on Tuesday by saying that Slovenia thought full-fledged EU membership was the only alternative for Turkey, while it should obey the same rules as other candidate countries. More » The policy of the EU is completely in tune with the policy of New Zealand and vice versa, Foreign Minister and the current chair of the General Affairs and External Relations Council, Dimitrij Rupel, said in Brdo pri Kranju on Wednesday after a meeting between the EU troika and New Zealand. More » European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said he views Slovenia's plans to introduce a motorway toll sticker as a transitional measure on the way to the speedy implementation of electronic tolling. More » The European Commission has urged Slovenia and Italy to settle on the course and funding of the cross-border railway link between Divaca, Slovenia, and Trieste, Italy, which forms a part of one of the EU's 30 priority transport projects. More » Uros Krek, one of the most important contemporary Slovenian composers, died on Friday in Jesenice, aged 85, the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU) confirmed on Monday. Krek composed virtually all forms of music, also incorporating into his pieces elements of folklore. More » A film by up-and-coming Slovenian director Matevz Luzar has been nominated for a Student Oscar, conferred by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. More » Slovenia will in the summer again be awash with music festivals featuring all types of music from jazz, to pop and metal. A jazz festival in the north western town of Cerkno will open the season in May. More » French culture, from classic film to hiphop, will enliven Slovenia's streets and theatres, as the second French-slovenian Spring Festival gets underway in Ljubljana today. More » Slovenia and 16 other EU countries announced on Tuesday that they would make it easier for Serbian citizens to obtain visas. The initiative, timed to support pro-European parties in Serbia ahead of Sunday's general election, will enable about 80% of Serbs to get visas free of charge. More » Calendar of Events for 6 - 11 May More »

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