News roundup - Friday, 24 March

Golob says European and Slovenian banking system stable

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European banking system is resilient to the disruptions that have taken place in the US and Switzerland, and the Slovenian banking system is resilient as well, having high liquidity and capital adequacy, PM Robert Golob summed up the view of EU leaders at the end of their two-day summit. He said "it is precisely because of the rules that apply in the European banking system, which are much stricter than those in the two countries mentioned, that we can really rest assured."

Golob to host Croatian counterpart next week

LJUBLJANA - PM Robert Golob will host his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenković for a working meeting at Brdo pri Kranju on Tuesday, his office said. The pair is to discuss cooperation in energy, migration and infrastructure, and exchange views on the situation in the Western Balkans, especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Belgrade-Prishtina dialogue. This will be their second meeting after their talks on the sidelines of the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia last August.

Klinec caps dream season with third place in World Cup standings

LAHTI, Finland - Ema Klinec crowned a dream season by finishing third in the overall World Cup standings, narrowly clinching bronze after finishing tenth in the last event of the season in Lahti today. The 24-year-old Slovenian bagged 14 World Cup podiums, including two wins, to make this her most successful season to date. Beyond the World Cup, she won the prestigious Raw Air series in Norway earlier this month and became the first female competitor to break the 200-metre mark in an official competition and currently holds the women's world record with 226 metres. "The 2022/23 season is over, for me, it was extremely successful," she said.

Fajon at UN conference: Future of all people depends on water

NEW YORK, US - FM Tanja Fajon addressed the UN Water Conference in New York on Thursday by saying that the future of all people depended on water. Slovenia is therefore making an effort for issues related to water to become more visible on the global agenda and that they are discussed comprehensively at all levels. She also had several bilateral meetings with senior representatives of the UAE, Indonesia, Ukraine, Singapore and Cuba to present Slovenia's foreign policy priorities. Today, she called on the UN to hold more frequent high-level events on water as she attended a panel on the implementation of decennial goals regarding action on water.

Pirc Musar says Slovenia should share its know-how on water

NEW YORK, US - President Nataša Pirc Musar said on the sidelines of the UN Water Conference that Slovenia must cooperate with the international community when it comes to water issues. "We can sell our know-how to many," she told Slovenian reporters. When it comes to water, Slovenia is "Europe's green treasure and we stress ... that Slovenia is not a small island in the ocean and we need to turn to the international community and work together on these issues," she said.

Farmers protest against environmental restrictions

LJUBLJANA/ŠENTJUR/MURSKA SOBOTA - Thousands of farmers took to the streets with their tractors in more than two dozen towns in protest at environmental and other restrictions they say are making it near impossible to continue farming. Anton Medved, the president of the Trade Union of Slovenian Farmers, said they have eight demands, chief among them being that new environmental requirements do not "exceed the realistic capabilities of farming". Agriculture Minister Irena Šinko, who met the representatives as they read out their demands in front of the parliament, said the ministry was "on the farmers' side, but some of the demands cannot be resolved overnight".

Last-minute amendments introduce transitional period in amended foreigners act

LJUBLJANA - Faced with criticism from NGOs about a provision of amendments to the foreigners act that would require basic knowledge of Slovenian for family reunification, the government adopted amendments to introduce a transitional period. The contested provision requires that a residence permit can be extended for the purposes of family reunification provided every family member over 18 passes a Slovenian language test at the A1 level. The government decided to introduce an 18-month transitional period allowing it to adopt an integration strategy that will also make Slovenian language and culture courses more widely accessible.

Changes that facilitate employment of foreigners sent to plenary

LJUBLJANA - Legislative changes that facilitate the employment of foreigners, in particular in public healthcare and social services, and allow asylum seekers to access the labour market after three as opposed to nine months were backed by the parliamentary Labour Committee before they will be voted on at a plenary next week. Labour Ministry State Secretary Igor Feketija said three key changes to the act on the employment, self-employment and work of foreigners would facilitate and speed up the employment of third country citizens. A number of reservations were meanwhile expressed by MPs from the ranks of the opposition. Aleksander Reberšek from the NSi said more energy should be invested into getting the 20,000 unemployed Slovenian citizens into the labour market.

Finance Committee proposes quarterly reporting on recovery plan implementation

LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary Finance Committee took note of the challenges in the implementation of the national recovery and resilience plan, and urged the government to report to it on the progress every quarter. Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič said Slovenia is late in making use of EU recovery funds, but the government is doing everything to ensure that Slovenia meet all targets by the end of 2026 to be able to draw the funds in full. He said the government is expected to send a second payment request to Brussels in the second half of the year.

Debate on key health reform bills postponed

LJUBLJANA - The Economic and Social Council (ESS) was scheduled to debate two key health reform bills today but the meeting ended before it started in earnest because only one of the bills was put forward and the government and its two social partners could not agree on whether to proceed with just one or not. The bill on the digitalisation of healthcare is ready, whereas the bill reforming the ZZZS, the national public health insurer, has not been finalised. It is unclear for now when the bill reforming the ZZZS will be presented or when the next session of the ESS will be held, representatives of employers and trade unions told the STA.

Companies to get EUR 382m in energy price aid

LJUBLJANA - The government announced that the state will transfer EUR 382 million to almost 2,000 companies in the form of subsidies for high energy prices. The way the aid will be paid is by grouping 1,956 companies into 189 development programmes that have been planed on the national list of development programmes. Under legislation passed in December 2022, the state made up to EUR 650 million in subsidies available to companies this year. The call for applications closed on 28 February, and the first payments will be made on 31 March.

RTV Slovenija journalists to go on strike on 4 April

LJUBLJANA - The strike committee of journalist trade unions at the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija decided on Wednesday to go on strike on 4 April for 24 hours after the 24 January strike was postponed when the management offered to intensify negotiations. However, the negotiations got deadlocked already at the first round in January, with journalists claiming the management is avoiding social dialogue while at the same deteriorating the situation at the broadcaster. The journalists have been technically on strike since 23 May 2022, stepping up their strike activities on a few occasions during this period.

CoE's observers of 2022 local elections propose some improvements

LJUBLJANA - The Council of Europe's mission that observed the locals elections in Slovenia in 2022 assessed them as "calm, inclusive and well-organised" but also proposed several improvements. The state should take steps to make the number of voters per polling station more equally distributed across the country, introduce more uniform rules on sealing the ballot boxes, which should also be more clearly marked, take measures to balance the strong advantage of incumbent mayors in the election race, while revising rules on financing the election campaign to increase allowed funding per candidates, including more women in local government, and better representing some ethnic group in politics.

Half of Slovenian hospitals running deficit in 2022

LJUBLJANA - Half of Slovenia's hospitals were operating at a deficit last year with the total figure amounting to EUR 50 million. UKC Ljubljana, the country's largest medical centre, ran the largest deficit of EUR 26 million. The other half made a profit or surplus of EUR 18 million in total, the newspaper Finance reported. In total, hospitals posted revenues of EUR 2.026 billion in 2022, 2.3% less than the previous year in light of fewer reimbursements for Covid-related costs, but 25% more, or EUR 400 million more, than in pre-pandemic 2019, when hospitals made EUR 1.627 billion in total revenue.

Ex-Yugoslav ethnic communities protest TV Slovenija's programme cuts

LJUBLJANA - Representatives of ethnic communities that hail from former Yugoslav countries protested against the Slovenian public broadcaster's decision to terminate cooperation with freelance journalists in its only TV show dedicated to them and aired in their languages once every two weeks. They believe such cuts are unacceptable affecting diversity. Saša Banjanac Lubej, editor and presenter of the show NaGlas!, said the decision means the cancellation of the show in its current format, which has had an eight-year run, even though it is included in RTV Slovenija's programme plan for this year.

Former Hoteli Bernardin boss gets two more years in prison

KOPER - The Koper District Court has sentenced Stanislav Valant, a former CEO of Hoteli Bernardin who is already serving a prison sentence, to two years in prison for abuse of office during his stint as boss of the hotel operator. Co-defendant Franci Strajnar got one year, the newspaper Primorske Novice reported. Valant was accused of abusing his powers in a deal with Sava shares to defraud the company and allow the holding Zvon Ena to illegally gain EUR 1.18 million.

JSI report shows Unior leak did not harm people's health

ZREČE - A review commissioned by Unior from the Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) has shown that the October 2022 emission of small amounts of corrosive and carcinogen substance from the Zreče industrial plant had no effect on people's health or harmful impact on the soil. In the incident on 26 October, a small concentration of chromium trioxide was released into the air as a result of a faulty waste gas treatment installation. The report notes that inspectors did not ascertain any flaws in the company's conduct.

UKC Ljubljana say no reason to worry after child heart surgeon leaves

LJUBLJANA - UKC Ljubljana, Slovenia's largest hospital, assuaged concerns after it was reported that the main paediatric heart surgeon, Czech doctor Roman Gebauer, would no longer perform surgeries, raising concerns about the treatment of children with congenital heart disease. Marko Pokorn, medical director of the UKC Ljubljana Paediatric Hospital said the hospital is performing cardiological treatment of children "without any special reservations or problems". The statement came after newspaper Delo reported the department was left without a surgeon to perform specific types of surgeries on children with congenital heart disease.

Business sentiment further down in March

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's business sentiment deteriorated further this month as the indicator fell to -1.4 percentage points, down 0.3 points on the previous month and 2.7 points lower than a year ago, shows data released by the Statistics Office. Compared with February, the outlook deteriorated in retail by 0.5 points and in both manufacturing and construction by 0.2 points, while sentiment in the services sector and consumer confidence improved by 0.4 points and 0.2 points, respectively.

Ukraine crisis challenge for tuberculosis management in Slovenia

GOLNIK - An international conference on tuberculosis hosted by the Golnik Clinic of Respiratory and Allergic Diseases heard that the incidence rate for tuberculosis in Slovenia stood at 3.8 cases per 100,000 people in 2021 and that preliminary figures for last year suggested little change. But experts warned that the war in Ukraine brings new risks, and urged for refugees to be provided with an adequate level of health protection, also as this can help nip a potential spread of the disease in the bud.

Slovenia co-hosting art and science symposium in Ottawa

OTTAWA, Canada - The Slovenian and German embassies in Ottawa are hosting an international conference on art and science. It will be held on Saturday, when an exhibition will also open at the SAW Gallery. Workshops and lectures by the participating artists and scientists will be held on Sunday. The event will bring together a number of internationally renowned artists, scientists and researchers to discuss the latest achievements in the research of the environment, heritage, philosophical and scientific issues, bioart and bioscience, and the humanisation of technology.