The Prime Minister Janez Jansa attended the 2nd EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon, on 9 December. The meeting in Lisbon, which follows the first one in Cairo from 2000, was aimed at putting the relations between the two continents on a more equal footing, surpassing the traditional relations between donors and aid receivers, and establishing strategic partnership. The PM welcomed the progress made in constructing Africa's peace and security infrastructure, pointing to migration as a specific challenge for European-African partnership.
Against the backdrop of the Summit, Jansa met the President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua to discuss, among other things, cooperation during Slovenia's EU presidency. The Nigerian President wished Slovenia great success, while the Slovenian side much appreciated his views on major security challenges in Africa in the coming period. The Slovenian PM stressed the importance of Nigeria's constructive role as a leading regional power, and commended the country's progress and contribution to stability in the region.
This afternoon the Prime Minister, Janez Jansa, concluded his participation at the 2nd EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon, where Heads of State and Government focused on five major topics: governance and human rights, peace and security, migration, energy and climate change, and trade, infrastructures and development. These are issues that interest both Africa and Europe. More »
Defence Minister Karl Erjavec received his Finnish counterpart Jyri Haekaemies in Ljubljana on Wednesday, discussing with him cooperation in defence and Slovenia's EU presidency priorities, which also include the bloc's peace-keeping missions in the world. More »
Slovenia's EU presidency project will be backed up by 23 Slovenian companies which responded to a public call for partnership with the government during the presidency. They are to participate with their products and services, donations and discounts, a contribution estimated at EUR 500,000, Finance Minister Andrej Bajuk told the press on Friday. More »
Today in Ljubljana the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia opened the new production facilities of the Hella Lux Slovenija d.o.o. company, which specialises in manufacturing lighting equipment for the biggest global brands in the car industry More »
Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc and his Bulgarian counterpart Nihat Kabil discussed in Ljubljana on Monday the implementation and development of the EU's Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and stressed that cooperation among the two countries in agriculture needs increase, as trade in farm products amounts to only EUR 2 to 3m per year. More »
The European Commission approved on Monday to the financing of 18 programmes for promotion of EU agricultural products in the third countries. Slovenia received EUR 846,253 for the promotion of poultry, a project initiated by the Association for Meat and Meat Products. More »
The Jozef Stefan Institute (IJS), Slovenia's prime scientific institution, founded a new research centre together with the Croatian Rudjer Boskovic Institute, head of the IJS Jadran Lenarcic said on Tuesday. More »
The EUR 41.3m worth business premises of the Ljubljana Technological Park are to open on Friday evening in what its general manager Iztok Lesjak says is a step towards creating the environment conducive to high-tech companies. More »
The Prime Minister Jansa attended the meeting of Prime Ministers of the Visegrad Group (V4) today, where he was a special guest presenting the priorities of Slovenia's EU Presidency in the first half of 2008. Against the backdrop of the meeting, the PM met his host, the Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topolanek, and the new Czech President, Donald Tusk. More »
EU interior minister gave the final green light on Thursday to the expansion of the Schengen no-border zone to nine countries, including Slovenia, which will create a 24-country area stretching over 3.6m sq. kilometres in which EU citizens will be able to travel without passports. More »
Today, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Jansa, met representatives of the second largest party in the European Parliament, MEPs from the Party of European Socialists (PSE), to exchange views on the challenges facing Europe in the first half of 2008 during Slovenia's Presidency of the EU. More »
EU foreign ministers called on Monday on Croatia to refrain from enforcing its ecological and fisheries zone until a common agreement on the issue is reached. "If Croatia's decisions are not corrected, they could severely aggravate relations between Croatia and the EU," Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel commented on the resolution. More »
Representatives of the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) met Transport Minister Radovan Zerjav in Ljubljana on Friday to discuss road transport, civil aviation, the railways, river and sea transport and dockworkers' issues. ETF officials said they wanted to ensure that the social aspects in transport would not be neglected during Slovenia's EU presidency. More »
The Jenko Award for best poetry collection of the past two years goes to Tomaz Salamun, the most widely translated Slovenian author, for "Sinji stolp" (Blue Tower). The award, given out by the Slovenian Writers' Association, will be presented on Thursday. More »
Estonia's animated film "Kleit" (The Dress), by Jelena Girlin and Mari-Liis Bassovskaja, won the Grand Prize at the conclusion of the 4th Animateka festival of animated film on Sunday evening in Ljubljana. More »
The IEDC Bled School of Management on Friday presented for the first time honorary doctorates to three individuals who contributed greatly to the development of the region, business- and leadership-wise. The doctorates were conferred on changes management expert Ichak Adizes, acclaimed European leader figure Erhard Busek and education expert Aleksandra Kornhauser Frazer. More »
Actual equality needs to be secured in every society, apart from formal equality, President-elect Danilo Tuerk said on Monday ahead of a conference dubbed "Diversity Is Society's Wealth", organised by several NGOs on Human Rights Day. More »
The government has put forward measures in a bid to improve the dire situation in the public health care system, which the trade union of doctors and dentists (Fides) has welcomed. More »
With the day of Slovenia's entry into the Schengen border-free zone only two weeks away, the demolition of checkpoints on the border with Italy has already begun. The works on the Vrtojba/San Andrea border crossing, the biggest in the Gorisko region, kicked off on Thursday. More »