News roundup - Tuesday, 16 January

Slovenia, Croatia, Italy agree migration issue addressed successfully

BUZET, Croatia - The Slovenian, Croatian and Italian interior ministers, Boštjan Poklukar, Davor Božinović and Matteo Piantedosi, respectively, met in Croatia's Buzet to assess that the countries successfully cooperate in responding to the migration challenge. The mixed patrols they announced earlier are currently in the phase of coordination, with the next meeting in this format to take place in Slovenia's Brdo pri Kranju in March.

Watchdog finds no ethics breaches in Golob's interview, but says corruption risk present

LJUBLJANA - The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption has found no ethics breaches in an interview Prime Minister Robert Golob gave for Gallup regarding a talent test offered by the company, but it did detect potential corruption risk and issued recommendations to avoid such risk. As reported by Delo in October, Golob gave an interview for Gallup extolling the virtues of the company's payable CliftonStrengths talent assessment test, which he had used as CEO and later in his Freedom Movement.

Ascent Resources averts Slovenian partner's insolvency amid investment dispute

LJUBLJANA - Ascent Slovenija, a subsidiary of the UK's Ascent Resources, has prevented insolvency proceedings for its Slovenian joint venture partner Geoenergo as it continues to defend its investment in controversial gas extraction in Slovenia amid a dispute with the state. Ascent Resources said last week that Geoenergo, co-owned by two Slovenian energy companies, including Petrol, filed an application to enter self-declared insolvency.

Court decides against staying Animal Protection Act

LJUBLJANA - The Constitutional Court unanimously rejected on Friday the National Council's proposal to stay the recently amended Animal Protection Act. The court decided to deal with the matter as a priority. Branko Tomažič from the National Council said he was surprised by the decision. The amendments in question introduce qualified reporting persons who can report suspected abuse of domestic animals at farms and procedures for the seizure of badly treated animals.

Nursing staff does not support doctors' and dentists' strike

LJUBLJANA - The ongoing strike of the Fides trade union of doctors and dentists is not supported by the trade unions and the chamber representing nurses and midwives, as they argue that the Fides's demands for higher pay would not solve the problems in the public healthcare system. The chamber labelled the strike as a "strike for money". Meanwhile, the European Federation of Salaried Doctors expressed support for the strike.

NSi wants audit of foods price watch

LJUBLJANA - The junior opposition party New Slovenia (NSi) would like to see the Court of Audit to look into the government's staple foods price watch project. Its request for audit will be referred to the NSi-chaired parliamentary Commission for Oversight of Public Finances. The project is damaging to Slovenian farmers and should be stopped, the NSi said.

TEŠ workers stole copper from power plant's disused units

ŠOŠTANJ - Several TEŠ power station workers have stolen a large amount of copper from TEŠ's four disused units over a long period of time, allegedly around 100 tonnes, the newspaper Večer reported. The paper speculated that this was an organised activity by a group of workers, because certain things, such as proper earthing, could not be done without permission or orders from superiors. Official information from TEŠ is scarce.

New safety recommendations issued in wake of deadly train accident

LJUBLJANA - The national rail safety authority issued new recommendations designed to improve safety three weeks after a deadly accident in which two workers working on a rail construction site were killed by an oncoming train, apparently due to human error. The Air, Marine and Railway Accident and Incident Investigation Unit at the Infrastructure Ministry recommends that trains slow down to 30 km/h when they pass a construction site, or 50 km/h when workers do not use loud machinery.

FDV students call on faculty to take sides on Gaza situation

LJUBLJANA - A group of students attending the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences (FDV) called on their school to take a public stance on the situation in the Gaza Strip. The students expect the faculty to use all available mechanisms of pressure to help end the genocide in Gaza and Israel's occupation of the enclave. They also urged it to join initiatives calling for Slovenia's diplomatic ties with Israel to be suspended and for Slovenia's support for South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ.

Ljupka Vrteva is 2023 Woman Engineer of the Year

LJUBLJANA - Ljupka Vrteva, a Macedonian-born engineer who heads a solar power plant project at the energy company Petrol, has won the 2023 Woman Engineer of the Year, presented at a ceremony in Ljubljana's Cankarjev Dom. Vrteva holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering and is a development engineer in heating, ventilation and cooling of buildings.

Koper celebrating its 1500th anniversary

KOPER - The coastal town of Koper will celebrate 1,500 years of the legend of its founding and the consecration of its first bishop in 524 throughout this year. A facsimile of the city's laws from 1423 was put on show at the Koper Regional Museum last month and an exhibition on Koper's celebrated personalities and milestones opened today. It will be on until the end of February.

Slovenia take maximum points to next round at Eurohandball

BERLIN, Germany - Slovenia will take two points to the main round of competition at the European Men's Handball Championship after a tight 28:27 win against 2020 bronze medallists Norway on Monday, thanks to Urban Lesjak's goalkeeping prowess in the closing stage of the game. Slovenia have qualified for the main round with three straight victories, having previously defeated the Faroe Islands and Poland.

Ex-head teacher and athlete convicted for sexual assault on 10-year-old

KRANJ - The former head teacher of a primary school in Jesenice has been sentenced to three years and ten months in prison for sexually assaulting a ten-year-old daughter of his former partner and for video-recording two other victims. The defendant, a former cross-country skier who later worked as coach and PE teacher, made headlines last summer, and soon resigned as head teacher. He pleaded guilty in December.