Weekly review of events involving Slovenia, 25-31 August

FRIDAY, 25 August

LJUBLJANA - After the government adopted emergency flood relief legislation, Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič explained that contributions to a special reconstruction fund would amount to 0.8% of pre-tax profit for companies and to 0.3% of income tax for individuals, which would total around EUR 100 million and EUR 150 million a year. Slovenia's biggest bank, NLB, announced it would contribute EUR 15 million to the fund.

LJUBLJANA - All major Slovenian business associations as well as the American, British and German chambers of commerce in Slovenia offered assistance in the reconstruction efforts following the August floods, as they urged the government to draw up "well thought-out and long-term solutions" to help households and the corporate sector.

LJUBLJANA - President Nataša Pirc Musar met Jagan Chapagain, secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), to discuss the devastating floods that hit Slovenia and the role of charities in the post-flood reconstruction and aid to the victims.

LJUBLJANA - Acting Police Commissioner Senad Jušić, who is a candidate for a full-fledged term at the helm of police force, strongly denied media reports that he had committed perjury in the past. Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar said he fully supported Jušić.

LJUBLJANA/BELGRADE, Serbia - Big Bang, Slovenia's largest retailer of consumer electronics, signed an agreement to acquire a 100% stake in Serbian online retailer BC Group for an undisclosed sum.

SATURDAY, 26 August

GORNJA RADGONA - President Nataša Pirc Musar opened the AGRA agriculture and food fair, featuring 1,700 exhibitors from 35 countries until 31 August. The president stressed the important role that agriculture plays in the search for sustainable solutions, including in post-flood reconstruction.

LJUBLJANA - A public opinion poll published by the newspaper Delo showed that most respondents support the idea of a windfall tax on bank profits for the financing of post-flood reconstruction. Half of the respondents think buildings should be removed from flooding zones.

SUNDAY, 27 August

KAMNIK/LJUBLJANA - European Council President Charles Michel promised the EU would stay by Slovenia's side in the efforts to rebuild the country after the devastating floods, as he visited some of the affected areas with PM Robert Golob. In the evening, the pair met Western Balkan leaders, visiting for the Bled Strategic Forum, to focus on EU enlargement.

GORNJA RADGONA - Agriculture Minister Irena Šinko and director of the Slovenian Regional Development Fund Matjaž Ribaš signed an agreement under which almost EUR 37 million in soft loans will be made available to young farmers and small farms in the 2023-2027 period.

BAKU, Azerbaijan - More than two decades after winning Olympic gold, Slovenian veteran shooter Rajmond Debevec achieved an unexpected career highlight by winning the 300-metre rifle prone event at the International Sports Shooting Wold Championship with a perfect score of 600 points, a new world record.

MONDAY, 28 August

BLED - European Council President Charles Michel opened the Bled Strategic Forum, Slovenia's biggest foreign policy event, by asserting that the EU and the Western Balkans must be ready for enlargement by 2030. Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar agreed the process is taking too long, as did Western Balkan leaders, who expressed caution about the timeline.

BLED - Participants of the Bled Strategic Forum were also addressed by PM Robert Golob and Foreign Minister Tanja Faon, with both making a case for global solidarity and strong multilateralism. Golob said Slovenia would strive to make climate change a priority of the UN when it assumes the role of non-permanent UN Security Council member. Peace in Ukraine will be the other priority for Slovenia.

LJUBLJANA - Storms with heavy rain returned to some parts of Slovenia, in particular in the west, to cause quite a few problems but far less damage than the early-August floods.

LJUBLJANA - The Court of Audit said there had been no legal basis for the payment of bonuses for unused annual leave to ministers and state secretaries at the end of the term of the Janez Janša government in mid-2022. The bonuses cost the state about EUR 205,000 gross in total.

LJUBLJANA - The government's approval rating in the latest POP TV poll went up 8 percentage points over the previous month to 51.7% after six months of below-50% ratings. In the wake of the devastating floods, the ruling Freedom Movement party overtook its main rival, the opposition Democrats (SDS), by a whisker.

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percentage points to 3.6% in the second quarter of the year compared to the previous quarter and was 0.6 percentage points lower than in the same period last year.

TUESDAY, 29 August

LJUBLJANA/BUDAPEST, Hungary - The content was finalised in a meeting between Economy Minister Matjaž Han and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto of a Slovenia-Hungary memorandum on the construction of a gas pipeline. The signing is scheduled for October.

MARIBOR - The Maribor District Court sentenced former NKBM chairman Matjaž Kovačič to 18 months in prison for abuse of office, and Matej Raščan, the former owner of the magazine publisher Delo Revije, to 16 months in a case involving a forward sale of shares of three power utilities more than ten years ago.

LJUBLJANA - The Chamber of Craft and Small Business (OZS) criticised the mandatory flood-relief contributions individuals and companies will have to pay as envisaged in the emergency flood relief bill. The OZS said "solidarity must not and cannot be mandatory".

CELJE - Poets Miriam Drev and Iva Jevtić won this year's Veronika Prize for best poetry collection at an awards ceremony at Celje Castle. Silvana Paletti, a member of the Slovenian minority from Resia in Italy, received the Poetry Coin for lifetime achievements.

WEDNESDAY, 30 August

LJUBLJANA - The government approved a draft list of areas where Slovenia could apply for additional loans from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. Initially the country planned to apply for EUR 545 million in loans under the National Recovery Plan, but now up to EUR 747 million more are planned.

ALPBACH, Austria - President Nataša Pirc Musar took part in the European Forum Alpbach, where she noted the importance of solidarity and cooperation when tackling social, security and climate challenges in Europe. Meeting Austrian counterpart Alexander Van der Bellen, she stressed the need to systematically secure the rights of the Slovenian ethnic minority.

LJUBLJANA - Several Slovenian stakeholders founded a company in Hungary to recycle batteries used in electric vehicles, an investment worth EUR 25 million in the first phase. Andrada will be based in northern Hungary, near where China's CATL is building a major battery factory in Debrecen.

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's investment promotion agency Spirit signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry at a business forum with the aim of strengthening economic cooperation, attracting new investments and boosting trade.

LJUBLJANA - Representatives of the Slovenian and Montenegrin defence ministries signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of military reconnaissance and aerial surveillance and monitoring, which forms the basis for a joint procurement of Belin drones from C-Astral, a Slovenian drone maker.

LJUBLJANA - PM Robert Golob met a delegation of executives of Chinese multinational Hisense, whose headquarters for operations in Europe are in Slovenia. The meeting focussed on the importance of Slovenia for Hisense and on the group's strategic plans in the country.

LJUBLJANA/MEŽICA - An official analysis confirmed excessive levels of heavy metals, especially lead, in the soil in the Meža Valley after the northern region of Koroška was hit by catastrophic floods in early August.

OKINAWA, Japan - Slovenia advanced to the second round of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup after remaining undefeated against Venezuela, Georgia and Cape Verde in Group F of preliminary play.
        
THURSDAY, 31 August

LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly passed an emergency bill aimed at providing for reconstruction and aid following the devastating floods, along with the budget revisions for 2023 needed to kick-start funding. The opposition Democrats (SDS) abstained from the vote, opposing all additional levies and what it termed "mandatory solidarity" until all other solutions, including EU funding, are examined. PM Robert Golob said the direct damage was currently estimated at EUR 4.7 billion and that up to EUR 7 billion would be allocated for reconstruction in the next five years.

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's GDP increased by 2.5% in real terms last year on an annual basis, shows the first annual estimate by the Statistics Office, which compares to the previous estimate of 5.4% that was based on the aggregation of quarterly data. Price volatility and inflation are considered the main reasons for the drop.

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's annual inflation reached 6.2% in August, a rise of 0.1 of a percentage point from July and a drop of 4.8 points from August last year. Annual inflation continued being fuelled by higher prices of food and beverages.

TOLEDO, Spain - Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon attended an informal meeting of the EU's Foreign Affairs Council, which expressed support to the activities of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) after a coup in Niger. Slovenia, which has strongly condemned the military coup in Niger, too supports the efforts of ECOWAS.