News roundup - Friday, 1 March

Justice minister nominee Katič says judicial pay will be addressed in special law

LJUBLJANA - Andreja Katič was endorsed for justice minister by the parliamentary Justice Committee with 8 vote in favour and 4 against. She told MPs that the Constitutional Court's June 2023 decision to raise judicial pay will be addressed in a special law. Among her other priorities will be addressing the lack of space at prisons and courts, drafting changes to the penal code, the criminal procedure law and changes to prevent high-profile cases from becoming statute-barred

Ministry condemns Israeli attack on Palestinians seeking food from aid trucks

LJUBLJANA - The Foreign Ministry issued a condemnation of the firing by Israeli forces into crowds of Palestinian civilians gathered around aid trucks in Gaza. It again urged an immediate ceasefire, the protection of civilians and sufficient humanitarian aid deliveries across Gaza. "We condemn .... attack in Gaza resulting in many hundreds starving civilians killed/injured while seeking food from humanitarian aid trucks," the ministry wrote on X.

State prosecutor's home hit by Molotov cocktails

KOPER/LJUBLJANA - The house of a state prosecutor in Koper was hit by three Molotov cocktails last Sunday, said the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office, as it condemned the attack. It appears that this was a planned and organised attack, likely related to the work of the state prosecutor, the office said in a press release. It also denounces any attempts of attacks to threaten state prosecutors. Senior officials condemned the incident as well.

Around 30% of hospital doctors withdrew consent for overtime work

LJUBLJANA - Around 30% of doctors at public hospitals and some 20% at community health centres have withdrawn their consent to work more than eight hours overtime a week from today, as the Fides trade union of doctors and dentists stepped up the strike that started on 15 January. State Secretary Marjan Pintar stressed that hospital and community health centre managements will now play the key role in addressing the problems emerging from the withdrawals.

Bavčar's appeal against ECHR's 2023 ruling turned down

STRASBOURG, France - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has turned down Igor Bavčar's and Slovenia's appeals against the court's 2023 ruling which says that, in one of his Istrabenz trials, Bavčar's right to presumption of innocence was violated while there was no violation of the principle of no punishment without law, Delo reported. The court's ruling from last September is now final, and the state must pay Bavčar EUR 10,000 in damages and EUR 6,000 in costs; he had demanded EUR 1.4 million.

Conference notes potential of small modular reactors

LJUBLJANA - Small modular reactors (SMR) could be used in the transition to a low-carbon society, where energy production will have to double by 2050 and be reliable, affordable and have low emissions, heard a conference on the role of SMRs in the Slovenian energy sector. Slovenia has a good starting point for SMRs with its nuclear programme, a research reactor active since 1966 and the Krško nuclear plant active since 1983, said Janez Gale from the Environment, Climate and Energy Ministry.

Ad agency reps testify on allegedly unlawful party financing

LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary inquiry into allegedly unlawful financing of political parties heard representatives of the communication agency Pristop, who said, among other things, that telecoms incumbent Telekom Slovenije advertising in the SDS-affiliated media Demokracija and Nova24TV was the wish of the client.

Slovenian mattress producers face high US punitive tariffs

LJUBLJANA - Slovenian producers of mattresses who export their products to the United States face punitive anti-dumping tariffs of almost 745% under preliminary findings issued by the US Department of Commerce in late February. In the segment of foam and plastic mattresses, Slovenia's exports totalled EUR 13.7 million in 2022, of which the US accounted for EUR 11.2 million, show figures from Export Window, a government portal for exporters.

Slovenian women successfully defying obesity

LJUBLJANA - The latest survey on obesity compiled in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that the obesity rate among Slovenian women is the lowest in Central Europe and puts Slovenia on the 162nd place in the world. The country ranks 63rd in terms of the share of obese men. Compared to 1990 the share of obese women was up by 1.8 percentage points to 14%, while the share of obese men increased by as many as 14 points to 26%.

Križnar wins World Cup event in Lahti with hill record

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's Nika Križnar won the women's Ski Jumping World Cup event in Finland's Lahti, after soaring to the 127-metre mark in the first round to set the new hill record, and then improving it to 131.5 metres in the second. It was the sixth individual World Cup career win for the 23-year-old, and the first this season.

Ski jumper Lovro Kos wins in Lahti

LAHTI, Finland - Slovenian Lovro Kos won the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup event in Lahti after placing fifth in the first round. The 24-year-old earned 262.5 points, while his runner-up, Andreas Wellinger, earned 257.1 points. This is only the second victory of Kos's career, having reached the first three weeks ago in lake Placid, US. He is currently the highest-placed Slovenian jumper in the overall rankings, in fifth place.