News

The Slovenian Minister of the Interior, Aleš Hojs, and the Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum, Notis Mitarachi, met today in Bled. They focused on the war in Ukraine, the gradual approach to the Pact on Migration and Asylum and the political governance of the Schengen area.

Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs met with Nicos Nouris, Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Cyprus, in Ljubljana today. The main topics of the discussion were the war in Ukraine and its consequences and the Pact on Migration and Asylum.

EU home affairs ministers met at the Extraordinary Justice and Home Affairs Council today in Brussels to continue the discussion on the consequences of the situation in Ukraine. They focused on the reception and registration procedures for persons fleeing Ukraine, on the implementation of material and financial support for member states, and security issues. The Extraordinary Council was attended by Slovenian State Secretary Franc Kangler.

Today, Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs briefed a number of foreign ambassadors to Slovenia on the activities and measures of the Slovenian Government in relation to the crisis in Ukraine.

Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs attended the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels. Following Sunday's extraordinary meeting on the situation in Ukraine, the ministers continued their discussion on the response to the situation there, which requires constant and close monitoring and an immediate and decisive EU response.

Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs has attended the extraordinary meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussles, convened by the French presidency. EU ministers of the interior met to discuss provision of humanitarian support to Ukraine, reception of refugees and the underlying aspects regarding the activation of the directive on temporary protection, management of the external borders, measures on visas and anticipation of hybrid threats.

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia has issued the Ordinance repealing the Ordinance of determining the conditions for entry into the Republic of Slovenia for the purpose of containment and control of the infectious disease COVID-19. The Ordinance enters into force on 19 February 2022.

Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs attended the two-day informal meeting of EU home affairs ministers in Lille, France. The key topics of the meeting were the reform of Schengen and progress in shaping a common EU migration policy.

Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs attended a two-day conference on border management in Vilnius. Participants addressed the issue of the instrumentalisation of migrants for political purposes and discussed common measures to strengthen surveillance at the EU's external borders in the face of increased migration flows. On the margins of the event organised by the Interior Ministers of Austria, Greece, Lithuania and Poland, the participants visited a border surveillance centre and were updated on the situation at the external border.

The Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs and the Minister of Justice Marjan Dikaučič, current Chairs of the EU Home Affairs Council and EU Justice Council respectively, attended the EU-US Justice and Home Affairs ministerial meeting in Washington on 16 December 2021. The ministerial meeting was also attended by the European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson, the Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders, a delegation of the General Secretariat of the EU Council, the EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Ilkka Salmi, the Executive Director of Europol Catherine de Bolle and the President of Eurojust Ladislav Hamran.The meeting agenda was dedicated to justice and home affairs topics of shared EU and US interest.

As part of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU, a video conference of the Management Board of Europol started today. The participants were addressed by the Slovenian Minister of the Interior and Chair of the Home Affairs Council, Aleš Hojs.

"Human resource management needs to focus on a multi-generational workforce and take into account the participation of all generations. This would help to shape younger and older workers not as separate commodities but as two sides of the same coin. Today, more than ever, it is important to make this natural diversity an asset in a rapidly changing work environment," stressed Minister of Public Administration Boštjan Koritnik in his opening address at the EUPAN Directors-General Meeting, which took place online on Monday 13 December 2021.

"Every citizen should have the possibility to actively, continuously and responsibly participate at all levels of the community, both in person and online. A progressive and inclusive approach can also help public administrations to develop better digital services that bring more added value to end users. However, the use of advanced digital technologies is only possible if citizens support digital solutions, know how to use them and recognise their value. That is why we are working to offer citizens secure, trustworthy, freely accessible and user-friendly digital services," said the Minister of Public Administration, Boštjan Koritnik, in the opening session of the conference.

EU ministers of the interior have unanimously concluded that Croatia has fulfilled the necessary conditions for the application of all parts of the Schengen acquis.

"Digital technologies offer huge opportunities for the improvement of service provision, participatory processes and cooperation with citizens. However, we need to ensure that these technologies are trustworthy, human-centred and focused on the fundamental rights and values of the EU," said the Slovenian Minister of Public Administration Boštjan Koritnik at the start of the informal meeting of EU State Chief Information Officers (EU CIO meeting). The meeting was attended by 54 participants from 30 countries, five Western Balkans.

As part of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the international conference "Semantic Interoperability Community – SEMIC 2021", a key European event in the field of semantic interoperability, organised by the Ministry of Public Administration in collaboration with the European Commission, took place on Wednesday 8 December 2021. The title of the conference was "Human Centric Data Spaces – Powered by Interoperability".

Today, the Minister of the Interior, Aleš Hojs, attended the seventh ministerial meeting of the EU Internet Forum, organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the internet industry.

The EU Network of National Rapporteurs and Equivalent Mechanisms against Trafficking in Human Beings (NREM) met today by videoconference, in the context of the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union. The Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs gave an opening speech.

The last meeting of the Working Group of the Public Procurement Council, chaired by Director General Sašo Matas and his colleagues, took place today at the Directorate for Public Procurement of the Ministry of Public Administration in the framework of the Presidency.

At today's meeting of the Telecommunications Council, chaired by the Minister of Public Administration, Boštjan Koritnik, the EU ministers unanimously endorsed a general approach on the NIS2 directive, which will make a major contribution to improving the EU’s resilience and cyber incident response capacities. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Digital Transformation, Mark Boris Andrijanič, who chaired the Council's policy debate on "Digital rights and principles" in the context of Europe's Digital Decade 2030.