Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon visited Albania on Monday expressing Slovenia's support for the country's EU integration and the hope that Albania will join the EU as soon as possible. Her talks with counterpart Igli Hasani and other senior officials focussed on EU enlargement and ways of strengthening bilateral relations and cooperation.

Slovenia's candidate for European commissioner Tomaž Vesel has confirmed in a statement to the STA that he will meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for talks in Brussels on Wednesday. However, the initial talks are not expected to reveal which portfolio may be given to Slovenia.

Slovenia is employing ever more foreign workers to mitigate staff shortages. While the majority still come from countries of the former Yugoslavia, the numbers of workers from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Philippines is growing. Streamlining hiring remains a major challenge.

Warnings of a worsening workforce shortage in Slovenia's education system are being raised again as the new school year approaches. The Education Ministry has acknowledged the ongoing departures of teachers and an upcoming wave of retirements, but it believes that some of the measures taken are already showing positive results.

Slovenia's best table tennis player Darko Jorgić has won the World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender Lima 2024 with a USD 80,000 prize pool after he defeated Germany's Patrick Franziska in the finals with 4:0 (5,9,3,7). This is the first WTT tournament win for the 26-year-old.