Slovenia News 23 October 2007

Slovene electors voted on Sunday for one of the seven candidates bidding to succeed the incumbent Janez Drnovsek, whose five-year term ends this year. This first round didn't actually give Slovenia a new president, since no canditates could reach the 50% needed for an outright win. Veteran Slovenian politician Lojze Peterle, who got 28.54%, looks a sure run-off contender since it is as yet unclear who will be his rival due to an extremely close finish by former senior UN diplomat Danilo Tuerk and ex-central bank governor Mitja Gaspari. The latest unofficial results give Tuerk 24.52%, ahead of 24.15% for Gaspari for second place, even if some thousands of ballots from abroad still need to be counted in the coming days, and the gap between Tuerk and Gaspari is less than 4,000 votes. The final official results are not expected to be released until after 29 October at noon, the deadline for votes that come in by mail from abroad. The first round of the presidential poll in Slovenia has raised more new questions than it answered, with a near three-way tie at the top auguring a politically-charged three weeks in Slovenia ahead of the run-off. Veteran Slovenian politician Lojze Peterle was the victor with 28.54%, well short of the 50% needed for an outright win and below what the polls had forecast for him, as two left-leaning candidates fought it out for second place. More » The governments of Slovenia and Hungary held their first working meeting together on Wednesday in what the two prime ministers labelled as a confirmation of good bilateral relations and a boost for future cooperation between the two nations. Both Janez Jansa and Ferenc Gyurcsany also expressed confidence about the future of the two minorities living along the border. More » International issues, in particular the Western Balkans and environmental issues, topped the agenda of talks on Tuesday between Prime Minister Janez Jansa and his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg. "Norway is a country of best practices for Slovenia," in particular as regards the environment, Jansa told the press after the meeting. More » Parliament Speaker France Cukjati received on Wednesday President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Rene van der Linden, who presented the future priorities of the assembly, in particular the promotion human rights, rule of law and democracy. More » European social parters convened a tripartite social summit in Lisbon on Thursday to carry out the first joint analysis of key challenges of the European labour markets. Partners agreed on principles of flexicurity which will also include the "specific features of EU countries", Minister of Labour, the Family and Social Affairs Marjeta Cotman told the press. More » Chief-of-Staff of the Macedonian Armed Forces, Lt-Gen Albin Gutman, met on Wednesday his Macedonian counterpart, Lt-Gen Miroslav Stojanovski for talks on military cooperation. More » Italian Defence Minister Arturo Mario Luigi Parisi pledged Italy's full support for when Slovenia holds the EU's presidency in the first half of 2008 as met his counterpart Karl Erjavec in Ljubljana on Friday. More » Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk has assessed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has underestimated Slovenia's economic growth in its projections. Slovenia's growth will top 5.4% this year and will definitely also exceed the IMF's projections for next year, Bajuk said on the margins of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington. More » Home appliance maker Gorenje opened a new storage and assembly facility in its kitchen furniture manufacturing centre in Maribor on Thursday. The new plant stretches over 4,000 square metres and is worth EUR 2m. More » Prime Minister Janez Jansa announced on Friday that Slovenia's EU presidency in the first half of 2008 would focus on the ratification process for the new EU treaty, which was agreed by EU leaders early on Friday morning. More » Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel presented preparations for an EU - Latin America and the Caribbean summit to the participants of a conference on relations between Italy and Latin America, which opened in Rome on Tuesday. More » The Government Office for Communication has established an e-mail account for journalists who need information about Slovenia's upcoming EU presidency. More » The damage to the Franja WWII partisan hospital caused by the 18 September torrential waters has been estimated at EUR 3.47m, STA has learned from its sources. The Culture Ministry, which is tasked with the reconstruction of the hospital, confirmed the figure later on Tuesday and said the plan for the reconstruction should be ready by spring 2008. More » An exhibition that offers an insight into stages of Macrolab (1997-2007), a ten-year project in which Slovenian artist Marko Peljhan explores the possibilities of new technologies, is to open at the European Commission's headquarters in Brussels later on Wednesday. More » The Charles Nodier French Institute in Ljubljana, the oldest foreign institution of its kind in Slovenia, has marked 40 years of its presence in Slovenia. More » Slovenian author Drago Jancar, who received the Jean Amery 2007 book prize for his German-language collection of essays "Brioni" at the Frankfurt Book Fair last week, said on Thursday he was happy and proud to have received a prize bearing Amery's name. More » The International Committee for Fair Play will award Slovenian swimmer Emil Tahirovic and his coach Roni Pikec with the "Act of Fair Play" award at the international level at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 7 December. More » Prime Minister Janez Jansa announced on Friday that Slovenia's EU presidency in the first half of 2008 would focus on the ratification process for the new EU treaty, which was agreed by EU leaders early on Friday morning. More » Schedule of Events for 23 - 28 October More »

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