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.
This summary is provided by the STA:
Ban on travel outside of home municipality lifted as of Thursday
LJUBLJANA - The government lifted a ban on non-essential travel outside the municipality of residence starting on Thursday as Prime Minister Janez Janša announced Slovenia had achieved a turnaround in the fight against coronavirus that allowed it to gradually ease restrictions. Delivering a video address after a cabinet session, Janša said the number of active infections had "dropped to the degree that allows us to adopt a plan of gradual lifting of restrictions in the foreseeable future". The details of the plan, adopted based on recommendations by health experts, are to be presented tomorrow.
Schools and kindergartens to start gradually reopening on 18 May
BRDO PRI KRANJU - Schools and kindergartens in Slovenia will start reopening on 18 May in what will be a gradual process, Education Minister Simona Kustec announced after a cabinet session. Kindergartens will reopen first and classes will start in the first three grades of primary schools and for final-year students at secondary schools. Next, final-year students of primary schools will return to class. Other students will complete the school year remotely. "This is the way instruction is already carried out and this is how it is going to end," she said.
Army better equipped for peacetime, no progress in wartime readiness
LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian Armed Forces' (SAF) state of readiness for peacetime action has improved, while there has been no progress in its capacity for wartime action which thus remains unsatisfactory for the sixth straight year, President Borut Pahor said as he received the annual report for 2019. The key reasons for the negative assessment are staff and funding shortages as well as outdated equipment, suggests the report presented to Pahor by the chief of the general staff Brigadier General Robert Glavaš, and Defence Minister Matej Tonin. Pahor said he fully trusted that army will professionally and faithfully fulfil the public's expectations as regards security.
Slovenian and German foreign ministers urge joint solution to travel
LJUBLJANA/BERLIN, Germany - Foreign Minister Anže Logar and his German counterpart Heiko Maas called for a common European solution to travel during the coronavirus pandemic after holding talks via video link. The opening of borders depends on how the pandemic develops in individual countries, and there is also a risk of a second wave. This is why Logar stressed that "one should be aware that opening up borders also has an impact on other countries". The two ministers highlighted the role of solidarity and cooperation, with Maas saying unity and solidarity could be increasingly noticed in the EU after initially quite different reactions to the crisis.
Prime minister does not expect life to get back to normal any time soon
LJUBLJANA - Prime Minister Janez Janša believes that although the trend shows Slovenia has for now managed to contain the coronavirus spread, the crisis is not yet over and utmost caution will be required in the future. Speaking for the Catholic weekly Družina's monthly supplement, he said he did not expect life to normalize any time soon. "There is no guarantee that the situation will not repeat in the autumn. This is a reason why it will probably be impossible to return to normal any time soon, social distance and sanitisers at public places etc. will still be needed."
Solutions being sought to bring Slovenian tourists to Croatia
ZAGREB, Croatia - The Slovenian and Croatian ministers in charge of tourism, Zdravko Počivalšek and Gari Cappelli, met to discuss the possibilities for relaunching the sector in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. They agreed that a solution should at least be found for Slovenian owners of real estate in Croatia. Počivalšek noted that Slovenians owned around 110,000 real estate units in Croatia and that it would be appropriate if they were enabled to visit their holiday homes. Cappelli said talks were under way on the possibilities to open borders and to secure all needed measures and procedures so that Slovenians could spend their summer holidays in Croatia.
Ten new Covid-19 cases recorded, death toll up by three to 89
LJUBLJANA - A total of 1,317 new Covid-19 tests were performed in Slovenia on Tuesday, with six new cases recorded, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 1,418. Three persons died of Covid-19 yesterday, bringing the death toll in the country to 89, the government said on Wednesday. The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals was down by five to 75, of whom 25 were in intensive care, one more than on Monday. A total of 51,607 tests have been performed in Slovenia so far, including 1,258 random samples.
PM discusses illegal migrations at Interior Ministry
LJUBLJANA - PM Janez Janša and his state secretary for national security Žan Mahnič visited the Interior Ministry to discuss illegal migrations. Minister Aleš Hojs expects migrations to rise again in the near future, so he announced that more police officers would be deployed on the souther border as soon as the Covid-19 epidemic eases. "A rise in the number of illegal migrants can be expected in the Western Balkans in the coming months. There are already between 9,000 and 10,000 migrants in Bosnia and some 9,000 in Serbia waiting to proceed towards the EU," the ministry said.
Libraries, museums remain closed despite govt permission to reopen
LJUBLJANA - Libraries, galleries and museums in Slovenia remain closed although the government last night gave them permission to reopen as of today. The institutions say they need to prepare to reopen and that this cannot be done overnight. They expect to be able to welcome the first visitors in early May. The head of the Slovenian Museums Association, Aleksandra Berberih Slana, told the STA they had received no official instructions on how to protect employees and visitors when museums reopen. The Association of Slovenian Libraries informed users on its website that general libraries remained closed for now. They might be ready to reopen next week.
President, ministers targeted for ignoring social distancing rules
LJUBLJANA/CELJE - A lawyer from Celje has initiated a criminal complaint against the president of the republic and two ministers for ignoring social distancing rules and failing to wear protective equipment during a tour of the border river Kolpa two weeks ago. The criminal complaint by Boštjan Verstovšek comes after President Borut Pahor, Defence Minister Matej Tonin and Interior Minister Aleš Hojs were photographed in mid-April walking along the river without safety equipment and seemingly closer together than social distancing rules dictate. He was prompted to press the charges after Hojs urged the police to use published photos to identify persons who flaunted social distancing rules at protests in Maribor and Ljubljana.
Mokrice hydro power plant receives green light in parliament
LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly passed in a unanimous vote legislative changes that facilitate the completion of the planned power stations on the lower Sava river, including the last link in the chain, the Mokrice plant. Under the previous legislation, the investor would first have to buy some 4,000 plots of land before a decision is even made whether the investment could be carried out at all. In line with the changes, the procedure for issuing construction permit and an environmental assessment will be launched before all the land is purchased. However, the land will have to be purchased before the construction permit is actually issued.
Parliament transposes amended internal gas market directive
LJUBLJANA - Parliament passed changes to the energy act to transpose the amended EU directive that makes rules governing the EU's internal gas market also applicable to pipelines to and from third countries. The amendments define in more detail the tasks of the gas transmission system operator Plinovodi and the regulator, the Energy Agency, and also lay down the procedure for contract approval by the European Commission. The deadline for the implementation of the directive was 24 February.
National Assembly confirms changes in parliamentary bodies
LJUBLJANA - Since the new government coalition in now in power, the National Assembly confirmed on Tuesday changes to the composition of the parliamentary commissions and committees. For instance, the Commission for Oversight of Intelligence and Security Services will from now on be chaired by Matjaž Nemec of the opposition Social Democrats (SD). The decision on the number of members and chairs that each deputy group will have in the parliamentary bodies was made by the college of deputy group leaders last week.
Adria Airways brand up for sale
LJUBLJANA - The official receiver of the bankrupt Slovenian air carrier Adria Airways, Janez Pustatičnik, published an invitation for binding bids for the carrier brand name at the asking price of EUR 100,000. In line with the invitation, only bids with a security deposit of EUR 15,000 will be considered, and bids will be accepted until 6 July. Bidders will not be able to physically review documents related to the brand until restrictions imposed in the coronavirus epidemic are lifted. If the situation does not change until 6 July, the deadline will be extended. Adria Airways has been in receivership since October 2019.
State forest company's revenue, profit down in 2019
KOČEVJE - SIDG, the state-owned forest company, saw revenue decline by roughly 14% to EUR 66 million in 2019, with net profit down by about 4% to EUR 11.9 million. Pre-tax profit, at EUR 15.2 million, was up 3%. The company, which manages state forests, said on Wednesday the results in 2018 had been buoyed by emergency felling of windthrown timber, while the bottom line for 2019 had been severely affected by low prices of timber, in particular of spruce.
Poll shows increasing concern about job security
LJUBLJANA - People are increasingly concerned about job loss due to the coronavirus epidemic. Almost a quarter are afraid they will lose their job, while a significant share have already been made jobless, shows a poll conducted by Valicon. Valicon has conducted a running survey for over a month to gauge people's sentiment during the pandemic. On 23 March, 15% said they were concerned about their job, by 28 April that share rose to 23%. In the same period the share of those who reported being made jobless rose from 1% to 5%.
If you're learning Slovenian then you can find all our dual texts here
