Weekly review of events involving Slovenia, 31 March-6 April

FRIDAY, 31 March
        KYIV/BUCHA, Ukraine - PM Robert Golob paid an unannounced visit to Ukraine, holding talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky and PM Denys Shmyhal, as part of which he announced that Slovenia wanted to participate in the post-war reconstruction of the country. Golob also attended a ceremony commemorating the civilian victims of war in Bucha.
        LJUBLJANA - President Nataša Pirc Musar, the commander-in-chief of the Slovenian Armed Forces (SAF), received the army readiness report for 2022. She noted that "there are still certain deviations in terms of the capabilities, operation and endurance of the defence forces," while adding that steps were being taken in the right direction.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's annual inflation rate jumped to 10.5% in March after standing at 9.3% the month before, the Statistics Office reported. Contributing the most to the high inflation were the prices of food and electricity.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's general government deficit dropped by 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to 3.9% of the country's GDP in 2022, amounting to EUR 2.3 billion, the Statistics Office reported. General government debt was down almost five points to 69.9% of GDP despite increasing marginally in nominal terms.
        LJUBLJANA - Property prices reached yet another record high in Slovenia in 2022, rising by 19% in nominal terms from 2021. The number of transactions, on the other hand, decreased by 5-10%, signalling a gradual cooling of the market, the Surveying and Mapping Authority said in the annual property market report.
        LJUBLJANA - The third pensioners' protest organised by civil society groups with close links to the Democrats (SDS), the largest opposition party, took place, with the protests' spearhead and former SDS MP Pavel Rupar calling on PM Robert Golob and the government to resign and urging a snap election.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia donated to Ukraine a mobile laboratory which enables analysis of water within 24 hours in terms of its suitability for drinking, washing, bathing or other uses by means of standardised analytical methods.
        LJUBLJANA - Painter Staš Kleindienst won the Rihard Jakopič Prize for 2023, the highest national award for lifetime achievements in fine and visual arts in Slovenia. Kleindienst, born in 1979, is one of its youngest recipients in the last decade.

SATURDAY, 1 April
        LJUBLJANA - PM Robert Golob told the STA on the sidelines of his visit to Ukraine that the international community's peace initiatives regarding the war in Ukraine are currently on the back burner. He praised Ukraine's progress towards the EU, but warned that no one dared to say that they opposed this process so many were secretly hoping for Ukraine to fail.
        KYIV, Ukraine - Following PM Robert Golob's visit to Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the Slovenian nation for support. "Slovenia is making Ukraine stronger," Zelensky said in a video posted on Instagram.
        LJUBLJANA - Fides, the trade union of doctors and dentists, announced it had decided to call off a strike it planned to launch on 2 April. The decision came after Fides and other public sector trade unions received the government's draft bill laying down the foundation of the public sector pay system.
        PLANICA - Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar met his Austrian counterpart Gerhard Karner for informal talks, which focused on cooperation between the countries' interior ministries and police forces and confirmed the cooperation was good.
        MARIBOR - Anthropologist Dan Podjed won the Spade of the Year Award given out by the newspaper publisher Večer for the most on-point statement about the situation in society. He spoke about "scores of happiness gurus trying to convince us that we're not happy enough".
        PLANICA - Slovenian ski jumpers Lovro Kos, Domen Prevc, Timi Zajc and Anže Lanišek finished second at the team event of the Ski Jumping World Cup Finals in Planica, while Lanišek finished second in the last individual event.
        
SUNDAY, 2 April
        BRUGES, Belgium - Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won the Tour of Flanders in what is his fourth victory at one-day classics, having won Giro di Lombardia twice (2021 and 2022) and the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race in 2021.
        PLANICA - Slovenian ski jumper Timi Zajc won the last World Cup Ski Flying event of the season to the great delight of thousands of fans, while the second place was claimed by his compatriot Anže Lanišek, who was only 0.1 points behind.

MONDAY, 3 April
        BRDO PRI KRANJU - PM Robert Golob and his Macedonian counterpart Dimitar Kovačevski signed a declaration on cooperation, with Golob assuring Kovačevski that Slovenia strongly supports North Macedonia on its path to the EU and stressing its membership talks must not be suspended. Kovačevski thanked Slovenia for support so far in all areas.
        BLED - Slovenia and Serbia will set up an international task force dedicated to boosting railway transport speeds as there is still room for improvement of railway transport between the two countries, infrastructure ministers Alenka Bratušek and Goran Vesić announced. Austria, Croatia and Italy will also be invited to join.
        LJUBLJANA - President Nataša Pirc Musar joined a number of politicians from the EU and the Western Balkans in congratulating Jakov Milatović on being elected Montenegro's new president. "I look forward to excellent cooperation and joint engagement to strengthening the European path of Montenegro and the Western Balkans region," she said.
        LJUBLJANA - After farmers protested against environmental restrictions on farming, PM Robert Golob, Agriculture Minister Irena Šinko and Natural Resources Minister Uroš Brežan met representatives of farmers to discuss their demands. It was agreed to form a task force that will review all open issues.
        TRIESTE, Italy - Marko Pisani, a member of the Slovenian minority in Italy, was elected to the Friuli Venezia Giulia Regional Council. His party, Slovenian Community, won 1.02% of the vote, just above the threshold.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia will fully use the cohesion funds that were made available to the country in the EU's previous financial perspective and all is on track for drawing funds from the 2021-2027 package, government officials said. Close to 90% of the almost EUR 3.1 billion in funds available in the 2014-2020 scheme had been drawn so far.
        KLAGENFURT, Austria - The Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) appointed members to the government of the Austrian state of Carinthia. Manuel Jug, a member of Slovenian minority, was named a new alternate member.
        LJUBLJANA - After a state-owned hotel chain decided to lay off its chambermaids only to start outsourcing the same workers from a cleaning agency, Istrabenz Turizem, which is also state-owned, decided not to follow suit.
        LJUBLJANA - Telekom Slovenije, Slovenia's largest telecommunications provider, announced it will increase the prices of most subscription plans in May. It said this is a result of "a strong cost pressure".
        PARIS, France - Mosaics made by Slovenian priest Marko Rupnik in the Rosary Basilica within the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France could be removed out of consideration for victims of abuse following sex abuse allegations against Rupnik, said Bishop of the Diocese of Tarbes-et-Lourdes Jean Marc Micas.
        
TUESDAY, 4 April
        LJUBLJANA - Part of RTV Slovenija journalists went on strike to protest against a series of measures affecting their autonomy and independence. Strike committee members said that even after almost 20 meetings, the management did not or would not understand their strike demands, including for editorial autonomy and an end to intimidation.
        LJUBLJANA - The Health Ministry unveiled two bills that form the first part of the health reform package. The health IT system bill creates a new state-owned company to develop and maintain a centralised IT system, while the bill on the ZZZS centres around an overhaul of the management structure of the public health insurer.
        LJUBLJANA - The upper chamber of parliament vetoed the amendments to the Foreigners Act which introduce a transitional period for the requirement that adult family members of non-EU workers pass a basic Slovenian language proficiency test to be able to remain in the country after being here for a year.
        LJUBLJANA - PM Robert Golob, President Nataša Pirc Musar and FM Tanja Fajon welcomed Finland's accession to NATO. Golob and Fajon expressed the hope that Sweden will join the alliance soon.
        PORTOROŽ - Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar announced at the close of the 11th informal meeting of Brdo Process interior ministers on migration management that more police checks would be conducted on roads as the manner in which migrants enter Slovenia illegally changed with Croatia's Schengen entry.
        LJUBLJANA - The chief of the general staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, Maj-Gen Robert Glavaš, highlighted pressing staffing shortages as he updated the press on the state of the force and its plans. He said that 6,000 service members are performing tasks intended for 10,000.
        LJUBLJANA - Exports reached EUR 4.55 billion in February, an increase of 28.2% on the same month the year before, while imports increased by 1.4% to 4.25 billion, the Statistics Office said. With a monthly trade surplus in February, EUR 304 million, the first in four months, the export to import ratio was at 107.2%.
        MARIBOR - Postal services operator Pošta Slovenije and the two representative trade unions in the company reached an agreement averting a strike announced for 17 April. The wage bill will reportedly increase by 15%.
        DRAVOGRAD - The Renault 4 that Slovenia's former President Borut Pahor auctioned off in February for EUR 60,000 raised EUR 275,000 in donations in the second round of the charity campaign, initiated by the Fratar family from Dravograd, Koroška, which bought Pahor's 1991 Quatrelle as the highest bidder in February.

WEDNESDAY, 5 April
        BRUSSELS, Belgium - FM Tanja Fajon said after a two-day NATO meeting that, when it comes to Ukraine's potential NATO accession, Slovenia is sticking to an open-door policy. Currently, there is no discussion on an Ukrainian NATO bid and this is not expected to change any time soon, she added.
        BRUSSELS, Belgium - FM Tanja Fajon told reporters after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers that she remains moderately optimistic about Slovenia's bid for the UN Security Council ahead of the final stage of the campaign. She spoke about the bid with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani and her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta.
        LJUBLJANA - The Medical Chamber proposed its own legislative changes to improve the accessibility of healthcare services. It wants healthcare institutions to become public companies owned by the state or municipalities, which it believes would improve competition, and the existing concession system be abolished and a more flexible funding of services introduced.
        LJUBLJANA - Insurer Generali announced it will increase as of 1 May the monthly premium of top-up health insurance by more than ten euros from the current EUR 34.50. Other providers, which charge roughly the same amount, suggested they might follow suit, prompting protests from trade unions and renewed pledges by the coalition parties that top-up insurance will be abolished.
        LISBON, Portugal - Slovenian lawyer Aleksander Čeferin was re-elected president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The 55-year-old has been serving as the boss of the European governing body of football since 2016 and ran unopposed.
        ROME, Italy - The Diocese of Rome announced it had launched investigation of sex abuse allegations against Jesuit priest and artist Marko Rupnik. The focus of the investigation will be the mosaic atelier of the Centro Aletti, which Rupnik founded and led for more than a decade.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's registered jobless total dropped by 5.8% in March compared to the month before and by 16.9% year-on-year to hit 50,327, an all-time low, the Employment Service said.

THURSDAY, 6 April
        LJUBLJANA - The government decided that Slovenia would join the European Commission's lawsuit against Hungary over the latter's anti-LGBT law. A number of member states and the European Parliament are supporting the Commission's legal action at the EU Court of Justice over what is deemed a discriminatory law.
        LJUBLJANA - The government adopted a fiscal policy framework that predicts a gradual consolidation of public finances until 2026 with the aim of bringing the general government deficit in line with EU budgetary rules. Debt will decline as well but will not be below the EU-imposed ceiling.
        LJUBLJANA - Public and private health providers performed extra services worth EUR 79 million between October and December under a Covid exit law that was passed in October and provided extra funding to reduce waiting lines that ballooned during the pandemic, show final figures released by the Health Ministry.
        LJUBLJANA - The government adopted changes to the border control act, creating a legal basis for record-keeping of border checks of passengers. The changes determine the scope of data processing and storage.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia formally initiated procedures to update its National Energy and Climate Plan. The goals regarding greenhouse gas emissions and energy use will be more ambitious, and the measures will be accelerated, the Environment, Climate and Energy Ministry said.
        NOVO MESTO - The management and supervisory board of pharma company Krka proposed that shareholders get a dividend of EUR 6.60 gross per share, an increase of 17.2% on last year. The shareholders' meeting is scheduled for 6 July.
        LJUBLJANA - Women's magazine Onaplus picked doctor Eva Pogačar as the winner of the Ona 365 award among ten inspirational women who have been pillars of the community and led by example in the past year. Pogačar is a specialist in anaesthesiology, a mountain rescuer and the president of the First Aid Centre at the Slovenian Red Cross.