Weekly review of events involving Slovenia, 19-25 July

FRIDAY, 19 July

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia welcomed the opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories violated international law and had to end as soon as possible. The Foreign Ministry said the position of the UN's highest court carried immense legal significance and moral authority.

LJUBLJANA - The management board of the EU Unified Patent Court appointed Slovenia's former Justice Minister Aleš Zalar the director of the Patent Mediation and Arbitration Centre, a new institution which will be headquartered in Ljubljana and Lisbon. Zalar had been nominated by the Slovenian government.

LJUBLJANA - The National Council vetoed the changes to the Parliamentary Inquiry Act over concerns that they could stall parliamentary inquiries. The coalition has enough votes to override the veto.

LJUBLJANA - A major outage linked to Windows workstations hit businesses worldwide, including in Slovenia. Several companies were affected, among them Ljubljana Airport, where problems with information systems for flight check-ins caused minor delays in departures, and pharma maker Krka.

SOLČAVA/PREDDVOR/LOGARSKA DOLINA - Northern Slovenia was hit by heavy rain and storms. Buildings and roads were flooded, and several landslides triggered, blocking local roads. The situation was worst in the village of Kokra, where a massive landslide damaged ten houses, rendering at least two uninhabitable. Nobody was killed.

SATURDAY, 20 July

BOVEC - Opposition SDS leader Janez Janša said efforts were in place for early elections to take place as soon as possible as he addressed the traditional annual get-together of the SDS. He praised the party's results at the EU elections but said that a different government would mean a more significant change.

KOMEN - Helped by two new Air Tractor firefighting aircraft and helicopters and also by Friday evening rain, nearly 500 firefighters managed to extinguish a major wildfire that broke out under Mount Trstelj in the south-west of the country on Thursday to engulf around 150 hectares of forest.

SUNDAY, 21 July

NICE, France - Slovenian rider Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won his third Tour de France, finishing a comfortable 6:17 minutes ahead of his long-standing rival, Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike). He wore the yellow jersey in all but three stages of the grand tour and won six stages. In May, he also won the Giro d'Italia making for a double feat last achieved in 1998.

MONDAY, 22 July

LJUBLJANA - PM Robert Golob thanked US President Joe Biden for his continuous efforts to strengthen transatlantic relations after Biden announced he was withdrawing from the US presidential race. Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said she respected his decision. Both said Slovenia would cooperate with whoever the next US president will be. Retired diplomat Božo Cerar, who served as Slovenia's ambassador to the US, said the withdrawal was the right move but came too late.

NEW YORK, US - Slovenia condemned a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv and expressed regret at Israel's retaliatory measures, as Ondina Blokar Drobnič, Slovenia's deputy ambassador to the UN, urged all sides at a UN Security Council session to respect international law. She also endorsed a political solution for Syria under UN aegis as the only long-term solution for ending the conflict.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said that Slovenian ministers intend to participate in informal meetings organised by the Hungarian EU presidency in Budapest unless a different collective decision is made at EU level. Her statement comes as the EU is concerned about Victor Orban's recent visit to Russia.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - The way EU returns migrants must be "effective and permanent," Slovenian Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar said at an informal meeting of EU interior ministers. He urged the European Commission to be more active and to offer assistance in returns not just to EU states but also to Western Balkan countries.

VÖLKERMARKT, Austria/LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian minority issued protests after two bilingual signs in the municipality of Škocjan/Kanzianiberg in the Austrian state of Carinthia were vandalised last week, one of them blacked out and another taped over. The Slovenian Foreign Ministry also condemned the vandalism, and any acts of intolerance that undermine harmony, trust and cooperation in nationally mixed areas.

TUESDAY, 23 July

LJUBLJANA - Labour Minister Luka Mesec told the STA that expects pension reform, whose blueprint was adopted in April, to be passed before summer 2025. The aim are pensions allowing for a decent living while keeping 40 years of service as a basic condition for old-age pension and starting a gradual two-year retirement age increase to 67 in 2028.

STRASBOURG, France - Slovenian MEP Vladimir Prebilič, a former mayor, was elected coordinator of the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development for the Greens as the EU parliament's committees met for their maiden sessions. He will serve in the first half of the five-year term. Slovenia's nine MEPs also sit on the committees on internal affairs, budget, employment, culture, industry, environment and transport, but none of them is chair or vice chair.

SLOVENJ GRADEC - The first flood-stricken family moved to a new home, a private donation, before the first anniversary of the devastating floods that hit in early August 2023. As about 350 buildings are slated for demolition, the government is still making efforts to provide replacement housing for the affected families.

LJUBLJANA - Slovenian police processed a total of 21,243 illegal migrants in the first half of 2024, up 3% year-on-year. The number of Syrians sky-rocketted from 688 to 7,124, the number of caught Afghanis was down by about 300 to 3,004, while the figure for Turkish citizens increased by over 1,000 to 1,854.

WEDNESDAY, 24 July
        
NOVO MESTO - Revoz, the Slovenian subsidiary of Renault, will start producing a redesigned version of the electric Twingo in 2026 under a memorandum of understanding signed by PM Robert Golob, Renault's Herbert Steiner and Revoz chairman Jože Bele. The value of the investment was not disclosed but the government will financially support it.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission called on Slovenia in its annual Rule of Law Report to ensure the appropriate financing of public broadcaster RTV Slovenija and raise the salaries of judges and prosecutors, while saying the length of court proceedings remains a challenge. Commenting, the Foreign Ministry said the report indicated progress in virtually all fields.

LJUBLJANA - The global wealth report by the Boston Consulting Group shows that financial assets in Slovenia have grown at an average 6% rate over the past two decades, four points below the average of Eastern Europe. The consultancy believes growth of wealth in Slovenia will reach 8% in the next five years.

THURSDAY, 25 July

LJUBLJANA - Almost 2.6 million tourists visited Slovenia in the first six months of the year, up 4.5% compared to the same period last year. Almost 6.4 million tourist nights were recorded, up 2.2%. Almost 70% of all nights were spent by tourists from abroad, mostly from Germany, followed by Austrians and Italians.

LJUBLJANA - Milko Novič, a former employee of the National Chemistry Institute, is seeking more than EUR 1.5 million in damages from the state after he was fully acquitted in a murder trial but spent more than three years in prison, several newspapers reported. He was tried for the 2014 murder of the institute's director Janko Jamnik.

LJUBLJANA - The Jožef Stefan Institute, one of the leading Slovenian research institutions, announced the development of a Slovenian Quantum Science Hub (SQUASH), a EUR 12 million project, for which it has won EUR 5.7 million in EU funds, while the rest will come from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. The aim of the project is to attract top quantum technology experts.