News roundup - Sunday, 1 January

Pirc Musar, Plenković and von der Leyen celebrate Schengen expansion

OBREŽJE - Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met in Obrežje to celebrate Croatia's entry into the Schengen zone and its introduction of the Euro. They agreed that today was a historic day, with Plenković and Pirc Musar underlining the importance of EU enlargement onto the Western Balkans. Pirc Musar, accompanied by Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon, also held a bilateral meeting with von der Leyen, which focused on topical EU issues and the Western Balkans.

Open air New Year's celebrations draw tens of thousands of people

LJUBLJANA - Tens of thousands of people ushered in the New Year at open air celebrations in cities all across the country. The biggest celebration was held in Ljubljana, with concerts in four venues. Unseasonably warm weather drew not only locals, but also many tourists. In Maribor, the main venue at Leon Štukelj Square drew some 10,000 people, while many counted down the final seconds of 2022 at the top of the Pohorje ski slopes.

Pinkelnig wins Ljubno ski jumping competition

LJUBNO - Austrian Eva Pinkelnig won the Women's Ski Jumping competition in Ljubno ob Savinji, also claiming the overall victory of the Silvester Tournament. Anna Odine Stroem of Norway was second and German Selina Freitag was third. Nika Križnar was best Slovenian in fifth place, while Ema Bogataj suffered a fall and was taken to hospital.

Ski jumper Lanišek second in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany - Ski jumper Anže Lanišek won second place at one of the key event of the season, the Garmisch-Partenkirchen competition of the Four Hills Tournament. Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud won first place and Polish Dawid Kubacki was third. Granerud was also the winner of the first Four Hills competition in Oberstdorf. Today, he beat Lanišek by 6.4 points.

New Year's Day morning warmest on record

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia celebrated the warmest New Year's Day on record, as temperatures climbed over 15 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country on Sunday morning. "This is definitely the warmest New Year's since the beginning of record keeping," Blaž Šter, a meteorologist of the Environmental Agency told the STA. At 7 am, 15.2 degrees Celsius were measured in Dobliče pri Črnomlju, while Ptuj and Kočevje saw the quicksilver climb to 13.8 degrees. There are some unseasonably warm New Year's on record, but temperatures never exceeded 10 degrees Celsius before, said Šter.

Changed income tax act takes effect

LJUBLJANA - Changes to the income tax act that reverse part of the reform adopted under the previous government took effect. They scrap a progressive increase in the general tax relief and bring the rate for top earners back to 50% from 45%. Also, tax on rent income is increasing and benefits are being introduced for young people. Under the reform passed in March 2022, the general tax relief was raised from EUR 3,500 to EUR 4,500. However, instead of going up by an additional EUR 1,000 in each of the coming three years to reach EUR 7,500 by 2025, it will now rise by EUR 500 in 2023 only to EUR 5,000.

Farmers paying lower fuel price on purchase

LJUBLJANA - Farmers are exempt from the excise duty on diesel for agricultural and forestry machinery as of today. They have so far paid the full price and reclaimed the tax the following year, but now they are exempt from the excise duty on especially designated diesel on purchase. This has been made possible with the changes to the excise duty act that parliament passed in October as part of the government measures to mitigate the energy crisis.