News roundup - Thursday, 17 October, until 3pm

Commission says 2025, 2026 budgets should take into account challenges ahead

LJUBLJANA - The opposition-led Commission for Oversight of Public Finances discussed the budgets for 2025 and 2026, warning that Slovenia should prepare better for the challenges it will face due to the problems of its main business partners. While the economy is still in good shape at the moment, the proposed budget bills do not prepare Slovenia for the challenges ahead, Jernej Vrtovec from the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) said.

Almost 13% of Slovenians at risk of poverty

LJUBLJANA - Some 264,000 people, or 12.7% of Slovenia's entire population, lived beneath the poverty line last year, 0.6 points higher than the year before. Nevertheless, this is still among the lowest at-risk-of-poverty rates in the EU. The rate was lowest in 2009, at 11.3%, and the highest in 2013 and 2014, when it climbed to 14.5%, the Statistics Office said on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Ljubljana's district heating and electricity provider switching to gas

LJUBLJANA - Termoelektrarna-Toplarna Ljubljana, the capital's district heating and electricity provider, has begun trial operations of a new gas-steam unit. The EUR 145 million investment is expected to reduce coal usage by 70% and double electricity production, the Energetika Ljubljana utility said. The trial operation of the new unit is expected to last about nine months, and electricity and heat will already be generated and fed into the grid during this period.

Climatologist urges changes in construction planning

LJUBLJANA - The urgent need for construction planning to adapt to climate change and stop relying on outdated maps and models that do not reflect today's climate realities was highlighted by climatologist Lučka Kajfež Bogataj at a conference marking the 75th anniversary of the National Building and Civil Engineering Institute. Arguably the country's most prominent climatologist criticised the industry for not taking future scenarios seriously enough in its planning. She stressed that anything being built today - be it dams, coastal infrastructure, or urban structures - must last at least 50 years.

Collection of Slovenian Baroque texts available online

LJUBLJANA - Slovenian texts from the Baroque have been put online 310 years after the death of monk and writer Janez Svetokriški, a key figure of Slovenian Baroque literature. The collection of electronic editions, termed Slovenian Baroque Literature, is the work of the Institute of Slovenian Literature and Literary Studies at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). Available at https://sbs.manuscripta.zrc-sazu.si, it brings more than 20 editions of Baroque manuscripts from all over Slovenia from the 17th to the mid-19th century.

Man gets three years and five months in prison for sexual abuse of daughter

LJUBLJANA - The Higher Court in Ljubljana has sentenced a father who sexually abused his daughter to three years and five months in prison after he was earlier acquitted by the first-instance District Court, the newspaper Slovenske Novice reported. The defendant is appealing the verdict.