A week full of events saw Slovenia receive the invitation to join the OECD, a World Bank conference at Bled and allegations aimed misuse of intelligence agency's funds. The coalition parties and two opposition groups signed an agreement on cooperation in the run-up to and during Slovenia's presidency over the EU. Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer visited Slovenia and presidential candidate Alojz Peterle received support from the senior coalition Slovenian Democrats (SDS).
Portugal could greatly assist Slovenia with its experiences and Slovenia could also aid Portugal in tackling important challenges, Slovenian and Portuguese foreign ministers, Dimitrij Rupel and Luis Amado, agreed as they discussed the upcoming EU presidency stints of the two countries. More »
Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel met on Thursday his Costa Rican counterpart Bruno Stagno Ugarte. The pair, meeting at the sidelines of the 9th ministerial of the Human Security Network, discussed bilateral relations and the EU-Latin America summit in May next year. More »
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted on Thursday in favour of Slovenia's bid for a seat on the UN Human Security Council. Slovenia got 167 votes of the necessary 97 in its second attempt to secure a seat on the body. More »
Prime Minister Janez Jansa and visiting Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer expressed optimism on Friday about a solution for Slovenian-German city limits in the Austrian province of Carinthia. It is too early as yet to talk about a result, but one "cannot exclude the possibility" that an agreement will be reached by the summer, Gusenbauer told reporters. More »
Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel reacted on Monday to the recently-published map of Croatian shellfish farms that places the maritime border between the two countries in the middle of the Bay of Piran, saying that this is another in the line of Croatian provocations regarding the border between the two countries. More »
Environment and Spatial Planning Minister Janez Podobnik and his Czech counterpart Martin Bursik agreed on close ties between experts, especially as part of the preparations for the two countries' EU presidencies, as they met in Prague on Monday. More »
The Slovenian-Austrian commission for cooperation in culture, education and science adopted on Wednesday in Ljubljana the second programme for cooperation between the two governments for the 2008-2012 period. More »
The cabinet adopted on Thursday a draft national higher education resolution for the 2007-2010 period. The aim of the document is to create a single higher education and research area and increase the funds for higher education studies and research to 5% of GDP. More »
Prime Minister Janez Jansa believes that the Slovenian Armed Forces have managed to keep honour as one of their most important foundations. Jansa, speaking in Ljubljana on Tuesday at the ceremony marking Slovenian Armed Forces Day, added that the army has faced tough work since Slovenia's independence. More »
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) invited on Wednesday Slovenia - along with four other nations - to join the organisation, fulfilling the country's decade-long foreign policy goal. More »
Trade between India and Slovenia totalled only EUR 85m last year. According to Tarun Das, chief adviser to the Confederation of Indian Industry, an increase in trade is a precondition for more Indian foreign investment in Slovenia. More »
The increasing clout of the private sector in development topped the agenda as a World Bank conference on development economics got under way at Bled on Thursday. Three or four decades ago the World Bank did not pay much attention to the private sector, now everyone is betting on it, Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk said in his keynote address. More »
Slovenia earmarked EUR 7.8m for foreign direct investment (FDI) incentives in 2007 and 2008, Jan Stanovnik of the Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments told the press in Ljubljana on Friday. More »
Energy group Petrol topped the list of biggest Slovenian companies in terms of revenues in 2006, while pharmaceuticals company Lek, part of the Novartis group, topped the list in terms of profit, shows a survey of the 300 biggest Slovenian companies published by daily Delo. More »
The number of university degrees obtained rose by 8.6% to 17,145 in 2006, data from the Statistics Office shows. The biggest rise over 2005 was seen in the number of post-graduate degrees, which increase 25% to 1,899. More »
The presidents of the four coalition parties (Slovenian Democrats (SDS), New Slovenia (NSi), People's Party (SLS) and Pensioners' Party (DeSUS)) and the opposition Social Democrats (SD) alongside the group of unaffiliated MPs signed an agreement on cooperation in the run-up to and during Slovenia's EU presidency in the first half of 2008. More »
The state is intent on encouraging young people to make innovations because that is what it pays most, an official said on Tuesday at an event aimed at promoting innovation. More »
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) sees climate change as an opportunity for Slovenian companies which develop new technologies, which is why it staged a conference in Ljubljana on Wednesday to push for changes that would encourage the corporate sector to go green. More »
The EU presiding trio, among them Slovenia, on Tuesday signed a declaration calling for gender equality in the EU. The document encourages all 27 member states to do away with sex-based stereotypes in all areas. More »
"Opa, Evropa", a book aimed at promoting the EU among the young, was presented in Ljubljana on Wednesday. European Affairs State Secretary Janez Lenarcic said that the book - a translation of the Austrian book "The EU for you!" - presented the EU in a comprehensible way without the European lingo. More »
President Janez Drnovsek, the commander-in-chief of Slovenian Armed Forces, visited on Tuesday Slovenian soldiers serving in the KFOR mission in Kosovo. The mission in Kosovo is proof that the Slovenian army is becoming increasingly professional and well trained, Drnovsek said in his speech. More »
Slovenian flag carrier Adria Airways has announced it is resuming regular flights from Ljubljana to Birmingham, Manchester and Dublin. The company plans to carry 16,000 passengers on the three lines over the summer. More »
High-school graduates from Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Croatia broke on Friday noon a new Guinness world record in mass quadrille dancing, as the total of 42,060 graduates in 45 cities danced to the tune of Strauss' quadrille from the opera "Bat". More »
The 60th anniversary of legendary Italian carmaker Ferrari prompted the sports car manufacturer to put together a caravan of its vehicles to transverse the globe. A part of the caravan, twelve Ferraris in all, stopped in Ljubljana on Saturday to a welcome by Italian Ambassador to Slovenia Daniele Verga and Mayor Zoran Jankovic. More »
A Slovenian maker of motorcycle exhausts has reportedly struck a deal with sports car maker Porsche. Daily Dnevnik has reported that the expansion into the car exhaust segment is the next step in the development of Akrapovic. More »
Around 250 people gathered in Tivoli park in Ljubljana on Sunday to meditate as part of a global initiative. The organiser of the event in Slovenia, Nina Thalan, said the goal of the meeting was "to bring the spiritual world closer to the people". More »
Slovenia's Ambassador to the United States Samuel Zbogar successfully completed his first full marathon in Cleveland on Sunday after having run half-marathons in Texas, Tennessee and Washington DC in a bid to raise money for the Slovenian-run International Trust Fund for Demining (ITF). More »
Slovenia was marking on Saturday Lipizzaner Day, dedicated to honouring the famous white horses that are bred at the Lipica Stud Farm in the southwest of the country. As part of celebrations, the Lipica Stud Farm is to bring several of its horses to Ljubljana, where a number of events are to be held, including free coach rides, said Kobilarna Lipica, the institution running the stud farm. More »
Slovenia is to host this week in Bled a three-day meeting of the Regional Commission of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) for Europe, with the discussion focusing on innovation and adjustment to changes in tourism, head of the Tourism Directorate at the Economy Ministry, Marjan Hribar, told the press on Monday. More »
The government will make an effort to facilitate crossing the border with Croatia for the local population, alongside their main tasks, protecting the Schengen border in line with EU standards, Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said on Wednesday at a panel hosted in the border town of Podcetrtek. More »