News

On the eve of Prešeren Day, the Slovenian Cultural Holiday, a state ceremony will be held during which the Prešeren Prize and Prešeren Fund Prizes will be awarded as the highest recognition in the Republic of Slovenia for achievements in the field of artistic creation.

Slovenia has welcomed a European Commission proposal for a reform of the EU membership process that provides stronger sanctioning of aspiring EU members if they backslide on their reform efforts.

This year’s focus of 2 February, World Wetlands Day, annually celebrated in the framework of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, is on the role of wetlands in preserving biodiversity. Despite the growing awareness of the importance of wetlands, they are still being changed or even destroyed.

4 February marks World Cancer Day. On this occasion, the European Commission presented its initiative for Europe’s new Beating Cancer Plan.

Slovenia can be justly proud of its successful initiative to declare 20 May World Bee Day.

Slovenia and Portugal have urged the European Commission to introduce a clearer system of labelling the origin of honey to give consumers more comprehensive and reliable information.

Just before new year, Slovenia was given an excellent opportunity for cooperation: to partner with the American NBA Dallas Mavericks where Luka Dončić currently plays. The effects of this partnership will be multi-layered and visible in several fields: tourism, economy, mobility. Six partners saw this great opportunity for a better recognition of Slovenia in the American market: the Sport Media Focus Agency, the Government Communication Office (UKOM), the Slovenian Tourist Board (STO), AmCham Slovenia, SPIRIT Slovenia, and Ljubljana Tourism. It has quite often been proven that we achieve greater success and recognition if we collaborate.

Prime Minister Marjan Šarec was a attending the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos at the invitation of its founder and Executive Chairman, prof. Klaus Schwab, on 21 and 22 January 2020.

A larger group of Slovenians from Venezuela who applied for repatriation have already arrived in Slovenia, told State Secretary Olga Belec at the press conference held at the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad. The repatriation is still open and the Office is accepting new applications. So far, repatriation has been approved to 29 persons of which 21 are already in Slovenia. All those who arrived in Slovenia are feeling well and relieved to live in peace and freedom.

Tamburitzas in an opera? Some people may find this unusual or say that it cannot be done, but composer Gregor Zagorc and his excellent team have managed to prove them wrong, surprising the audience with a beautiful opera. Ambrož and Katarina, a saga of forbidden love, is the world's first opera written for a tamburitza orchestra.

Slovenia and Portugal announced at the January meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council their joint initiative for marking the exact geographical origin of honey.

Just before the new year, Slovenia entered into a partnership with the American NBA club Dallas Mavericks, where one of the players is our outstanding basketball player Luka Dončić.

The Guardian published its top 20 alternative global destinations worth visiting in 2020.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Miro Cerar attended the Green Group ministerial round table in Abu Dhabi in addition to other participants from Singapore, Iceland, Costa Rica, United Arab Emirates and Cape Verde. He also met the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The Woman Engineer of the Year title for 2019 went to Aida Kamišalić Latifić, a researcher and professor at the Maribor Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, as the award ceremony was held on Wednesday in the Cankarjev Dom arts centre. Kamišalić Latifić came to Slovenia as a Bosnian war refugee in 1992.

The Slovenian Foreign Minister, Miro Cerar, attended an event held by the Institute for Strategic Solutions (ISR), where the latest edition of the institute’s annual publication, The Adriatic Journal, titled Strategic Foresight 2020 was presented.

For a number of years now, during the first week after the Christmas holidays, when school vacations take place in Croatia and many Croatians come to ski in Slovenia, two Croatian police officers helped ensure security at Slovenian ski resorts in cooperation with their Slovenian colleagues. This year, one is helping out at Rogla and the other in Kranjska Gora.

Healthy plants are a source of life, they support ecosystems and provide food.

This year marks 29 years since the watershed date of 23 December 1990, when nearly 90 percent of all eligible voters opted for an independent Slovenia in a plebiscite.

2019 is drawing to a close. Since the end of the year is a good opportunity to look back at what has been accomplished and what lies ahead for Slovenia, we have compiled a list of the key achievements in the recent period and the priorities going ahead.