Morning Headlines for Slovenia: Thursday, 21 November 2019

By , 21 Nov 2019, 04:04 AM News
Morning Headlines for Slovenia: Thursday, 21 November 2019 pixabay, rawpixel CC-by-0

Share this:

Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also follow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

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

This summary is provided by the STA:

Slovenia's budgetary plans show risk of non-compliance, EU Commission says

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Slovenia's draft budgetary plans for 2020 contain risks that could lead to non-compliance with EU budget rules, the European Commission said, noting the country might still end up complying with the rules considering the high degree of uncertainty in output gap estimates. Slovenia is expected to soon bring its public finance debt below 60% of GDP and with its surplus in nominal terms, it is far from the deficit limit of 3% of GDP. However, it is not making progress fast enough, Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said on the day when the state budgets for 2020 and 2021 are debated in Slovenian parliament. In a response, the Finance Ministry attributed the Commission's view to differences in calculations in Brussels and Ljubljana which result from their different projections of economic growth and the output gap.

EUR 1bn public pharma tender annulled over price

LJUBLJANA - The National Review Commission annulled a public call to procure EUR 1.1 billion worth of drugs for Slovenian public pharmacies in four years because the call did not allow bidding based on the lowest price. The call was published by the Chamber of Pharmacies in July 2019 for 23 public pharmacies and the rehabilitation institute URI Soča. In the call the highest wholesale price of prescription drugs set by the Slovenian Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices was given as the fixed price. In the wake of the decision, the Chamber of Pharmacies has requested a meeting with Health Minister Aleš Šabeder, saying it wanted to prevent a shortage of medications in the market and ensure the population equal access to medications across the country. Its head Miran Golub said the regulated highest price was set in the call in order to ensure a diversity of medications on offer in pharmacies.

Coalition determined to save budget bills

LJUBLJANA - Statements by coalition party leaders after a crunch meeting on the budget debate in parliament indicate that the coalition are determined to push the budget documents through within the expenditure caps set by the Finance Ministry and in this way preserve the minority government. Prime Minister Marjan Šarec described the discussion at the meeting as frank and constructive, saying the coalition leaders were agreed in their determination to continue their work together. "Above all, we agreed that it's in no one's interest for this government to fall," Šarec told reporters on the sidelines of a business summit after hosting other coalition leaders over working lunch earlier.

Cerar supports seeking experts' opinion on NATO reform

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Slovenia's Foreign Minister Miro Cerar endorsed Germany's proposal to form a group of experts to work out proposals to reform NATO, while he called French President Emmanuel Macron's NATO "brain death" comment unproductive. Speaking in Brussels where he attended a ministerial in preparation for the NATO summit in London on 3-4 December, Cerar said that everyone agreed today that unity, solidarity and joint commitment to common goals were crucial to the alliance's preserving its role. "We have ascertained that NATO is very much alive," Cerar said.

GZS summit sees companies progressing, but challenges remain

LJUBLJANA - The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) hosted its annual summit, expressing satisfaction with the achievements of companies in recent years but also hearing calls for cooperation in the search for answers to the remaining developmental challenges. GZS chairman Boštjan Gorjup said open development issues and challenges could only be solved by all social partners together, adding that the GZS was investing effort to draft an acceptable, but also an ambitious social pact. The summit was attended by PM Marjan Šarec, who said that the government wanted to cooperate with businesses, adding that the real sector and the public sector were equally important.

Slovenian EPP members urge repairing injustice done to N Macedonia

ZAGREB, Croatia - As the European People's Party (EPP) met for a two-day congress in Zagreb to install former EU Council President Donald Tusk as its new leader, two Slovenian parties attending the event argued for repairing the injustice done to North Macedonia through the EU's failure to open accession talks with the country. The host, Croatian PM Andrej Plenković said that one of the declarations to be adopted by the congress would repair the injustice done to North Macedonia and Albania, but Janez Janša, the leader of the Democratics (SDS), opined that when it came to the matter the two countries were likely to be set apart. Another Slovenian representative, the head of New Slovenia (NSi), Matej Tonin, described the EPP declaration on the Western Balkans as terribly important.

Employing foreign workers entails certain responsibilities, debate hears

LJUBLJANA - The labour shortage Slovenian companies are faced with due to demographic changes and technological development is most frequently solved with foreign workers, but the concern for those people must not stop there, heard a debate hosted by the government's macroeconomic forecaster, IMAD. An IMAD analysis meanwhile showed the pool of Slovenian labour force could be expanded if citizens entered the labour market sooner and continued working for longer, and if the unemployed and the inactive population are activated. Brain drain also remains a problem, so in order for the country to maintain a sufficient number of potential staff it is important that more people move into the country than leave it, which however calls for an efficient migration and integration policy.

Healthcare debate hears calls for partnership with decision-makers

LJUBLJANA - A debate on Slovenian healthcare hosted by AmCham Slovenija heard calls for more cooperation between health institutions and decision-makers, and with the pharmaceutical industry. Insurer Vzajemna boss Aleš Mikeln said the term public healthcare was often understood as state healthcare. "If we are to make any long-term and serious changes, we must abandon the idea of state healthcare." He believes in public healthcare, it does not matter who provides the service, what matters is that "I do not go bankrupt if I get sick". He also believes competition is needed among both those who provide funding and those who provide services.

Calls to better protect children heard on Universal Children's Day

LJUBLJANA - A young UNICEF ambassador urged MPs to think of their children and grandchildren when building a world for the future, as the National Assembly marked the Universal Children's Day remembering the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child 30 years ago. Arja Ela Hvala said Slovenia placed high on rankings evaluating the quality of life of children, but 45,000 children still lived under the poverty threshold. Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina called on state bodies to work together to mitigate the problems of children, noting not enough was being done in practice to ensure the full protection of children's rights in Slovenia. President Borut Pahor hosted a reception for children at the Presidential Palace, announcing he could establish a permanent committee for climate policy in Slovenia as the firts permanent, consultative body at the president's office.

Tourism holding Sava completes financial restructuring

LJUBLJANA - Tourism holding Sava has sold off its non-strategic assets, consolidated strategic investments and reduced debt as part of a court-mandated financial restructuring, expecting to post record results this year, Sava CEO Gregor Rovanšek told the STA. Sava has thus become Slovenia's largest tourism group. Its creditors, which have been also its owners since a debt-to-equity swap three years ago (state-run SSH and KAD, and the York fund)), are now expected to decide whether it would be preserved, or liquidated and the assets sold. It will also be up to the owners to decide whether Sava should play a key role in the emerging hospitality holding which will pool state-owned tourism companies.

Slovenia gets first official translation of Geneva Conventions

LJUBLJANA - The first official translation of the Geneva Conventions and the accompanying protocols into Slovenian was presented to mark the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the latest versions of the documents. The translation was presented at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law by the Slovenian Foreign Ministry, which had commissioned and financed the translation issued by the publishing company of the Faculty of Social Sciences. State Secretary Simona Leskovar said the official translation of the four treaties and three protocols would "contribute to expanding the knowledge of international humanitarian law".

Cinkarna Celje profit in first three quarters drops 43%

CELJE - Chemical company Cinkarna Celje generated a net profit of EUR 15.9 million by the end of the third quarter of 2019. Although 91% above plans, the figure was also 43% lower year on year. Net revenue rose more than 1% to EUR 134.8 million. The management is nevertheless happy with the results, noting Cinkarna had expected to see a net profit of EUR 8.3 million for the first nine months. In 2018, the company posted a record profit of EUR 30.6 million.

Jurist, mathematician honoured for contribution to science

LJUBLJANA - Jurist Alenka Šelih and mathematician Josip Globevnik were honoured for their contributions to science as the Zois Prizes for lifetime achievements in science and research were handed out. Professor emeritus at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law, Šelih has been one of the foremost criminology experts in Slovenia for five decades and has lead more than twenty studies that are considered as groundbreaking in the field. Globevnik, retired professor at the Ljubljana Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, was long the leading Slovenian expert on complex analysis, a special branch of mathematics. Globevnik's work also had a strong international dimension, the jury said.

Slovenian electronic archives emerging

LJUBLJANA - The Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, the national archives, announced it was working on an all-encompassing Slovenian electronic archive, meant to emerge in the coming years. A collaboration with the other public archives in the country, the e-ARH.si platform is being developed with the help of EU funds that expire next year. The plan, which is being presented in detail at a two-day international conference in Ljubljana, is to digitalise the entire archive process and provide the material to users at home in a friendly and simple form.

Govt launches slovenia.si

LJUBLJANA - A new website, slovenia.si, was launched this month to "present Slovenia through written and video stories and the national brand I Feel Slovenia", the Government Communication Office said. Designed for the foreign public, the government's new website is in English, providing information about Slovenia and Slovenians ranging from special features and things the nation is proud of to outstanding Slovenians who have taken the word about the country beyond its borders. While slovenia.si is a novelty, Slovenia as a tourist destination has long been promoted at slovenia.info.

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

If you're learning Slovenian then you can find all our dual texts here

Photo galleries and videos

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