The Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning Andrej Vizjak attended the last meeting of the Environment Council to be held during the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The Slovenian Presidency presented a report on the progress made in negotiations on the proposal for a regulation concerning batteries and waste batteries, which is an integral part of the European Green Deal. The proposals contained in the “Fit for 55” package were the main priority of the Slovenian Presidency, which strived for the greatest possible progress and a coherent approach to dealing with dossiers that are highly horizontal in nature.

The Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Andrej Vizjak, will chair the last meeting of EU Environment and Climate Change Ministers before France takes over the European Council presidency.

Prime Minister Janez Janša attended the European Council meeting in Brussels, where EU leaders discussed the current situation regarding COVID-19, crisis management and resilience, energy prices, security and defence, migration and certain issues related to the EU's external relations. After the European Council meeting, the Prime Minister attended the Euro Summit. In accordance with the conclusions of the June 2021 Euro Summit, the state of play of the Capital Markets Union was discussed.

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.

The continually updated virtual exhibition "Pioneers of Slovenian Modern Architecture – Fabiani, Plečnik and Vurnik – Forms for a New Democracy" is being rounded off with an exhibition at the National Museum of Slovenia and a comprehensive monograph on the three great Slovenian architects produced by Bojana Čampa in Stane Jeršič.

"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.

During the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU, the 41st session of the Executive Body for the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution took place in Geneva in a hybrid format from 6 to 8 December 2021. At a time when some of the capital cities across the world have once again decided to shut down all activities, this time because of excessive air pollution, the parties are adopting new provisions for cleaner air.

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".

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.

At the last meeting of the Working Party on Staff Regulations under the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU, delegates discussed two regular annual reports, namely on the budget and financial expenditure for employees of the EU institutions and the employment of contract staff in the EU institutions. The working party was led by Peter Pogačar, Director General of the Public Sector Directorate, and his colleagues.

On 30 November 2021, more than 150 experts and entrepreneurs participated in a webinar titled SMEs & Defence Initiatives: Unlocking Opportunities & Overcoming Challenges (SMEs), organized under the auspices of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU by the European Defence Agency (EDA), the Slovenian Business & Research Association (SBRA) and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia.

At the meeting of ministers responsible for culture, audiovisual and media in Brussels, which was chaired by the Slovenian culture minister, Vasko Simoniti, the Slovenian Presidency's commitment to a better tomorrow – for a green, sustainable, culturally diverse and resilient European Union – was reaffirmed with the approval of conclusions and discussions.

The Minister of Culture Vasko Simoniti will chair a meeting of ministers of culture, audiovisual affairs and the media in Brussels on 30 November. Agenda of the meeting includes adoptions of the decisions on high-quality architecture and the New European Bauhaus initiative, as well as European audiovisual and media content. Several other discussions and presentations are also on the agenda.

The Retrospective of Slovenian Film opens on Thursday, 2 December, at 19:00 in Brussels. Between 2 and 22 December 2021, ten feature-length classics from the Slovenian film treasury – from the silent beginnings to present day productions – will be shown on the big screen of the Royal Belgian Film Archive in Brussels. The retrospective will open with a showing of the first Slovenian silent feature-length film In the Kingdom of Goldenhorn (V kraljestvu Zlatoroga) accompanied by live original music.

The Slovenian Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Andrej Vizjak, chaired the virtual informal meeting of ministers responsible for urban development. With the adoption of the Ljubljana Agreement, the ministers supported further implementation of the Urban Agenda for the EU. Slovenia's initiative to involve small and medium-sized cities more in cooperation and the policy-making processes, alongside large cities was therefore successful.

This conference concludes the Three Presidencies for Climate (Three4Climate) project. Climate activities took place in towns and schools in Germany, Portugal and Slovenia to support the Trio Presidency under the motto "Think European – Act Local".