News roundup - Friday, 28 February

Annual inflation rate slows down to 1.6%

LJUBLJANA - The annual inflation rate in Slovenia in February was down by 0.4 percentage points from January to 1.6%, largely driven by higher prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages. On a monthly basis, consumer prices were up by 0.3%, mostly owing to more expensive holiday packages, the Statistics Office said. The prices of services went up by 3.2% on average, and the prices of goods by 0.7%.

Disputed EUR 83m call for coal region restructuring annulled

LJUBLJANA - The public investment promotion agency SPIRIT annulled the controversial EUR 83 million open call for co-financing the restructuring of the two Slovenian coal regions after Economy Minister Matjaž Han urged it to do so. A new call under the new leadership of SPIRIT is expected to be prepared within three months. Earlier, Public Finance Oversight Commission chair Jernej Vrtovec of the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) said that the parliamentary body will hold a session next Monday to discuss the call.

Illegal entries down significantly in January y/y

LJUBLJANA - The police handled 1,170 irregular border crossings in January, which is a third of the figure recorded in the first month of last year. The majority of cases involved citizens of Afghanistan, Morocco, and Bangladesh. By contrast, last year Syrian nationals predominated, accounting for nearly one-quarter of all cases. The number of migrant smuggling cases fell from 77 to 13. Throughout the entirety of last year, the police handled 482 cases of migrant smuggling, broadly level with 2023.

Agreement signed to protect cultural heritage from natural disasters

LJUBLJANA - Four ministers signed a programme on comprehensive landscaping and architectural development projects in order to improve the resilience of cultural heritage assets to climate change and extreme weather events in the 2025-2028 period. Valued at EUR 11.5 million, the programme was signed by Culture Minister Asta Vrečko, Natural Resources and Spatial Planning Minister Jože Novak, Health Minister Valentina Prevolnik Rupel and Minister for a Solidarity-Based Future Simon Maljevac.

Nika Prevc wins gold at World Championships

TRONDHEIM, Norway - Slovenian ski jumper Nika Prevc won gold at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway. The 19-year-old scored 258.2 points with jumps of 98 and 100 metres, beating German Selina Freitag by 8.4 points. Norway's Anna Odine Stroem won bronze. "I don't grow tired of victories, I just want to achieve them," Prevc said, adding that she has wanted to win since she was a kid watching ski jumping events on TV. Hers is the 6th gold won at world championships by Slovenian ski jumpers.

Bobinac elected to EOC executive committee

FRANKFURT, Germany - Slovenian Olympic Committee (OKS) president Franjo Bobinac was elected to the executive committee of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) to become only the second Slovenian in this position. Bobinac, 66, cited the achievements of Slovenian athletes as one of the reasons for his winning the post. The first president of the Slovenian Olympic Committee, late Janez Kocijančič (1941-2020) had served on the EOC executive committee as a member, vice-president and president.

Journalists say N1 victim of SLAPP lawsuits by psychiatric clinic

LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian Association of Journalists (DNS) has found that the news portal N1 has been a victim of SLAPP lawsuits by the University Psychiatric Clinic in Ljubljana. The clinic has brought six lawsuits against N1 after it reported about alleged violence against patients at the clinic. The hospital said the actions were not SLAPP lawsuits because their allegations were substantiated and justified, arguing they had "been a victim of systematic wrongful reporting by N1".

Share of households experiencing energy poverty up slightly in 2024

LJUBLJANA - Around 64,000 or 7.3% of households in Slovenia lived in energy poverty in 2024, 0.1 percentage points more than the previous year. This affected about 110,000 people, 1,000 more than in 2023. Since 2014, the number of energy-poor households has dropped by one third or by 25,000 households. One-person households had the highest rate (14.3%), with a higher incidence among people aged 65 or over (15.1%) compared to younger generations (13.5%).

Slovenians marry 900 foreign citizens every year on average

LJUBLJANA - In the last 15 years, around 900 Slovenians married foreign citizens every year on average, with spouses from Bosnia and Herzegovina representing the largest share nation-wise. Citizens of more than 140 countries from around the world got married in Slovenia in that period, shows data released by the Interior Ministry. According to the Public Administration Ministry, administrative units in Slovenia are detecting individual cases where it is suspected that a fictitious marriage has been registered.