News

On Tuesday, October 22, 2024, the Ambassador Iztok Mirošič, together with Prime Minister Dr. Robert Golob, made a working visit to the White House at the invitation of the President of the United States, Joseph Biden.

The main event of the meeting was the high-level discussion "Our Waters, Our Future: Transboundary Water Cooperation to Strengthen Climate Resilience", which was attended by high-level representatives of countries – ministers, state secretaries and other representatives of governmental and non-governmental international organizations. At the end, the participants also adopted the joint conclusions of the high segment of the session.

As we celebrate the entry into force of the Charter of the United Nations on United Nations (UN) Day, we pay tribute to the world's most important international organisation.

On United Nations Day, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Tanja Fajon, emphasises: “I believe that, despite the challenging crises, the UN remains the most important international organisation for maintaining global peace. Member States must seize the opportunity and responsibility to strengthen it and restore its standing.”

Prime Minister Robert Golob concludes his working visit to US President Biden.

The UN General Assembly Third Committee on Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs, which deals with human rights issues, is meeting in New York from 3 October 2024. Slovenia has traditionally focused its work on its priorities, such as the rights of women, the elderly and children, human rights and the environment, and the situation of human rights worldwide.

During the high-level segment discussion at the 10th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Water Convention, Minister Tanja Fajon emphasised: "Effective cooperation mechanisms help to reduce tensions and mitigate disputes. Climate change will not lead to tensions if all Parties view their cooperation as fair, equitable and mutually beneficial."

The tenth meeting of the parties to the Water Convention in Ljubljana has finally begun. The high-level international event, organized under the auspices of the United Nations by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, is attended by about 600 representatives from all over the world. On behalf of the hosts, Minister Jože Novak and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Ms. Tatiana Molcean addressed the audience.

Slovenia today received the transfer from the third payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Facility in the amount of EUR 257.7 million.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Robert Golob, today paid a working visit to the United States at the invitation of the President of the United States, Joe Biden. This is the first working visit of a Slovenian Prime Minister to the President of the United States at the White House in 18 years.

The 12th Slovenian Development Days, held from 15 to 22 October 2024 under the theme "For a World Without Hunger", concluded with an international conference on food security and the 2nd Slovenian Humanitarian Forum. The Forum was opened by the President of Slovenia, Dr Nataša Pirc Musar, and Minister Tanja Fajon participated in the panel on armed conflict and the food crisis.

Minister Jevšek was a keynote speaker at the panel discussion titled Improve Efficiency of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) Absorption Processes in Slovenia that took place in the framework of the 20th Salzburg Europe Summit. In his speech, the Minister underlined the importance of the Integrated Territorial Investments (ITIs) mechanism, which is an excellent example of a ‘place-based’ and ‘bottom-up’ approach.

Prime Minister Robert Golob visited the University Rehabilitation Institute Soča (URI Soča), where 10 children and adolescents from Gaza are undergoing rehabilitation.

Prime Minister Robert Golob attended a ceremony marking the start of construction work on the modernisation of the central part of Ljubljana's railway station.

At the initiative of Prime Minister Golob, a meeting was held today with representatives of the Slovenian automotive industry to discuss current trends and challenges facing this key economic sector.

On Monday, 21 October and Tuesday, 22 October 2024, the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia will be closed to all visitors and users of archival records due to the move to a new location. The archives reading room and information room will be closed during this time.
It is expected that on Wednesday, 23 October 2024, the archives and the archives reading room will open in their new premises at Poljanska cesta 40.

Today, the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Recovery and Resilience forwarded the second proposal to amend the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) together with all supporting documentation to Brussels. The Government approved the proposal to amend the RRP yesterday.

Minister of the Interior Boštjan Poklukar hosted his colleague Minister of the Interior of Luxembourg Leon Gloden on a bilateral working visit.

More than 5,000 people in the worst-affected municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina are still in need of humanitarian aid following the catastrophic floods and mudslides that hit the country in October. The Ministry and its strategic partner for emergency humanitarian aid, Caritas Slovenia, will provide EUR 100,000 in humanitarian aid over the next month.

On the second day of his official visit to Brussels, Prime Minister Robert Golob attended the European Council meeting. The summit's agenda included Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine and continued comprehensive support for Ukraine, the escalating crisis in the Middle East, a review of the comprehensive approach to migration, the competitiveness of the European market, and specific foreign policy issues.

The Ukraine Mine Action Conference UMAC2024 is taking place today and tomorrow in Lausanne under the auspices of the Swiss and Ukrainian governments. The event, opened by Swiss President Viola Amherd and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, brings together high-level representatives from governments, international organisations and experts from around the world to strengthen cooperation in humanitarian mine action.

At today’s session, the Government approved legislative amendments to increase the accessibility of payment accounts and the second proposal for amendments to the Recovery and Resilience Plan. It also took note of the initialled agreement on the Act on the Common Foundations of the Salary System in the Public Sector.

Today, the Government approved a proposal to amend the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). This is a minor modification focused on the implementation of six key measures. In accordance with the agreement with the European Commission (EC), the Slovenian Recovery and Resilience Office will submit the revised plan to Brussels by Monday, 21 October 2024, for formal coordination and approval.

The new academic year at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs was opened today by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar, with a ceremonial lecture “Themes and dilemmas of Slovenian foreign policy”.

Please be advised that due to a planned data migration and systems upgrade, there will be disruption to our services from Thursday 17 October 2024 until Sunday 27 October 2024.

Prime Minister Robert Golob is today attending the first summit between the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Prime Minister Robert Golob is today attending the first summit between the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

This year's World Food Day - 16 October - is dedicated to food as a human right. Slovenia has chosen food security as the central theme of the 12th Slovenian Development Days, which take place between 15 and 22 October.

The closing event of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism and the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism programmes for the period 2014-2021 in Slovenia took place in Ljubljana. A total of 37.7 million euros was allocated to Slovenia under the two financial mechanisms during this period.

In Brussels, State Secretary Marko Štucin attended a ministerial dinner of foreign ministers on the margins of the EU-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit.

On 14 October, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs welcomed representatives of institutions from Brazil, Chile and Uruguay working in the field of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI).

State Secretary Marko Štucin attended the regular meeting of the EU General Affairs Council. Ministers and state secretaries for European affairs focused on the draft conclusions for the European Council meeting at the end of this week. They also discussed support for Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, EU competitiveness and migration, as well as other topical foreign policy issues.

Prime Minister Robert Golob met with the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde. It was a courtesy visit by the President of the ECB ahead of the monetary policy meeting of the ECB Governing Council, which will take place at Brdo pri Kranju on Wednesday and Thursday.

Tanja Fajon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, received Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić for an official visit. Discussions focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation, succession issues and Serbia's progress towards the European Union.

The Prime Minister, Dr Robert Golob, today met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, Marko Đurić, who is on an official visit to the Republic of Slovenia.

The Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Tehran has resumed with the provision of consular services.

Archival reading room and information room will be closed from Thursday, October 17, to Tuesday, October 22, 2024, due to our moving to new location.

During this time, the operation of the archive will also be interrupted.

On Wednesday, October 23, 2024, the archive and its archival reading room will begin operating at the new location at Poljanska Road 40.

Minister Tanja Fajon took part in the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting. The main topics on the agenda were Russian aggression against Ukraine and the Middle East. On the margins of the meeting, the EU foreign ministers met informally with their British counterpart David Lammy. Other current foreign policy issues – Moldova, Georgia, Sudan, Somalia, Venezuela and relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan – were also discussed.

Minister Dr Aleksander Jevšek took part in the panel discussion Mobility and web accessibility for people with disabilities that was held at the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia. In his opening remarks, the Minister said that care for the people with disabilities and the elderly was an across-the-board theme in long-term care, health care, and social inclusion in Slovenia’s EU Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027.

Minister of the Interior Boštjan Poklukar attended a trilateral meeting with the Ministers of the Interior of Croatia, Italy and Slovenia, hosted by Croatian Minister Dr Davor Božinović, in Zaprešić, Croatia.

Congratulating them at today's press conference, Minister Igor Papič said that without their efforts it would be hard to imagine the continued successful development of society.

Slobodan Šešum, Director General of the Directorate for Economic and Public Diplomacy, was the keynote speaker at the round table Economic Diplomacy – Current Status and Future Development in the EU Region, where he presented to the participants the current challenges and views on the future role of economic diplomacy, as well as the challenges facing the EU, especially in terms of competitiveness in comparison with the US and China.

Prime Minister Robert Golob today attended a summit of the Mediterranean EU countries, MED9, in Paphos, Cyprus. The summit was also attended by the King of Jordan, Abdullah II, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which began on 9 September 2024, concluded today in Geneva. The UNHRC unanimously adopted a resolution on human rights education proposed by Slovenia in cooperation with a group of countries from different world regions.

The Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development has approved EU funding for the project Development of key competences and specialised programmes for persons on probation.

In this episode of the GOVSI podcast, we discuss civil defense. Together with Boštjan Pavlin, the Director General for Defense Affairs at the Ministry of Defense, we explain the essence of civil defense and the difference between civil defense and civil protection.

At today's session, the Government issued a Decree on determining intensified security conditions due to staffing or accommodation problems in prisons and on taking provisional measures. It also adopted the medium-term fiscal-structural plan and took note of the starting points for drafting the proposal for an act on protection measures for persons engaged in public activities.

Minister of the Interior Boštjan Poklukar attended the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg.

State Secretary Melita Gabrič participated in the 16th EMUNI Conference in Piran, co-organised with the Union for the Mediterranean, where she expressed her support for the initiative to establish the Euro-Mediterranean Students’ Empowerment Fund - EMSEF.

At the invitation of Prime Minister Robert Golob, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Dr Rafael Mariano Grossi, is visiting Slovenia today.

Prime Minister Robert Golob attended the opening of the new premises of the Ljubljana Community Health Centre's mental health centre for children and youth (Unit Vič-Rudnik).