News roundup - Thursday, 27 April

Farmers demand withdrawal of Natura 2000 regulation

LJUBLJANA - After staging a massive rally in Ljubljana on Tuesday, Slovenian farmers have voiced their demands, among them the withdrawal of legislative changes pertaining to oversight of animal breeding and outright withdrawal of a regulation on Natura 2000 management programme. Unless their demands are met, protest activities will resume.

Prices of gas and electricity in Slovenia among lowest in EU

LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg - Electricity and gas hit record prices in the EU in the second half of 2022, with prices in Slovenia being on the lower end of the scale. In Slovenia, year-on-year increase in electricity prices reached 41% in the second half of 2022, still considerably less than in Romania (+112%), Czechia (+97%) and Denmark (+70%). In Slovenia, average electricity price for households reached EUR 19.6 per 100kWh, putting the country in 20th place among the 27 member states.

Melamin reports first loss in decades after deadly blast in 2022

KOČEVJE - Melamin, the Kočevje-base chemical company that was hit with a deadly explosion in May 2022, reported a EUR 1.8 million loss last year. The company attributed its first loss in decades to the blast that killed seven and injured ten workers. It is expected to return to profit in 2023. Melamin's turnover last year was the highest in the past seven years, reaching EUR 72.5 million, despite its net sales revenue dropping by 11% year-on-year to EUR 60 million.

Slovenia commemorates WWII resistance movement

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia marked Day of Uprising Against Occupation, a public holiday dedicated to the Liberation Front, an organisation that spearheaded resistance against Nazi and Fascist occupation in the Second World War.

AI to help foreign workers understand labour rights

LJUBLJANA - Delavska svetovalnica, an NGO promoting worker rights, and digital communication agency Agencija 101 have developed an app to help foreign workers access information on workers' rights in Slovenia. The open-access app GastarbAIter uses AI to process Slovenian labour law and can provide answers in 130 languages. Using the app, workers can ask questions about work in Slovenia and receive a response immediately.

Minister, unionist attending summit on teaching profession

WASHINGTON, US - Slovenia's education minister and the head of the teachers' union SVIZ, Darjo Felda and Branimir Štrukelj, are attending the 13th International Summit on the Teaching Profession in Washington, the Education Ministry said. They promised to nurture regular and systemic cooperation between the government and the union in modernisation of the education system and in drafting legislative changes.