Morning Headlines for Slovenia: Tuesday, 11 May 2021

By , 11 May 2021, 04:07 AM News
Morning Headlines for Slovenia: Tuesday, 11 May 2021 pexels.com Thach Tran CC-by-o

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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

Border police get help from Estonia, Lithuania and Poland

NOVO MESTO - Police officers from Estonia, Lithuania and Poland joined their Slovenian colleagues to help patrol the border with Croatia and prevent illegal migrations. The 21 officers will be deployed for at least a month and up to six months and are soon to be joined by additional officers from several European countries. Interior Minister Aleš Hojs said the National Assembly's refusal to clear the deployment of soldiers played a major role in the decision to seek help in the EU.

Janša presenting EU presidency priorities in Athens

ATHENS, Greece - Prime Minister Janez Janša presented the priorities of the Slovenian EU presidency at the Delphi Economic Forum, highlighting resilience to health crises and cyber attacks, and the European way of life. " I think we have all learned a lot in the last few months and that a large majority of Europe agree we must build a Europe that will be resilient to new epidemics but also to other challenges that we have to be better prepared for, one of them being cyber security," he said. Janša also held talks with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis and European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas.

FM Logar stresses importance EU's involvement in W Balkans

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Foreign Minister Anže Logar emphasised the importance of the EU's continued engagement in Western Balkans as EU foreign ministers reaffirmed the EU membership prospects of countries in the region. He expressed regret over the standstill of the enlargement process and the negotiating frameworks for North Macedonia and Albania and voiced the hope that Portugal's EU presidency will be successful in efforts to remove any reservations about that.

Logar says Slovenia well prepared for EU presidency

LJUBLJANA - Foreign Minister Anže Logar told the commercial broadcaster POP TV Sunday that Slovenia would be well prepared to preside the Council of the EU. Asked whether Slovenia being in the spotlight of EU institutions due to the "war with the media" and issues concerning the rule of law was bad for its presidency, Logar said that "this is a matter of individual perception". He described Slovenia as a reliable partner and said the government was not encroaching on media freedom.

Vaccination rollout gathers momentum

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's vaccination rollout is expected to gather momentum as jabs became available to adults under 50 years of age, while older and more vulnerable will continue to take priority. Mass vaccination for all adults comes after a nation-wide vaccination booking app was launched last week. Data from the National Institute of Public Health show nearly half a million or nearly a quarter of Slovenia's population have received one shot and roughly half of them or 12% have been fully vaccinated.

Public told AstraZeneca supplies sufficient for 2nd jab

LJUBLJANA - After the European Commission decided not to order new Covid-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca beyond June, Bojana Beović, the head of the national advisory committee on immunisation, assured those who had already received the first dose that they would also receive the second one. She said 133,000 people had received the first dose and were waiting to get another while almost half a million doses were expected in May and June. Should that fail, they would get a mRNK vaccine.

Covid-19: 7-day average drops further as hospitalisations rise

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia logged 147 coronavirus infections for Sunday as the 7-day average dropped further to 606. Six patients with Covid-19 died, fresh data from the government show. The number of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 inched back above 500 after falling just below that figure yesterday. Given more hospital discharges and a continuation of the declining trend in new infections, the country could move to the yellow tier of coronavirus restrictions in coming days.

Agreement signed to end police strike

LJUBLJANA - The Police Trade Union (PSS) and Interior Minister Aleš Hojs signed an agreement designed to end a strike that police officers started on January and suspended a month later. Under the terms of the deal, some police wages will increase, a bonus for working on the Schengen border will be reinstated, and talks on a new collective agreement for the force should start within a year. The strike will formally end once the agreement is fully implemented.

SDS and govt make gains in Delo poll

LJUBLJANA - The ruling Democratic Party (SDS) gained two percentage points in the latest Barometer poll commissioned by Delo, to poll at 17.4%, the highest since November. The voter approval rating for the government also increased slightly as the share of those who assess its work negatively dropped from 57% to 55%. The main opposition parties lost some ground, including the SocDems, who rank second at 12.2%. Almost a third of those questioned were undecided or would not vote for anyone.

EU Court candidate wants to continue successful work

LJUBLJANA - Marko Ilešič, the Slovenian judge at the Court of the EU in Luxembourg who has been nominated for another term, said he would like to continue what he deems has been successful work there. Ilešič, who has been representing Slovenia at the court since 2004, said he had decided to run again because this was an intellectual challenge for him and because he believed that he had performed the job well so far, noting that as rapporteur, he had the main say in some of the major decisions of the court, including a 2014 ruling involving Google.

EUR 189,000 raised in first week of campaign for STA

LJUBLJANA - Some EUR 189,000 has been raised a week into what is planned to be a month-long fundraising campaign to secure funding for the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), which the Association of Slovenian Journalists labelled as an exceptional start. This roughly equals the monthly compensation for the public service performed by the STA. The Za obSTAnek campaign aims to raise two million euro via small SMS donations and from potential larger donors.

Exports up 18% in March year-on-year

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia exported EUR 3.5 billion worth of goods in March, 18% more than in the same month last year, when trade slowed down due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Imports were up by 20.4% to EUR 3.4 billion, with Germany being the most important partner in both directions of trade. Trade with the EU member states accounted for 68.6% of total exports and 69.8% of total imports, the Statistics Office reported.

Industry records growth in first quarter

LJUBLJANA - Slovenian industry recorded year-on-year growth in the first quarter, with the total value of industrial production increasing by 3%, turnover by 4.1% and inventories by 0.6%. In March, the value of industrial production was 1% lower than in February, while turnover was 1.2% lower. The quarterly increase was driven by manufacturing, where output rose by 3.5%, data from the Statistics Office show.

Laibach announce new European tour

LJUBLJANA - Laibach have announced a new European tour called The Coming Race, which is to start at the end of October. Before that, the band is scheduled to perform at the Exit Festival in Serbia in July. Whether the festival will happen at all, given the current situation, will be clear in the coming weeks. Laibach also plan to release a new album with Mute Records, Wir sind das Volk. It is based on the texts of the German playwright and poet Heiner Müller.

Queue jumping trial ends with acquittal

LJUBLJANA - The Ljubljana District Court acquitted all the defendants in a case involving queue-jumping at Slovenia's largest hospital, UKC Ljubljana. The judge said that bribery must involve a business activity, which public health service is not. The chief defendant Uroš Smiljić worked at the UKC Ljubljana warehouse at the time when he was said to be accepting bribes in exchange for faster medical treatment; he was involved in neither business nor medical activity.

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