News

The Salzburg Forum ministerial meeting continued today, 7 November 2019, in Vienna, in the presence of ministers from the Western Balkan countries and Moldova. Participants’ discussions again focused on migration and the fight against people smuggling.

On the margins of the presidential official visit to Oslo, Minister Dr Cerar met the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide. The ministers expressed their satisfaction regarding the excellent relations in various fields, especially at the multilateral level, and pleaded for enhanced cooperation on the circular economy, sustainable mobility and AI.

The International Resource Panel (IRP), one of the most important and eminent global research networks aiming to prevent the over-consumption of natural resources and ensure a sustainable future, continues its 25th meeting in Bled.

On 6 November 2019, Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Slovenia, Boštjan Poklukar, and the Ministry delegation attended the ministerial meeting of the Salzburg Forum.

Within the framework of the e-ARH.si Project, we are organizing the Fourth e-ARH.si International Conference that will take place on November 20th and 21st, 2019 in the Austria Trend Hotel in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The conference will be held under the slogan The past is just a click away!

Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec participated in the second summit of the Friends of Cohesion Group in Prague.

On 4 November 2019, Acting Director-General of the Information Society and Informatics Directorate, Miha Krišelj, and a team of specialised staff members attended a meeting in Berlin on the preparations for the presidency of the Telecommunications Council of the EU.

Technical assistance to Montenegro in data management continues. Miro Lozej and Paula Kolenko from the Data Management Division of the Information Society and Informatics Directorate visited Montenegro from 28 to 30 October 2019 to present the experience of the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration in this area.

The European Commission published the results of the third call for proposals as part of the WiFi4EU initiative on its website.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Miro Cerar is paying a working visit to the United Arab Emirates, where the formal opening of the first Slovenian embassy in the Gulf states will be held on Tuesday, 29 October 2019. The visit by the Slovenian Minister coincides with the first meeting of the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation between Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates.

Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec is today on an official visit to Hungary at the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Their meeting signals an affirmation of good neighbourly relations and regular political dialogue between Slovenia and Hungary, and at the same time marks the first official meeting between the two current prime ministers.

Slovenia's bilateral technical assistance to Montenegro continues.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Miroslav Cerar meets Tatjana Rojc, senator in Italian Parliament.

At the beginning of this week, from 21 to 23 October 2019, three events related to e-government were held in Helsinki within the Finland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union, i.e. the SEMIC 2019 conference, the Digital Government Conference and the regular Meeting of EU Chief Information Officers.

On Thursday, 24 October 2019, the 3rd International conference on e-identification and e-trust services – ZEIDES 2019 was held at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel.

Today Minister Dr Cerar held a meeting with President of the International Criminal Court Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji.

Andrej Benedejčič, Ambassador-at-Large for arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, attended the NATO Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction in Brussels. This annual event reaffirms the commitment of the North Atlantic Alliance to ensure military transparency and predictability. The meeting is primarily devoted to preparations for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference to be held in New York in mid-2020, as well as to discussing a new security reality after the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Regular political consultations between Slovenia and Turkey have been held today led by the Political Director/Director General for Common Foreign and Security Policy Matej Marn and Director General for Central Europe and Balkans in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Ambassador Sadik Babür Girgin. Interlocutors have discussed the bilateral relations between countries, including economic cooperation and cooperation in multilateral affairs.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, partner in INNOVA-FI project, participated at workshop on the topic of the role of financial instruments (FIs) in the regional ecosystem and territorial cohesion that took place during the European Week of Regions and Cities on Thursday, October 10, at Brussels Convention Centre. The session was organized as a joint effort of Startup Europe Regions Network (SERN) and ESPON.

The European Commission published the most recent results of the regular comparative analysis of the development of eGovernment services in the European Union in 2019 (eGovernment Benchmark). The measurements were carried out in 2018.

18 October – EU Anti-Trafficking Day – is intended to raise awareness of human trafficking and to encourage everyone involved to work harder in the fight against this phenomenon. “In Slovenia we are working for the fourth year in a row to increase awareness of forced labour and labour exploitation, which is a too-little recognised form of this serious crime”, said State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior and National Anti-trafficking coordinator Sandi Čurin.

Slovenian prime minister Marjan Šarec is attending the second day of the regular meeting of the European Council in Brussels.

As part of the meeting hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, students participating in the Young Women Ambassadors project learnt more about consular affairs.

State Secretary Simona Leskovar and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central Europe and Holocaust Issues Matthew G. Boyse confirmed the interest in strengthening cooperation between Slovenia and the United States and exchanged positions on topical regional and international issues.

European Vocational Skills Week wrapped up today. A series of events and activities took place across Europe to highlight the benefits of vocational education and training and vocational skills development. The aim of the week, organised annually by the European Commission, is to improve visibility and recognition of vocational education and training (VET) and offer the relevant actors a chance to engage in dialogue. Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for the ESF, the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund, has already approved EUR 40.5 million in ESF funding for programmes and calls for proposals aiming to promote vocational education and training in Slovenia.

At the invitation of his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides, Foreign Minister Dr Cerar paid an official visit to the Republic of Cyprus on 17 and 18 October. He was accompanied by a group of Slovenian business representatives, who attended a business forum held in parallel with the visit.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for the ERDF, the ESF and the Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for the project ‘’Wastewater collection and treatment in the Meža river basin in Municipality Črna na Koroškem’’. Total project budget stands at EUR 3.8 million; the project will receive EUR 1.6 million funding from the ERDF.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for the call for proposals ''Strengthening the competences of young people through active citizenship to increase their employability’’ which is to be published by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. The funding made available under the call for proposals stands at over EUR 2 million, of which EUR 1.6 million comes from ESF. Cohesion region Zahodna Slovenija will receive EUR 1.2 million of the available funding, while cohesion region Vzhodna Slovenija is to get a little under EUR 837,000.

On 16 and 17 October 2019, a high-profile international conference on machine learning and data analytics was held in London entitled "Premier Machine Learning Conference – Predictive Analytics World Business".

Director-General of the Public Sector Directorate at the Ministry of Public Administration, Peter Pogačar, is attending the 38th Annual Meeting of Senior Officials from Centres of Government of OECD countries.

At Ljubljana BTC’s Crystal Palace, Foreign Minister Dr Miro Cerar today participated in a conference entitled “Export smarter: How to enhance the value of Slovenian exports”, organised by the newspaper Delo and the Institute for Strategic Solutions.

Mr Uroš Svete, the Slovenian representative in the Management Board of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), today, on 16 October 2019, attended the regular ENISA meeting at the Agency's head office in Athens.

Foreign Minister Dr Miro Cerar was in Luxembourg attending a General Affairs Council (Art. 50) meeting on the state of play regarding the UK’s forthcoming withdrawal from the EU and a General Affairs Council session. The latter concentrated on enlargement and on preparations for the European Council.

On the sidelines of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting, I spoke with Spanish Foreign Minister and future High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. I was interested in his assessment of the situation in Catalonia – and Spain! Not his assessment of the convictions, but of the next steps, both for proponents of Catalonia’s independence and the Spanish state authorities.

A delegation of six experts from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will be visiting the Ministry of Public Administration from 14 to 18 October 2019 to carry out the first comprehensive review of digital government in Slovenia. State Secretary Leon Behin addressed the delegation today.

Minister Dr Miro Cerar attended the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg focusing on the situation in Syria, Turkey’s activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, Afghanistan and Ukraine. During a working lunch, heads of Member States’ diplomacies were joined by their Ukrainian counterpart Vadym Prystaiko.

Today’s International Day of the Girl Child celebrates the achievements by, with and for girls since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action twenty-five years ago and the passage of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. This spirit will mark a year of activities under the theme GirlForce: Unscripted and Unstoppable.

As part of the bilateral technical assistance offered to Montenegro, Slovenian representatives are visiting Montenegro from 9 to 11 October 2019 to present the eUprava (e-Government) portal, the building blocks of data exchange and other solutions for users developed by the Ministry of Public Administration.

On 10 October, Foreign Minister Dr Miro Cerar attended the fourth edition of the Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean. The Regional Forum is the annual meeting of foreign ministers from the northern and southern Mediterranean countries, co-chaired by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Jordan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi, and Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Josep Borrell.

Slovenian prime minister Marjan Šarec is paying a return visit to Skopje today at the invitation of North Macedonian prime minister Zoran Zaev. The Slovenian PM’s visit to North Macedonia represents a continuation of the regular intensive political dialogue between the two countries.

Slovenia is deeply concerned about the Turkish military operation in north-east Syria. The operation could threaten the stability of the wider region and the progress achieved in the fight against Da'esh and other terrorist organizations, as well as undermines the political process to find a solution to the Syrian crisis. It also threatens the lives of the population and further exacerbates the humanitarian situation in the country, which could provoke further displacements.

On Thursday, 10 October 2019, the Ministry of Public Administration received representatives of the Civil Affairs Institute (Instytut Spraw Obywatelskich), a Polish non-governmental organisation.

On today’s World and European Day against the Death Penalty, Slovenia, a vocal opponent of this kind of punishment, calls for it to be abolished worldwide, and applauds Europe (with the exception of Belarus) as first continent to have done so.

On his working visit to North Macedonia in Gevgelia, prime minister Marjan Šarec and North Macedonian prime minister Zoran Zaev reviewed the conditions on the North Macedonian-Greek border with respect to the challenges of illegal migration on the so-called Balkan route, and visited a migrant transit centre on the country’s south-eastern border. On the occasion, he met with six members of the Slovenian police who are participating in the joint surveillance of border crossings on Macedonian territory as part of joint measures for managing the increased flow of migrants.

Minister Dr Miro Cerar hosted Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Stef Blok on an official visit to Slovenia today. The two ministers confirmed the excellent bilateral relations between their countries, which have been developed in both politics and business, noting with pleasure their similar views on numerous current European and global topics. Slovenian racing cyclist Primož Roglič, who is part of the Dutch team Jumbo–Visma, is yet another example of Slovenian–Dutch partnership, inspiring cycling fans both here and in the Netherlands.

The prime minister Marjan Šarec hosted a visit by the Belgian prime minister and newly elected President of the European Council Charles Michel. The visit by this senior European politician is part of his preparations prior to assuming the role of President of the European Council, having previously paid visits to Berlin and Rome. Mr Michel was elected to the post on 2 July and will start work on 1 December.

Acting Director-General for EU Affairs, Ambassador Barbara Sušnik, took part in bilateral consultations in Norway today. She and her counterpart, Director General of the Department for European Affairs Niels Engelschiøn, exchanged views on topical bilateral, European and international issues.

State Secretary Dobran Božič addressed participants in the Slovenian–Jordanian Business Forum held at the Grand Hotel Union today. The Forum seeks to present opportunities for cooperation in various business areas and for networking between Slovenian and Jordanian companies. The ten-strong business delegation of the Jordan Europe Business Association is composed of representatives of companies engaged in defence, security, aviation, electrical appliances, the food industry, smart energy solutions, construction materials and equipment, the cosmetics industry and spa tourism.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund, has issued grant decisions for two projects promoting conservation of natural and cultural heritage in the Drava River basin, which fall in the scope of the Natura 2000 Management Programme. Both project budgets amount to over EUR 8.2 million; the projects will receive a contribution of EUR 6.5 million from ERDF (European Regional Development Fund).