In the framework of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU, water and marine directors met online for their regular twice-yearly informal meeting. The meeting was attended by around 115 participants, including European Commission representatives, EU water and marine directors and their colleagues, as well as representatives of other European countries, the European Environment Agency and several other organisations. The meeting opened with a welcome address by Dr Metka Gorišek, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning.

The ministers responsible for urban matters will meet online on Friday, 26 November. The main topic of the meeting will be the Urban Agenda for the EU and the adoption of the Ljubljana Agreement. The informal meeting, which will also be attended by the European Commissioner for cohesion and reforms, Elisa Ferreira, will be chaired by the Slovenian Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Andrej Vizjak.

As part of a two-day meeting, the EU Nature Directors discussed the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the new EU Forest Strategy and wild pollinators. They began by emphasising that, in order to address the loss of biodiversity and climate change, it was imperative to intensify nature-related efforts at all levels.

State Secretary Stanislav Raščan attended the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in the composition of development ministers (FAC DEV). The meeting endorsed two conclusions, including conclusions on water in the EU’s external action, which represents an important milestone in EU water diplomacy and important achievement of Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

Today, Slovenian Minister of the Interior and the current holder of the Presidency of the EU Home Affairs Council Aleš Hojs held a conversation with the Polish Minister of the Interior Mariusz Kamiński about the current situation on the Poland-Belarus border, where, as the Polish Minister said a new illegal migration route is being established.

Ministry of the Interior held a virtual ministerial conference on the prevention and investigation of child sexual abuse in the framework of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU. The Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs, who is currently presiding the EU Home Affairs Council, chaired the ministerial conference.

Today, the Slovenian Minister of Public Administration, Boštjan Koritnik, attended a ministerial meeting of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) in Paris. Based on the guidelines harmonised at the meeting, the GPAI is seeking to contribute to the responsible development, use and management of human-centred AI systems.

Following the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, a number of bilateral meetings between the EU and other countries and groups of countries, including China, Japan, the USA, Australia, Russia and the group of least developed countries (LDCs), are taking place under the leadership of the Slovenian Presidency. In the following days, several other bilateral meetings will also take place.

From 31 October to 14 November, the 26th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) will take place in Glasgow, with the participation of delegations of States Parties to the Convention and Parties to the Paris Agreement. As the country holding the presidency of the EU Council, Slovenia and the European Commission will represent the EU in international relations, conduct negotiations with third countries and coordinate EU member states.

Today, Prime Minister Janez Janša continued his working visit to Brussels.

Prime Minister Janez Janša today met with President of the European Council Charles Michel for a working dinner in Brussels.

The Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs chaired the first meeting in the context of international negotiations on the revision of Europol's mandate today in Brussels. Minister Hojs fulfilled this role as the current President of the EU Home Affairs Council on behalf of the Council of the EU.

A regular meeting of Directors-General for territorial cohesion, chaired by Georgi Bangiev, Director-General of the Spatial Planning, Construction and Housing Directorate at the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, took place yesterday as a part of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU. At the meeting, the Directors-General were acquainted with the activities connected with communication and implementation of the Territorial Agenda 2030 adopted in December 2020.

Under the Slovenian Presidency, a global conference is taking place today and tomorrow, which for the first time is discussing government governance in terms of innovation, drawing-up better legislation and improving the quality of the public sector. Slovenia, together with the OECD, presented for the first time the results of a survey on the ageing of the workforce and attracting and retaining talent.

As the current holder of the presidency of the Council of the EU, the Republic of Slovenia and the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats held an online workshop on instrumentalised migration as a hybrid threat, focusing on the case of Belarus. The workshop’s objective was to examine the phenomenon of instrumentalised migration as a hybrid threat, its impact on the security situation in the EU, and to highlight the aims of its key actors.

A two-day international expert conference has been held in Ljubljana on how to facilitate an equal relationship between players in the global market of audiovisual content providers. The development of new technologies and the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic have led to significant changes in the production and distribution or accessibility of audiovisual works.

The High-Level Segment meeting as part of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) concluded today with the adoption of the Kunming Declaration, by which the Parties to the Convention committed to adopt and implement an ambitious global biodiversity framework. The aim is to stop the loss of biodiversity by 2030 and facilitate its recovery.

The Minister of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia Vasko Simoniti opened a conference "Increasing the accessibility and competitiveness of European audiovisual and media content", which took place in Cankarjev dom congress center in Ljubljana as well as online from 12 to 13 October 2021.

The virtual meeting of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15), which will take place between 11 and 15 October 2021, will be dedicated to preparations for negotiations on the 2030 and 2050 biodiversity targets, concluding with an in-person meeting next year. Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning Andrej Vizjak is attending the high-level meeting.