New regime in place on Slovenian borders

Under the government decree adopted late on Thursday, there will be 19 checkpoints on the border with Austria, nine on the border with Italy and five on the border with Hungary.

The listed checkpoints largely correspond to checkpoints where passengers may cross at present.

Some crossings are open only to locals or daily cross-border commuters and special exemptions are in place for owners of land on both sides of the border.

Three airports and two ports are among the ports of entry listed in the government decree.

The decree also covers Slovenia's border with the EU, which is the external EU border, but there it does not limit crossing to specific checkpoints.

Under the new rules, those with permanent or temporary residence in the EU will be given instructions issued by the National Institute of Public Health upon entering Slovenia but will not need to quarantine, which they have to do for seven days at present.

When such a person declares they have coronavirus or symptoms thereof, or clearly show symptoms, they will be rejected at the border if they do not have permanent residence in Slovenia; those who do will be referred to medical services.

Third-country nationals must undergo a mandatory two-week quarantine, with exceptions for diplomats, members of rescue and relief services, attendance of funeral, lorry drivers and persons with certificates issued by the competent Slovenian ministry showing they will provide urgent services.

Notably, if it is believed a person entering the country may not be able to leave because of the measures of neighbouring countries, they will be denied entry.

The new policy will initially benefit mostly owners of property in Croatia, thousands of whom have been keen to visit their holiday homes but many reluctant to do so due to the mandatory seven-day quarantine upon return.

But even more importantly, it paves the way for a relaunch of cross-border tourism, which has been suspended for two months due to lockdown measures around the world.

It will also be a relief for businesses, which have been calling on the government to relax rules for business travel as cross-border commerce kicks into higher gear.

The decree was adopted last night, after the government formally declared the epidemic over while keeping in place all measures adopted to combat the disease.

Slovenia has had low single-digit daily case increases since the end of April and the epidemic is seen as being under control.

The country has so far confirmed 1,464 Covid-19 cases and 103 people have died.