Slovenia News 24 April 2007

Prime Minister Janez Jansa began his two-day official visit to Greece on Monday by meeting his Greek counterpart Kostas Karamanlis. While the two PMs praised excellent bilateral relations and urged action to expand economic ties between the two nations, the foreign and economic ministers of both sides signed several memorandums on cooperation. Jansa also addressed a Greek-Slovenian business conference. Although admitting that trade was currently modest, Jansa and Karamanlis said that trends were positive. "Politics is here to create the conditions, while business executives must do business," Jansa said following a meeting with his opposite number at the outset of his two-day official visit to Athens. Slovenia and Peru will do everything in their power to make the EU-Latin America/Caribbean (LAC) summit to be held in Lima during Slovenia's EU presidency next year a success. The two countries made this commitment as Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel held talks in Lima on Tuesday as part of his Latin America tour. More » Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel highlighted the importance of the joint fight against climate change as he addressed an EU-Rio Group ministerial in the Dominican Republic on Friday. This remains a priority for Slovenia as well as the EU in the coming years, he said. More » Prime Minister Janez Jansa began his two-day official visit to Greece on Monday by meeting his Greek counterpart Kostas Karamanlis. While the two PMs praised excellent bilateral relations and urged action to expand economic ties between the two nations, the foreign and economic ministers of both sides signed several memorandums on cooperation. Jansa also addressed a Greek-Slovenian business conference. More » Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa and Moldovan counterpart Vasile Tarlev on Wednesday called for stronger business ties between the two countries in an effort to boost the currently modest volume of trade. More » Dozens of Slovenian owners of illegally build holiday homes in Istria, Croatia, are being urged to file a class-action lawsuit against Croatia due to perceived irregularities in the demolition proceedings. More » A Slovenian citizen has been given the green light by the Croatian Justice Ministry to purchase a property in Croatia in a move that puts an end to the recent dispute over real estate reciprocity for Slovenia. More » Members of the parliamentary Defence Committee visited on Tuesday Slovenian soldiers taking part in the peace-keeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. According to the committee's chair, Anton Anderlic, the visiting MPs got positive reviews of the job performed by Slovenian troops. More » The Regional Development Agency in Maribor presented on Thursday Intra, a project which aims to boost competitiveness of small and mid-sized companies from border regions and help them enter foreign markets. More » Home appliance group Gorenje acquired last week building permits for the construction of a new factory in Sostanj, 60 km NE of Ljubljana, which will produce, among other things, parts for eight-wheeled armoured personnel carriers built by Finnish defence contractor Patria. More » Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk has said that Slovenia is on track to meeting the budget objectives as agreed by the ministers of the 13 eurozone members in Berlin on Friday. More » Home appliance group Gorenje announced on Friday that it would relocate its facilities for the production of kitchens from the Austrian town of Freistadt to Maribor, where the company already has a modern technological and logistical centre for kitchen production. More » The government is looking for a strategic partner for the refinery Nafta Lendava. In line with government plans, the refinery is meant to be sold by the end of the year, however, the Economy Ministry said it would give priority to finding a suitable investor rather than selling in time. More » Slovenia's registered unemployment rate was 8.4% in February 2007, 0.3 percentage points down over January, the national Statistics Office said on Tuesday. More » Slovenian households spent 0.4% of their outgoings (almost EUR 62) on books in 2004, 0.1 percentage point more than in 1995, the National Statistics Office has said ahead of the Word Book Day, celebrated on Monday. More » EU agriculture ministers debated in Brussels on Wednesday measures to combat illegal fishing, with Slovenia's Iztok Jarc also holding a short meeting with EU Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Commissioner Joe Borg on the issue. More » Stem cells obtained from umbilical cord blood may help cure an adult later in life when facing a serious illness. Parents that would like to give their newborns a potential safety net health-wise are now able to do so also in Slovenia, according to a report. More » Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Jure Zupan and non-resident Egyptian Ambassador to Slovenia Hisham El-Zimaity on Monday signed a protocol on cooperation in science and technology. More » European Affairs State Secretary Janez Lenarcic believes that the constitutional treaty, signed by the then EU members in 2004 in Rome, presents a "good compromise for improving the functioning of the EU" and should be "taken into consideration in drafting a new deal". More » EU's enlargement to the Western Balkans should be the bloc's priority, as peace and stability in the region cannot be secured without its European prospects, French international relations expert Jacques Rupnik told a meeting in Ljubljana. However, this enlargement will require a new approach, Rupnik said at Tuesday's panel. More » Slovenia more than doubled the number of cases it sent in 2006 to Eurojust compared to 2005. While the country asked for help in solving 15 cases of serious cross-border and organised crime in 2005, the number rose to 36 last year, Slovenian Eurojust representative Malci Gabrijelcic said. More » Slovenian citizens believe that the EU's role in environmental and energy policy should be to supply EU citizens with unbiased information and to introduce measures that encourage economical energy use and the production of clean energy, according to the results of an EU-wide project presented in Ljubljana on Friday. More » Slovenia has brought its dispute with Croatia over funds for the decommissioning of the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant (NEK) to the attention of the European Commission, which however has not sided with either country. "Croatia has joint responsibility with Slovenia for the decommissioning and waste management liabilities relating to the NEK," a Commission spokesperson stressed. More » Slovenia is among five former communist countries call for the extension of a new EU racism and hate law to include totalitarian regimes. More » The Slovenian Armed Forces, the NATO Air Space Control Centre and Italian and Hungarian air forces on Thursday successfully completed a military exercise aimed at testing the functioning of airspace control in Slovenia, head of the National Air Defence Centre Blaz Pavlin told the press. More » Budget airline Ryanair has sold more than 3,000 tickets for scheduled flights between Maribor and London's Stansted airport even before these will be launched on 7 June, airline officials told the press on Thursday. More » A theatre-musical extravaganza, "The Bacchae", starring a Slovenian pop icon, is to tour the stages of Turkey in the following week, according to the Nova Gorica-based SNG theatre, which produced the play in cooperation with the Trieste-based Slovenian theatre. More » Slovenian artist Saso Sedlacek opened on Wednesday his "Recycling Strategies" at the European Commission building in Brussels. "We do not get rid of waste just by throwing it away," EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik described the relevance of the exhibition which highlights potential uses of waste. More » The 12th Slovenian Book Days in Ljubljana kicked off at the Zvezda Park on Monday, World Book Day. Speaking at the opening, Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti said that books were the anchor of culture and a source of answers to essential questions. More » An international commission assessing candidates for the European Capital of Culture 2012 has recommended that Slovenia's second-largest city Maribor receive the title. The commission's opinion is not binding and the final decision will be made by the government, Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti told the press on Monday. More » Swiss catering company Marche has baked a 400-metre-long strawberry cake in an attempt to make it to the Guinness Book of Records. The cake was sliced into 5,000 pieces and sold at 1 euro a piece in Ljubljana's Zvezda Park on Saturday. More » The participants of a panel on the impact of climate change on tourism agreed on Thursday that certain consequences of climate change could not be avoided and all sectors, including tourism, had to adapt accordingly. More » Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said on Friday that Slovenia supported the joint entry of all candidates to the Schengen no-border zone, however the countries needed to meet the criteria first. Mate, presenting the schedule for Schengen entry at the sidelines of a ministerial in Luxembourg, added that events were unravelling according to plan. More » Schedule of Events from 24 to 29 April More »

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