Slovenia News 24 July 2007

The Parliament Speaker France Cukjati signed the election writs on 20 July, thus making official the date of 21 october as the Presidential Election day. A total of nine candidates have so far announced they would stand to replace incumbent President Janez Drnovsek, who has said he would not run for a second five-year term. All of the candidacies are unofficial at the moment, with presidential hopefuls given until 26 September to file their candidacies with the National Electoral Commission. Among other news we write about the visits of Albanian FM and Serbian Parliament Speaker, who stressed the importance of Slovenia in making tangible the European future of Western Balkan countries during its spell at the helm of the EU. Parliament Speaker France Cukjati has called the presidential election for 21 October. Cukjati told the press on Friday that election procedures would begin on 20 August. More » Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel met his Albanian counterpart Lulzim Basha on Tuesday, the meeting showing that both countries support UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposal for the future of Kosovo and have reservations about putting off a solution. More » Serbian Parliament Speaker Oliver Dulic payed a working visit to Slovenia for meetings with his counterpart France Cukjati, Prime Minister Janez Jansa, deputy groups leaders and parliamentary EU Affairs Committee chair Anton Kokalj. More » Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Martin Riman and Slovenian Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak met on Tuesday to discuss EU issues, Slovenian preparations for its stint at the helm of the EU in 2008 and economic cooperation. More » Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimtrij Rupel and his Cypriot counterpart Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis signed in Brussels on Monday a memorandum on cooperation between the two countries. More » The government set limits on budget expenditures for 2008 and 2009 on Thursday, capping spending at EUR 8.572bn for next year and EUR 8.835bn in 2009. These are the frameworks within which budget users must now make their plans, Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk told the press. More » Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti presented on Monday bills on cultural heritage protection and on founding the Public Book Agency, adopted by the government on Thursday. More » Social partners - government, employers and trade unions - managed on Thursday to agree in principle on the new social agreement. "We can say that the social agreement has been agreed upon," said the head of the government's negotiating group Dusan Krajnik. More » The Hungarian energy company MOL wants to enter Slovenia by purchasing a stake in energy group Petrol. The idea was put forward by MOL chairman Gyorgy Mosonyi at a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday. Petrol meanwhile said it had not yet received an official notice from Mol about a possible tie-up or takeover. More » Port operator Luka Koper said on Friday its half-yearly net profit shot up 55% compared to last year to EUR 14.9m. The company generated revenues of EUR 56m in the first six months of the year, a 13% rise over the same period last year. More » The biggest Slovenian cinema operator Kolosej has decided to shut down its multiplex cinema in Celje by the end of the month and focus instead on investing in foreign markets, primarily in Serbia and Romania. More » Gender pay gap in Slovenia is approximately a half of the EU's average. While women in Slovenia earn about 8% less than men, women in the EU earn on average 15% less than their male colleagues, a report by the European Commission says. More » Slovenians are very happy with their lives and exceedingly optimistic about the future, according to the spring Eurobarometer report for Slovenia. They are also pleased with membership of the EU and very optimistic about the future of the bloc. More » Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc opened on Monday in Koper the Fisheries Monitoring Centre, which is part of a EU directive that envisages the setting up of a Vessel Monitoring System and the centre. More » French Minister of State responsible for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet said in Ljubljana on Thursday that France was standing by Slovenia and wanted the country's presidency over the EU to be another successful chapter in Slovenia's EU history. More » Slovenia wants the process of drafting the new reform EU treaty to be carried out as soon as possible as reaching agreement on the document will greatly facilitate the country's approaching spell at the helm of the EU, Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said in Brussels on Monday. More » Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel was adamant on Monday that Slovenia would insist on EU member states being exempt from the provisions of the Croatian ecological and fisheries zone. More » Slovenia supports Macedonia in its EU accession efforts but cannot guarantee that it would be given a date for launching accession talks with the EU during Slovenia's stint at the helm of the bloc, Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said on Monday. Macedonia's fate is in its own hands, he stressed. More » Slovenian Transport Minister Janez Bozic and his Italian counterpart Antonio di Pietro signed on Tuesday in Rome a memorandum of understanding on the construction of a railway section between the Italian port city of Trieste and the nearby Slovenian transport hub of Divaca. More » Education State Secretary Dusan Lesjak, the head of the project group for a Euro-Mediterranean University, and MP Aurelio Juri, a member of the parliamentary delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, argue in favour of a Euro-Mediterranean University based in Slovenia. More » The government adopted at Thursday's session the report of a task force for setting up a Centre for Slovenian Studies in Cleveland, US. The centre is to deal with interdisciplinary studies, preservation and promotion of Slovenian culture, language and research in the United States. More » The 12th annual Music Summer in Bohinj, a festival of classical music, will get underway on Thursday with a concert by the world renowned Salzburg Chamber Soloists orchestra. The festival, taking place in church of St. Martin in Srednja vas near Bohinj, will run until 23 August with performances scheduled every Thursday. More » Slovenia's top shooter Rajmond Debevec won the gold medal in the 50 m standard rifle three-position event at the European Sport Shooting Championship in Spain's Granada on Thursday. More » Slovenia is the first among the nine candidates for entering the Schengen passport-free zone to have established a full link to the central Schengen Information System (SIS), Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said on Friday in Bratislava. More » A Joint Visa Centre will open in autumn at the Slovenian embassy in Podgorica, allowing Montenegrins to apply for visas for EU members, the Slovenian Foreign Ministry told on Monday. More » Schedule of Events for 24 - 29 July More »

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