Slovenia News 31 July 2007

Prime Minister Jansa said on a press conference on Monday that the cabinet had been extremely active in meeting the goals of Slovenia's development strategy, even surpassing them in the first half of 2007. The Slovenian economy managed to grow 4 percentage points faster than the EU and the countries of the eurozone in the first half of the year. The unemployment rate meanwhile dropped by 20% in comparison with the same period last year, Jansa said. Among the other news, we also write about the open issues between Croatia and Slovenia. PM Jansa is optimistic about the initiative on solving all these open issues that Slovenia put forward recently, and he expects Croatia to answer soon. Representatives of three parliamentary parties have met Jan Jones, senior vice president of US gaming company Harrah's Entertainment, exchanging views on a mega gaming centre that Harrah's is planning to build in the border city of Nova Gorica in partnership with the local gaming company Hit. More » Slovenia hopes to use its 2008 spell as EU president to break the impasse over the UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo, by trying to persuade Serbia to give Kosovo independence in exchange for a chance to join the EU, Financial Times says on Tuesday. More » Slovenia and Serbia still have great potential for cooperation in agriculture and the food industry, Slovenian Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc and his visiting Serbian colleague Slobodan Milosavljevic agreed in Ljubljana on Tuesday. More » Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak and the head of the Ukrainian Kharkiv Regional State Administration Arsen Avakov who is visiting Slovenia, signed on Wednesday a memorandum on economic cooperation between Slovenia and the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, Vizjak said at a press conference. More » The initiative on solving open issues with Croatia that Slovenia put forward recently is an internal document and more about it will be disclosed after Croatia responds to it, Prime Minister Janez Jansa told the press on Monday. He said he expected Croatia to answer soon. More » Slovenia has established diplomatic relations with the African Republic of Burundi. The documents to that effect were exchanged in New York on Friday between Slovenian Ambassador to the UN Sanja Stiglic and her Burundi counterpart Joseph Ntakirutimana. More » Prime Minister Janez Jansa said on Monday the cabinet had been extremely active in meeting the goals of Slovenia's development strategy and had been able to surpass them in the first half of the year. More » Health Minister Andrej Brucan has quoted data which refute allegations of haphazard privatisation of the national health care system. "During my term, when I'm being reproached for privatising health care, private enterprise in the health sector has gone up from 25% to 29%," Brucan told Saturday. More » Development Minister Ziga Turk received Aart Jan de Geus, deputy secretary general of the OECD, on Tuesday, discussing with him Slovenia's OECD accession process, the effects of OECD membership on Slovenia and key factors for the success of social reform, the Government Growth Office said in a press release. More » Slovenian energy company Petrol and Montenegrin oil company Montenegro Bonus signed on Tuesday a contract on a 50:50 joint venture, Petrol Bonus. More » Slovenia's biggest mobile operators Mobitel and Simobil announced on Friday new roaming euro tariffs required by EU regulation that cuts charges for cross-border calls in the EU. Both operators set their rates at the topmost limits of 58.8 cents per minute for outgoing and 28.8 cents per minute for incoming calls. More » Abanka Vipa generated EUR 19.23m in net profit in the first half of the year, up 32.1% over the same period last year and 33.1% above the target figure, the third largest Slovenian bank said in a press release on Friday. More » While consumer prices stayed put in July over June, inflation on the annual level rose to 3.8%, the Statistics Office said in a press release on Tuesday. More » The European Commission adopted on Tuesday the Slovenian Rural Development Programme for 2007-2013, the Agriculture, Forestry and Food Ministry said. Slovenia is to get almost EUR 1.16bn in the period, of which almost EUR 900m will come from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. More » Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel has said that Monday's launch of the intergovernmental conference on the new EU reform treaty was important for Macedonia. The launch of the conference means that Macedonia, an accession candidate, can now be more relaxed regarding its future, Rupel said in Brussels on Tuesday. More » The London-based Financial Times writes on Tuesday about Slovenia's approaching spell as EU president, saying that assuming the rotating EU presidency in the first half of 2008 is a sign and a test of Slovenia's growing maturity. More » Defence Minister Karl Erjavec said on Friday that Macedonia met all the criteria for NATO membership. Macedonia will be invited to join the bloc at next year's NATO summit in Bucharest, Erjavec said after meeting his Macedonian host and counterpart Lazar Elenovski in Skopje. More » Some 300 speakers of Esperanto are expected in Maribor for the 7th Congress of the European Esperanto Union (EEU), which will take place between 28 July and 4 August, EEU secretary general Zlatko Tisljar told the press on Monday. More » Human Rights Ombudsman Zdenka Cebasek Travnik presented to the press on Tuesday the 2006 Ombudsman's Report, highlighting violations of children's rights and the need to introduce a special spokesman to safeguard the rights of children, the elderly and the disabled. More » Preschool care for second and all other subsequent children is to be free of charge from September 2008, Mojca Skrinjar, the director general of the Directorate for Pre-School and Primary Education at the Education Ministry told a press conference on Thursday. More » Slovenian gymnast Aljaz Pegan has made a successful comeback to international competitions, sharing top place in the horizontal bar in the World Cup meet in Shanghai on Sunday. More » Slovenian track and field star Jolanda Ceplak denied for STA on Thursday the use of banned substances, announcing she would fight to prove her innocence. Testing positive for the blood booster erythropoietine (EPO), Ceplak has already been temporarily suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). More » Slovenia attracted 269,254 visitors in June, which is up 8% year-on-year, and 1,148,906 since the beginning of the year. The majority were foreign visitors, their numbers increasing by 10% over the first half of 2006, the freshest figures from the Statistics Office show. More » Health Minister Andrej Brucan and general manager of the Ljubljana university hospital Darinka Miklavcic laid a foundation stone for a new, state-of-the art emergency ward in Ljubljana on Tuesday, symbolically launching a project estimated at EUR 95.2m. More » Schedule of Events for 31 July - 5 August More »

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