Weekly review of events involving Slovenia, 10-16 March

FRIDAY, 10 March
        LJUBLJANA - Infrastructure Minister Alenka Bratušek announced that a call for applications to support airlines flying to Slovenia under a EUR 16.8 million state aid scheme would be published this month. The priority list includes ten destinations: Vienna, Brussels, Copenhagen, Athens, Madrid, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Prague, Berlin and Skopje, but will be expanded if any funds are left. The scheme will be in place for three years.
        LJUBLJANA - A group of legal experts commissioned by the Slovenian central bank to find an optimal legal recourse solution for share and bond holders whose investments were wiped out in the 2013 bank bailout proposed that the state establish a special fund which these investors could take to court to claim damages. The group made the proposal in the form of a bill leaving it to the Finance Ministry to decide whether to use it in drafting a bill of its own.
        LJUBLJANA - Neurosurgeon Marko Bošnjak resigned as head of neurology at the UKC Ljubljana hospital after he charged a personal fee of EUR 6,000 to a patient from North Macedonia on whom he then operated at UKC Ljubljana in January, while her family also paid the regular EUR 34,000 fee to the hospital. Bošnjak remains a surgeon at the hospital.

SATURDAY, 11 March
        KRANJSKA GORA - Swiss skier Marco Odermatt won both men's World Cup giant slalom races at Kranjska Gora, one of Slovenia' main winter season destinations, to secure the big Crystal Globe for the second time in a row. Slovenia's Žan Kranjec placed 5th and 4th, respectively.

SUNDAY, 12 March
        NICE, France - Slovenian cycling star Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won the Paris-Nice race. The two-times Tour de France champion was in total control of the final stage over its entire span of 118 kilometres.
        PESCARA, Italy - Slovenia's cycling ace Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) won the Tirreno-Adriatico race after bagging three back-to-back wins in previous stages, in what is his 17th win in multi-day races.
        KOPER - The Slovenian men's handball team qualified for the 2024 European Championship in Germany by defeating Montenegro 37:30, securing four wins in as many matches in the qualifying Group 7.

MONDAY, 13 March
        SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - PM Robert Golob said Slovenia wanted to be Bosnia's biggest ally and would therefore provide it with all possible assistance on its path to the EU as he paid an official visit to Sarajevo. Slovenia committed to allocating EUR 1 million for technical assistance to Bosnia.
        LJUBLJANA/KRANJ - Hungarian Speaker Laszlo Köver and his Slovenian counterpart Urška Klakočar Zupančič praised the excellent bilateral relations and the two countries' exemplary minority policies during Köver's visit. On the occasion, a bust of Sandor Petofi, a Hungarian poet and revolutionary, was unveiled in a park in Kranj dedicated to the contemporaries of Slovenia's 19th century poet France Prešeren.
        LJUBLJANA - PM Robert Golob's Freedom Movement and the opposition Democrats (SDS) remained the most popular parties in March's poll commissioned by the newspaper Delo, but the share of those who rated the Golob government's job as negative (36%) outnumbered those who rated it as positive (31%) for the first time.
        LJUBLJANA - The Economy Ministry signed the final set of contracts providing support in the launch of an expected EUR 85 million worth of investments in the wood processing industry. One of the biggest investment cycles in this industry in the country will be supported by the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

TUESDAY, 14 March
        LJUBLJANA - Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon is moderately optimistic about Slovenia's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council in 2024-2025. The ministry said the country needs the support of 129 countries in the June vote. It is currently focussing on winning over African countries, where Russia's strong economic influence cannot be overlooked.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia welcomed the European Commission's proposal to reform the electricity market, foremost the measures to mitigate price volatility and protect consumers. Other challenges regarding high prices have not yet been adequately addressed, the ministry in charge of energy said.
        BRDO PRI KRANJU - The Finance Ministry set out an outline of tax reform at a coalition summit in a bid to create a simple, transparent and understandable tax system where taxes are paid depending on one's economic standing. PM Robert Golob said the reform would seek to reduce labour taxation and increase taxes on wealth.
        BRDO PRI KRANJU - The coalition discussed guidelines for a reform of primary and secondary education. First changes - a set of new dietary guidelines - are planned for the coming school year, with the other measures - a vision of education until 2033, curricula modernisation, grading and marking changes, and digitalisation - to follow from 2024.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenian fishermen whom Croatia has been fining for fishing in waters that a border arbitration tribunal awarded to Slovenia in 2017 turned to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after using all legal avenues for an appeal in Croatia, which does not recognise the arbitration decision.
        LJUBLJANA - Hungarian oil company MOL plans to sell 39 service stations in Slovenia to British oil giant Shell to secure the European Commission's clearance for the takeover of OMV Slovenija, the country's second largest fuel retailer. The transaction involves some of the existing MOL and OMV service stations.
        KIDRIČEVO - Talum's decision to end production of primary aluminium obtained in energy-intensive electrolysis in April will affect 189 workers - 69 workers will be offered new contracts for jobs within the group, while 120 will be made redundant alongside another eight in two subsidiaries.
        LJUBLJANA - The FIDES trade union of doctors and dentists elected Damjan Polh its new leader. So far the union's deputy president, Polh succeeded Konrad Kuštrin, who has led the union for nearly 30 years.
        LJUBLJANA - A group created during the anti-government protests in 2020-2022 assessed the Robert Golob government has delivered only on eight out of 122 promises made to the civil society before the April 2022 election, partly met a further 12, while 54 commitments are in the process of being met.
        LJUBLJANA - Kolosej, Slovenia's first multiplex cinema, closed down, having been in operation for 22 years at Ljubljana's BTC shopping district. Its new owner, businessman Ivo Boscarol, will refurbish it to reopen it under a new name and with "additional content".

WEDNESDAY, 15 March
        LJUBLJANA - PM Robert Golob's office told the STA that Golob's visit to Ukraine is still being arranged, while a well-placed source said it would take place in April, which Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon then confirmed.
        LJUBLJANA - An audit by Ernest & Young, commissioned by the governing council of UKC Ljubljana, showed that over the past four years public procurement rules at the country's largest hospital had often been bypassed and its employees had ties with some ten firms supplying the hospital, Aleš Šabeder from the Health Minstry told the press. UKC Ljubljana boss Marko Jug sent the audit report to the corruption watchdog and police, and announced a series of measures to address the situation.
        KOPER - Former Istrabenz CEO Igor Bavčar was acquitted in a retrial of charges of abuse of office and former Maksima Holding CEO Miroslav Golubić of complicity in a complex Intereuropa stock trading deal in 2007. The prosecution will appeal the ruling, having demanded the same sentences the pair were handed down in 2019, two and a half years for Bavčar and two for Golubić.
        LJUBLJANA - The managers of Slovenia's main energy companies, GEN Energija, HSE and grid operator ELES, stressed the need for extensive investment in electricity production and the grid if Slovenia is to become self-sufficient and carbon-neutral. They said the country remains very much exposed in terms of supply and prices should crises occur.
        LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary Culture Committee proposed to the Court of Audit to review the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija's operations due to alleged irregularities, focusing on the 2022 annual report, arguing that media reports about the business performance differed from the official fugures.
        LENDAVA - Daihen Varstroj, a Japanese-owned manufacturer of high-tech welding gear, completed a EUR 2.5 million expansion of production capacities to manufacture large-size robotic cells and get additional storage facilities.
        LJUBLJANA - The Muslim Cultural Centre in Ljubljana, a work by the Slovenian architecture studio Bevk Perović Arhitekti, received an international award for mosques given out by Saudi Arabia, the Abdullatif Al Fozan Award for Mosque Architecture, alongside another four projects from around the globe.
        ANDORRA LA VELLA, Andorra - Ilka Štuhec won the last women's Alpine Ski World Cup downhill race of the season for her second win this season. The 32-year-old Slovenian downhill specialist finished second in the overall downhill rankings.

THURSDAY, 16 March
        LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly discussed an opposition-sponsored resolution to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism after the proposal had already been voted down by the Foreign Policy Committee a week ago. The head of the opposition Democrats (SDS), Janez Janša, said the resolution was an act of solidarity, while Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said the SDS was using the topic for its internal political goals.
        LJUBLJANA - In the first two months of 2023, Slovenian police processed 5,162 foreigners who illegally crossed the national border, almost four times more than in the first two months of 2022. The largest source country was Afghanistan, accounting for a fifth of the illegal migrants, police statistics show.
        LJUBLJANA - The country's five largest business associations highlighted several issues in the government's efforts to provide state aid to companies during the energy crisis in a letter to PM Robert Golob, claiming the December 2022 emergency legislation put large and energy-intensive companies at a disadvantage.
        LJUBLJANA - Economy Minister Matjaž Han and Gerd Müller, UNIDO director general, signed an agreement under which Slovenia and UNIDO will strengthen cooperation. The aim is to help Slovenian companies in their forays into foreign markets.
        LJUBLJANA - The government confirmed a draft list of items to be withdrawn from the Recovery and Resilience Plan in the face of a EUR 286 million reduction in the funds available to the country in line with updated calculations by the European Commission.
        LJUBLJANA - The two opposition parties, the SDS and NSi, are worried that tax reform plans the coalition announced will bring higher taxes, especially after it has been said that all net income will be taxable as personal income.
        LJUBLJANA - The conservative Children Are at Stake Coalition filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights after being prohibited by parliament and the Constitutional Court to call a referendum against gay marriage and adoptions.
        IZOLA - Mariya Gabriel, the European commissioner for innovation, addressed an event held on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the University of Primorska in Izola, stressing the connection between education and research as crucial for innovation.