Morning Headlines for Slovenia: Friday, May 17 2019

By , 16 May 2019, 23:28 PM News
Morning Headlines for Slovenia: Friday, May 17 2019 pixabay.com sgrunden, CC-by-0

Share this:

Bookmark this link and find the headlines faster each morning, or follow us on Facebook

A schedule of all the main events involving Slovenia this week can be found here

Visiting Ljubljana? Check out what's on this week, while all our stories on Slovenia, from newest to oldest, are here

This summary is provided by the STA:

Govt moves to appease doctors

LJUBLJANA - The government reduced the workload on general practitioners in terms of the number of patients they need to take in the wake of mass notices by doctors. The new standard was set at per-head index of 1,895, a figure that shows the workload taking into account the number of patients and their age and which translates into 1,383 patients per GP. The new standard will be phased in gradually and doctors would not be able to turn away existing patients, while new patients will be temporarily assigned to GPs with lowest workload. The new standard meets doctors' demands.

Electoral reform: Parties prefer relative preferential vote

LJUBLJANA - The meeting of parliamentary parties on changes to electoral legislation hosted by President Borut Pahor eliminated the option of introducing an absolute preferential vote, as the parties prefer a relative preferential vote. Legislative changes to that effect will expectedly be ready by July. Over the summer, the Public Administration Ministry is also expected to finalise legislative changes that would redraw the borders of electoral districts. Pahor is hosting a series of meeting to reach a consensus on the reform after the legislation determining the size of electoral districts was declared unconstitutional at the end of 2019.

Coalition agrees on concept for demographic fund

LJUBLJANA - Coalition partners agreed on a concept for the long-planned demographic fund as the finance minister presented them the guidelines under which state-owned companies labelled as portfolio investments, in which the state is not required to preserve a controlling stake, would be included in it. The bill to set up the fund will expectedly be drafted in June or July, and could be passed by the end of the year, said Brane Golubovič, the head of the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) deputy group, as he came out of the meeting. The fund is seen as a way of shoring up the public pension system making it more sustainable.

MPs call for repatriation of Slovenians from Venezuela

LJUBLJANA - Members of parliament urged the government to help Venezuelans of Slovenian origin leave the country by immediately starting repatriation procedures as permitted by law. The appeal came at a session of the parliamentary Commission for Slovenians Abroad in the midst of mounting media reports that many of the several hundred Venezuelans of Slovenian origin would like help from Slovenia to escape the hardship.

MPs propose govt draft digital services tax bill by April

LJUBLJANA - The parliamentary Finance and Monetary Policy Committee will propose to the government to draft a bill by next April under which Slovenia would introduce a tax on digital services as of September 2020. At the session requested by the opposition Left, its MP Luka Mesec noted that while the European Commission had prepared the groundwork, there was no consensus among EU member states regarding this tax. The Finance Ministry has no information about the volume of digital services provided in Slovenia by the world's largest digital companies, which means they do not pay value added tax (VAT).

Minister Cerar attends CoE ministerial

HELSINKI, Finland - Foreign Minister Miro Cerar held talks with senior Council of Europe (CoE) officials as he attended a ministerial coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the 47-member organisation. The meeting with CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland revolved around a recent report on how to strengthen the organisation going forward, which Jagland prepared for the ministerial.

Successors sell former Yugoslav embassy building in Tokyo

LJUBLJANA - A building in Tokyo that used to house the Yugoslav embassy and residence has been sold by the successor states for EUR 15 million. Slovenia will get 14% of the proceeds or EUR 2.1 million, the Foreign Ministry said. The successor states are also in the process of selling the building of the former Yugoslav mission in New York, the former embassy building in Bern and a former consulate in Bonn. The ministry said the division of diplomatic buildings, one of the last remaining assets the successors have to divide, is proceeding very well.

Insurance group Sava more than doubles quarterly net profit

LJUBLJANA - Sava Insurance Group, Slovenia's second largest, posted EUR 10.9 million in net profit in the first quarter of the year, up 136% year on year, as gross premiums written rose by 2.8% to EUR 171.6 million. Core company Sava Re said in a release the profit growth had been driven by "a benign claims development and improved cost efficiency". The group had EUR 1.8 billion in total assets, up 6.3% over the end of 2018.

Maribor hosting conference on circular economy

MARIBOR - Immediate action is needed to save the planet, European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said at the opening of Circular Change, a two-day international conference dedicated circular economy. "We know what needs to be done. Now it's time we do it," she said at the event, which attracted more than 400 participants from 20 countries. While the non-governmental sector and the young became aware of the problem a long time ago, it is now up to Slovenian politics to make a circular economy and sustainable development the basis of its mentality and all of its activity, she said.

Top tourism event kicking off

PODČETRTEK - The annual Slovenia Incoming Workshop, the largest tourism business event in Slovenia, kicked off at the Terme Olimija spa, featuring nearly 160 foreign companies from 37 countries and more than 160 Slovenian companies until Saturday. The majority of foreign companies come from Italy, Germany and France, but there are also several from the US, China and South Korea. The Slovenian Tourism Board expects more than 3,500 meetings to take place.

Pivec meets Macedonian agri minister to discuss coop

SKOPJE, North Macedonia - Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec completed a two-day visit to North Macedonia by attending a honey breakfast hosted by a primary school in Ohrid as part of its project honouring 20 May World Bee Day. On Wednesday, she met Macedonian counterpart Ljupčo Nikolovski to discuss bilateral cooperation, chiefly Slovenia's assistance to North Macedonia in its efforts to join the EU. They also opened a new wine cellar of Slovenian company Puklavec Family Wines.

Number of people in employment continues to rise

LJUBLJANA - The number of people in employment in Slovenia increased in March at both annual and monthly levels to 890,000, up 0.6% over February and 3.1% over March 2018, the Statistics Office said. The number of persons in employment increased in all parts of Slovenia and across all sectors on the monthly level. Compared to March last year, the number of persons in employment dropped in four out of twenty sectors.

Large-scale exhibition of Slovenian art opens in Prague

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - A large-scale exhibition of Slovenian art opened at Prague Castle, featuring 474 works of art, the largest shipment of Slovenian national heritage abroad in the country's history, according to the National Gallery. Impressionism from Dawn till Dusk. Slovenian Art 1870-1930 focuses on impressionists, but also includes works by artists who were connected to the Czech Republic by either studying there, being friends with Czech artists or leaving their work in the country.

Maribor again national football champions

CELJE - Maribor won their 15th national football championship three rounds before the end of the season with a 3:1 win in Celje on Wednesday. The club secured its seventh national championship title in the last nine seasons in the last ten minutes of the match with goals by Jan Mlakar and Dino Hotić. The only Slovenian club to have played in the UEFA Champions League has dominated Slovenian football lately, with Olimpija being the only other title winner in the last nine years.

Roglič loses overall lead of Giro d'Italia

ROME, Italy - After wearing the pink jersey for the first five days of the legendary Giro d'Italia, Slovenian cyclist Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) lost the overall lead to Italian Valerio Conti (UAE Emirates) today. He is now 11th overall, 5:24 behind Conti. Tomorrow, a 180-kilometre, equally hilly stage is on the programme, taking the cyclists from Vasto to l'Aquila.

Photo galleries and videos

This websie uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.