News

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr Janez Janša, today met with the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Heiko Maas, who at the beginning of Germany’s EU Council Presidency paid his first visit to Slovenia.

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia decided to include Belgium and the Netherlands in the list of epidemiologically safe counties or administrative units of countries (green list) as from 4 July 2020. It also decided to remove Czechia, Croatia and France from the green list, which means that these countries are now on the yellow list.

The Presidents of the coalition parties, Janez Janša, Zdravko Počivalšek, Matej Tonin and Aleksandra Pivec, and the President of the Slovenian National Party, Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti, and the deputies of the two national communities, Ferenc Horváth and Felice Žiža, today signed an agreement between the political parties and the deputies of the national communities in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia on cooperation in the adoption of laws and other acts and documents in the period 2020–2022.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) focused on four main aspects in compiling a comprehensive review of digital administration in Slovenia: coordination and management, digital skills, development and provision of services, and data management. In its key findings, the OECD emphasizes that Slovenia is making good progress in the development of a digital public administration, but it needs to improve coordination, vision and analytical approach, and needs stronger leverage to guide digital transformation. For agility and quick adaptation, the comparative advantage of Slovenia is its small size and general enthusiasm for digitalization.

Prime Minister Janez Janša today met with President of the European Council Charles Michel via videoconference. They discussed the European Commission’s proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework for the next seven-year period and the proposed recovery instrument.

The number of infected people in Slovenia has been increasing again in recent weeks, and the source of infections is no longer only imported cases, but also secondary infections and cases of unknown origin, said Bojana Beović, the head of the Government Advisory Group. The number has been increasing exponentially since end of May.

Based on the agreement between the Slovenian and Croatian national institutes and the talks between both prime ministers, Janez Janša and Andrej Plenković, Slovenia will not remove Croatia from the green list of epidemiologically safe countries for now. Croatia plans to implement several measures to curb the spread of the virus, including closing nightclubs and cancelling similar events.

From 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2021, the Presidency of the Council of the European Union will be held successively by Germany, Portugal and Slovenia. For several months, the trio has worked in the spirit of constructive and friendly cooperation to shape the 18-month programme. In June 2020, the final Presidency programme was presented and approved at the General Affairs Council.

Today, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Anže Logar attended a video conference of Foreign Ministers and State Secretaries from the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) participating states, where he outlined Slovenia’s views on the further development of institutional ties within the 3SI and closer cooperation process in the wider region of Central and Eastern Europe.

If you saw numerous groups wandering and exploring Cleveland and its neighboring cities on Father’s Day weekend, wearing Slovenian clothing, with Slovenian flags, posters and other props, we hope you weren’t alarmed! It was not an invasion of Slovenian tourists in Cleveland, but a competition and a project, named "Discover Slovenia in Cleveland.”

At its last night’s session, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia finalised the text of the proposed Act on the intervention measures to prepare for the second wave of COVID-19 (ACP4) to be submitted to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia for discussion and adoption under an emergency procedure. The proposed act replaces the proposed amendment to ACP3 adopted by the Government last week.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has issued a financial support decision for the project “Construction of public municipal infrastructure for the business zone Ravne 2019-2022”. The project worth a little over EUR 1.1 million will receive just under EUR 600,000 of European Regional Development Fund support.

State Secretary mag. Monika Kirbiš Rojs took part in a videoconference with Cohesion Ministers of the Visegrad Group (V4), Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the representative of Croatia and the EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira. Participants reaffirmed the importance of Cohesion Policy in addressing the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On behalf of Foreign Minister Dr Anže Logar, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tone Kajzer, attended a video conference with Foreign Ministers of South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) participants.

State Secretary Tone Kajzer attended the international Sudan Partnership Conference.

Message by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia Janez Janša on Statehood Day

Today Prime Minister Janez Janša attended a number of events to commemorate tomorrow’s Statehood Day.

In today’s video conference at the Ministry of Defence, a day before Slovenian Statehood Day, Prime Minister Janez Janša addressed the members of the Slovenian Armed Forces on missions abroad. In addition to the Prime Minister, the video-conference was attended by the Minister of Defence, Matej Tonin, and the Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, Robert Glavaš.

Yesterday, the three-day Annual Security Review Conference of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) started, at which the participants will assess the activities undertaken in the last year and review the state of security and implementation of the assumed commitments in the OSCE area. The Slovenian side is represented by Ambassador-at-Large Dr Andrej Benedejčič, Special Envoy of the Foreign Minister for arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation.

At its session today, the Slovenian government decided to take Luxembourg and Montenegro off the list of epidemiologically safe countries or administrative units (i.e., the green list) as of 25 June 2020. In addition, the government decided to add Portugal and Albania to the list of countries with a deteriorated epidemiological situation (i.e., the red list) as of 25 June 2020.