As per the Partnership Agreement with the European Commission and the Operational Programme for the Implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy in the 2021–2027 Period that was confirmed yesterday, Slovenia will earmark a proportion of funds for the activities implemented by the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief.

In the article, the Washington Post journalist Michael Birnbaum describes the actions of firefighters, members of the rescue forces and the Slovenian Armed Forces during the big fire in July that raged in the Goriska Karst.

At the invitation of the Montenegrin Minister of Defence, mag. Raško Konjević, Marjan Šarec, the Slovenian Minister of Defence, is paying an official visit to Montenegro on 20 and 21 September.

On Thursday, June 2, the handover of business between the current Minister of Defence, Matej Tonin, MSc, and the new Minister of Defence Marjan Šarec.

The Minister of Defence Matej Tonin today attended a session of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels composed of the defence ministers of the European Union. The session was intended for discussion on the implementation of the Strategic Compass, with an emphasis on the future operations and missions of the Common Security and Defence Policy and the military aggression against Ukraine.

Defence minister Matej Tonin, MSc, signed the Memorandum of Understanding to the Boxer Programme in the framework of the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) this afternoon in Munich with the director of OCCAR, Matteo Bisceglio.

Matej Tonin, the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia, accompanied by the Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, Major General Robert Glavaš, visited Croatia at the invitation of Mario Banožić, the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Croatia.

On 7th December, Minister of Defence Matej Tonin and the European Commissioner Janez Lenarčič attended the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network Day/ video conference.

On 7th December, Minister of Defence Matej Tonin attended the annual conference of the European Defence Agency where innovations in European defence were at the forefront of the talks. Minister Tonin participated in the panel Defence Innovation - A Strategic Imperative for the EU?

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 last debate before the presentation of the draft Strategic Compass, which will set the political guidelines for the development of European defence and security in the following decade, EU defence ministers discussed the building of a rapid response force, countering hybrid threats, critical capability development and deepening of strategic partnership with NATO by signing the third joint declaration.

This year, the NATO MW COE organized the 3rd Mountain Warfare (MW) Congress dealing with the topic of (JOINED) PERSONNEL RECOVERY IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. The congress was held from 5th to 8th October 2021 and took place in Bled and its surrounding area. It was attended by over 90 participants representing 14 different countries, who were attending a variety of presentations delivered by an ensemble of speakers ranging from scientists and high-altitude experts in MEDEVAC and CASEVAC to military personnel recovery.

Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia and the Egmont Institute organized an expert seminar entitled "A Strategic Compass for Military Interventions" in Brussels as part of the Strategic Compass drafting process, which is intensively taking place during the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The opening speech was delivered by State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence Uroš Lampret.

On 25 August, the Deputy Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic Mr Vladimír Müller, accompanied by Mr Uroš Lampret, the State Secretary of the SVN MOD, paid a visit to the NATO MW COE.

Minister of Defence Mag. Today, Matej Tonin addressed Chairpersons of the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union. The event was organised within the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the Minister addressed the topic of cyber security and the resilience of critical infrastructure.

An informal meeting of Defence Policy Directors took place at Bled today as part of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU. In cooperation with the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Directors continued their dialogue on the Strategic Compass with a special emphasis on resilience.

Today, State Secretary Uroš Lampret was the keynote speaker at the webinar titled The Strategic Compass and the Western Balkans: Towards a tailor-made and strategic approach to partnerships?

Today, at the webinar organized by the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations in Belgium, Minister of Defence Matej Tonin, MSc, presented the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council in the defence and security sector.

Yesterday, Minister of Defence Matej Tonin, MSc, attended a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Defence Ministers’ configuration. The main topic of the ministers' discussion was the current state of preparation of the Strategic Compass, with an emphasis on its first pillar - crisis management.

For many people in Slovenia, life almost stopped during the declared epidemic. Despite the fact that we all contributed to the good epidemiological picture, the heaviest burden was mainly carried by the health workers – those in healthcare institutions (notably Ljubljana and Maribor university medical centres, the Golnik clinic and the Celje hospital), at 16 testing entry points for the potentially infected, in elder care homes, members of the 13 medical teams designed to help the personnel in elder care homes, epidemiologists…