STA, 7 November 2018 - The 1870 railway track between Ljubljana and the north-western town of Jesenice is to be revamped in the coming years, as part of a move to modernise the Slovenian railway network. The upgrade, estimated at EUR 378m-414m, will seek to increase the track's capacity and top speeds as well as enhance safety.

According to the plan, which was listed among the 2018-2021 development projects by the government on Tuesday, the upgrade will eliminate choke points, increase the capacity to allow for the expected increase in cargo transport, increase top speeds, and improve safety on the section.

Additionally, the upgrade will reduce noise levels, improve interoperability, and secure better coordination with road traffic in rush hours.

The project, estimated to be completed by 2025, will be implemented in several stages, depending on financing options and environmental and other matters pertaining to zoning plans.

The first stage involves drawing up blueprints and is valued at EUR 22.2m to be financed from the budget. For the project as a whole, financing options include EU funding and raising debt.

However, EU funds are above all available for projects on the core railway network at this time, which the Ljubljana-Jesenice section is not. On the other hand, the section is part of the TEN-T railway network.

The section, which connects Slovenia to Austria's Villach and further on to Munich in Germany, was built in 1870, with the most recent upgrades implemented 30 or more years ago.

STA, 7 November 2018 - Slovenia's opposition leader Janez Janša addressed the European People Party's (EPP) congress in Helsinki on Wednesday, calling for unity in defence of the foundations of European democracy against internal and external threats.

The leader of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), one of around 15 European centre-right party leaders to address the event, said this was a moment in time which called for defence of the foundations of European civilisation from within and from the outside world.

As internal threats Janša described pressures by various forms of "cultural Marxism" that were trying to dismantle the family, national and European identity, private property, private education and religion.

Profile: Janez Janša – Constant Player and Bête Noire of the Left

From the outside, the European civilisation is facing a massive and increasing demographic pressure on ageing Europe, Janša said, adding this was used as a political weapon by the radical Islam.

"A combination of the two threats at the moment poses the biggest danger to the European civilisation since the collapse of the Soviet Union," said Janša.

He said defence of the European civilisation's foundations was the most pressing task for the EPP, which was the only group strong enough to lead the defence based on common values.

Čeprav ni in nikoli ne bo enotne evropske nacionalne kulture, evropska civilizacija obstaja že stoletja. Vsaka civilizacija je stalno podvržena izzivom. Pridejo tudi časi, ko so ogroženi njeni lastni temelji in ko jih je treba braniti. Zdaj živimo v takšnem trenutku. #Up2Eu pic.twitter.com/PGeagDlQI6

— Janez Janša (@JJansaSDS) November 7, 2018

“Although there is no and there will never be a single European national culture, the European civilisation has been there for centuries. Every civilisation is constantly subject to challenges. There are also times when their own foundations are threatened and when they are to be defended. Now we live in a moment like this. “

"The defence of the very core of our civilisation is the most important priority and the noblest goal that we must be united on. We belong to the European People's Party so it's our duty to fight for a united, strong and free Europe and to provide security, opportunity and a predictable future to the Europeans.

"If voters in Europe see and feel our unity and resolve, the EPP will win the next European election with a landslide," Janša said.

The use of herbal medicine is widespread in Slovenia, and on visits to friends in rural areas you’ll often encounter drying rooms or tables covered with leaves and flowers, the specimens gathered from gardens or the wild, to be later stored in jars and turned into teas for various ailments, or left to soak in alcohol for a certain pick-me-up.

If you don’t know anyone who can give you some of the products of such work, or lack the confidence to be your own herbalist, then you can always buy a supply of dried plants material from a professional, like Terezija Nikolič. You can see Ms. Nikolič at work in this short documentary from 2010, in Slovene and with English subtitles, which focuses on her selling herbal remedies in Ljubljana market (with the stall still there today, by the entrance to the fish market).

YEFF! 2010 Slovenia -- For each disease, there's a flower from Mariana Duarte on Vimeo.

A study of herbal medicine in Slovenia

While we have every respect for the empirical knowledge of grandmothers, the repositories of inherited wisdom, readers interested in a more scholarly approach to the subject might be interested in this survey study, “Folk use of medicinal plants in Karst and Gorjanci, Slovenia” (2017), written by Mateja Lumpert and Samo Kreft and published in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. This interviews a total of 50 subjects, 25 from each area, and examines their use of medical plants – which ones, what parts are used, how the plants is consumed, and for what ailments. As the abstract says:

Information on the use of medicinal plants in Karst and Gorjanci is not available in the literature, but collection of plants is still an important and widespread practice in these regions. Karst and Gorjanci are two remote regions in Slovenia that are only 120 km apart but have different climates; one region is close to the Italian border, and the other is near the Croatian border. Our aim was to report and compare the use of medicinal plants in both regions.

…A total of 78 and 82 taxa were reported in Karst and Gorjanci, respectively; 65 taxa were reported in both regions….

While the whole article is of interest, those wishing to cut to jump to the plants in question should take a look at Table 3 (here), where you’ll learn, among other things, that stinging nettles, (Urtica dioica), in Slovene kopriva, are used as a “diuretic, to cleanse blood and body, spring and autumn cleansing, counteracts rheumatism, good for the stomach, to cleanse skin, to heal acne, laxative, treatment of diabetes hair loss, hard skin, and tired legs”, and can be consumed in a variety of ways, including soup (with our recipe here).

Readers with a more statistical bent will be interested in Table 4, which presents a list of the plants used in Slovenian folk medicine as reported by at least three respondents in Karst or Gorjanci, with their frequency, rank and Smith’s salience index, where we find that elderberry (Sambucus nigra) is the most commonly used plant in both areas.

For those interested in the ethno- side of ethnobotany, Table 9 reports where the informants learned about medicinal plants, and while oral sources still predominate over books, grandmothers lose out to the top source, mothers.

Finally, and with the warning that most species of wolf's bane (Aconitum) are considered poisonous, we'll note a paper with the title "Rare tradition of the folk medicinal use of Aconitum spp. is kept alive in Solčavsko, Slovenia", published in 2017 in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine by Marija Povšnar, Gordana Koželj, Samo Kreft and Mateja Lumpert, and available in full here.

STA, 7 November 2018 - Employers were quick to condemn the planned overhaul of the minimum wage law, especially the way it is to be pushed through parliament. The Employers' Association stressed that any changes to minimum wage should be harmonised with social partners at the country's main industrial relations forum, the Economic and Social Council.

The Left presented on Wednesday a proposal to overhaul the way minimum wage is determined. The opposition party that acts as a partner to the minority government proposes raising the minimum wage to EUR 667 next year and to EUR 700 in 2020, before a new formula to calculate the wage is introduced in 2021.

Related: Proposal to raise Slovenia’s minimum wage from €638.42 net to €700 by 2020

The Employers' Association is unhappy with the way the bill was presented, "bypassing any dialogue with social partners". According to a press release, employers have experience with this practice, which has had serious consequences for companies.

Determining the minimum wage must be a matter of discussions and harmonisations among social partners, but the new bill has not even been presented to the Economic and Social Council, the association said.

Even stronger reaction came from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS), the country's biggest trade association, which called the proposal dangerous and expressed "shock" that the coalition should have backed it.

"It's trampling international agreements on social dialogue, something that government officials committed to at the first session of the Economic and Social Council over a week ago."

The GZS noted that only over a week ago it had "received a clear assurance from the prime minister that any change to the minimum wage would be agreed with the social partners".

The figures in the chart show the gross minimum wage. Data: Eurostat

The Left's leader Luka Mesec said today that the party had agreed with Prime Minister Marjan Šarec for the bill to be discussed at the Economic and Social Council.

Nevertheless, employers are unhappy: "It is the middle of November, and companies and employers still do not know what kind of arrangement awaits them next year," the Employers' Association said.

The GZS said that most large companies would not feel the planned rise in the minimum wage, but that the increase would hurt companies where value added per employee was below EUR 20,000 and which employed 70,000 people.

The chamber argued that politics was interfering with the minimum wage all the time even though the share of those receiving it had been falling steadily and that even though the minimum wage in Slovenia was one of the highest in the EU.

"Each rise in the minimum wage generates more employees who earn minimum wage because it includes all those who had been in higher bracket until then," GZS said.

According to its data, average gross pay in the country has increased by 11% since 2010, while the minimum wage has risen by 41%.

The Chamber of Trade Crafts and Small Business (OZS) meanwhile said that it strives not only for raising the minimum wage but also for workers to have decent wages.

However, the state should cut labour costs to enable the workers to get higher net wages. "The difference between the gross and the net pay is too big. The state will get the most from raising wages," OZS head Branko Meh was quoted in a press release.

STA, 7 November 2018 - Representatives of the government and municipalities on Wednesday signed a letter of intent that sets municipal funding provided by the state at EUR 573.5 per capita. The pledge was also made to draw up legislative changes within six months that will help reduce the costs carried by municipalities.

Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj signed on behalf of the government, while the heads of the three associations of municipalities, Branko Ledinek, Robert Smrdelj and Matej Arčon, signed on behalf of local government.

Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, who was also on hand, said municipalities had hoped for more, but an agreement was reached as they understood the general financial picture in the country.

The per-capita funding figure is a source of tensions each year. The government and municipalities were still relatively far apart in October, with the former proposing EUR 570 per capita and the latter at least EUR 575.44.

Šarec, ex-mayor, says he understands local government in Slovenia

Šarec announced this was only the first step in improved cooperation between the government and municipalities. The plan is to also work together in an upgrade of relevant legislation, which is plagued by various issues that the PM finds more burning than per capita funding.

Šarec, who served as the mayor of Kamnik until recently, said few people could really imagine all the tasks municipalities were dealing with.

"This government understands this very well," he said, announcing a joint effort to secure "legislation that will allow them to develop more effectively, while also securing transparency".

The EUR 573.5 figure, which remains to be confirmed by the government and by parliament, was welcomed by the municipal representatives, who spoke of a compromise. Smrdelj said it is 20 euros higher than the funding for this year but still 35 euros below the projected costs for 2019.

The funding provided by the state is meant for a range of services municipalities are obliged to carry out by law, such as primary school, primary healthcare and social security services.

The funds provided by the government for local government are known as "povprečnina", whose main source is personal income tax.

The amount a municipality receives a year is calculated as an annual lump sum per capita and transferred from the state budget.

Below is a review of today’s news in Slovenia, summarised by the headlines in the daily newspapers for Thursday, November 8, 2018, as prepared by the STA:

DELO

Minimum wage increase
"700 euros: too little for joy, enough for concerns": The trade unions support the Left's proposal, economists warn of consequences, while the employers are angered by the manner in which it is being proposed. Delo highlights the warning of an economist that the timing of the proposal is bad. (front page, 2, 5)

US midterms
"Defeat for the US, not victory for both parties": While both parties are claiming victory, the US is even more divided after Tuesday's election. (front page, 3)

Explosion in flat
"Six flats destroyed in strong blast": A gas explosion damages 18 flats in Maribor (front page, 12)

DNEVNIK

National Bureau of Investigation
"Officers leaving NBI": The staffing issues at the National Bureau of Investigation persist even nine years after it was incepted. In recent years 13 criminal police officers decided to leave. (front page, 3)

Ljubljana film fest
"29th Ljubljana Film Festival starts": Almost 100 feature-length films are to be screened at LIFFe until 18 November. (front page)

Learn more about LIFFe here

FINANCE

Minimum wage increase
"Will new minimum wage increase labour costs by a fourth?": The paper says that the Left's proposal to raise the minimum wage could eventually lead to everyone getting roughly the same wage. (front page, 2, 3)

New head of central bank
"How would Banka Slovenije fare under Masten and how under Vasle?": Igor Masten was the only of the three top candidates for the new central bank governor to directly respond to a few queries by the paper. He says quantitative easing had positive effect on the eurozone. (front page, 4, 5)

Pro Plus takeover
"Red light for United in Pro Plus takeover? AVK expresses reservations": United Group has 45 days to respond to the reservations expressed by the competition watchdog in the cable operator's attempt to take over Slovenia's biggest commercial broadcaster. (front page, 5)

VEČER

Explosion in flat
"'The door, windows, it all went to pieces'": A gas leak causes a major explosion and destroys several flats in Maribor. (front page, 21)

Stage on Drava river
"The boards are being put away, foundations to follow?": The decision by the building inspection that the floating stage on the Drava river in Maribor, a prominent feature of the Lent festival which was meant to become permanent, needs to be removed is being implemented. The future of the EUR 300,000 stage is uncertain. (front page, 9)

Pro Plus takeover
"Things not looking good for Pro Plus takeover": The findings of the Competition Protection Agency indicate that the takeover by United Group will not be okayed. (front page, 6)

Deal on funding of municipalities
"More money for municipalities": Representatives of the government and municipalities agree on raising municipal funding provided by the state to EUR 573.5 per capita. (front page, 2, 3)

STA, 7 November 2018 - The Slovenian competition watchdog has pinpointed several potential issues with the proposed takeover of Slovenia's biggest commercial broadcaster by cable operator United Group as it issued a statement of objections on Wednesday as part of its regulatory review of the takeover.

The takeover of Pro Plus, which operates several commercial TV channels, could lead to horizontal concentration on the TV advertising market, the market for TV sports rights, and the wholesale of children's TV programmes, the Competition Protection Agency (AVK) said.

It also raises the prospect of permanent concerted action with other operators on the market and the possibility of licenses for the distribution of Pro Plus channels increasing. Competitive programmes in the bundles of United Group's Slovenian cable operator Telemach could be sidelined as well.

Finally, the acquisition could have other effects since "the combined company would acquire sensitive business information about their competitors, would give it a significant competitive edge," the document reads.

These preliminary findings do not prejudge the agency's final decision and United Group has 45 days to submit remarks in its favour.

As the agency points out, it may also propose "corrective measures eliminating serious suspicion about the conformity of the concentration with competition rules."

United Group said today that it was already drawing up its remarks. "We do however expect that the final decision will be in conformity with EU competition law."

Former AVK director Andrej Krašek commented on the statement for the STA, saying that such statements were usually issued when the watchdog intended to reject a takeover.

Krašek believes that, considering the facts presented to far, the AVK will reject the takeover, and it could be convinced to do the opposite only by large structural measures.

"The agency has examined the actual state and collected evidence, and the procedure is nearing its end. The acquirer has 45 days to state new facts to prove that the concentration is in live with the law."

But Krašek believes that, as the procedure has started a year and a half, United Group probably does not have much new evidence.

The biggest media takeover in Slovenian history is being closely watched.

Domestic media players and media experts have expressed fears that it may lead to excessive concentration of power in the hands of a single, US-owned media group.

United Group, meanwhile, has been berating the regulator for the long duration of the procedure.

Pro Plus not only owns two of the most popular TV channels, POP TV and Kanal A, it also operates several cable-only channels, a pay-per-view service, and 24ur.com, one of the top news portals in the country.

United Group acquired the media portfolio of the Central European Media Enterprises (CME) in Slovenia and Croatia, which includes Slovenia's Pro Plus, last July. The entire deal has been estimated at EUR 230m.

United Group is owned by the Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) investment fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), but an agreement was reached last month to sell a majority stake to the international investment firm BC Partners.

STA, 7 November 2018 - The Left has tabled a minimum wage bill determining a new formula for setting the minimum wage as of 2021, and the rates for 2019 and 2020. The legislation has already been endorsed in principle by all coalition parties.

Under the proposal, the minimum wage, which currently stands at EUR 638.42 net, will rise to EUR 667 next year and to EUR 700 in 2020.

The minimum wage is currently determined by the minister in charge of labour based on inflation and, optionally, other macroeconomic trends.

Under the new formula to enter into effect as of 2021, the minimum wage will have to exceed the minimum living costs by at least 20%, which would currently net workers EUR 736 a month, the Left's leader Luka Mesec told the press on Wednesday.

According to him, the formula ensures that "all those who work eight hours a day will no longer scrape by at the poverty line, as they have so far".

The Left also wants all the bonuses determined by law and collective bargaining agreements excluded from the minimum wage and paid separately as of 2019, but the exact date is yet to be harmonised.

The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities proposes 2020 as the year for excluding the bonuses.

"Bonuses will be excluded, it's a fact. The question is just what the most appropriate date is," Mesec said.

While all coalition parties have endorsed the bill, the Modern Centre Party (SMC) yesterday voiced some concerns, including about using the new formula.

But Mesec dismissed these concerns, saying that "apparently they are not in line with their own ministry, which has backed the formula in its expert opinion".

According to him, the ministry said in its opinion that the formula determines a sensible balance between the income of working people and the income of inactive population.

Mesec also refuted the SMC's concern that the bill was not discussed with social partners, noting that it had been agreed with the prime minister the bill would be discussed at the Economic and Social Council, the country's main industrial relations forum.

Addressing concerns about the impact on the budget, Mesec added that it is "virtually neutral, because higher pay in public and private sectors mean more tax receipts."

The Labour Ministry's data show that around 42,000 people, of which nearly 35,000 are in the private sector, currently receive minimum wage.

However, the rise of the minimum wage in January as proposed in the bill will in fact affect around 70,000 workers, Mesec said.

Related: Slovenia Ranks 7th in EU for Exports as Share of GDP, 8th in Minimum Wage

Significant minimum wage increases planned in new bill (adds)

STA, 7 November - The silver screen will reign supreme in the social life of Slovenia's capital over the next 12 days as the annual Ljubljana International Film festival (LIFFe) gets under way at Cankarjev Dom tonight.

The 29th LIFFe will open with the documentary Sing Me a Song, Miran Zupanič's portrait of Vlado Kreslin, the popular Slovenian singer-songwriter.

Ten films by up-and-coming directors will be in the running for the main award, the Kingfisher, to be conferred by an international judging panel.

Learn about all the cinemas in Ljubljana here

According to the festival's artistic director, Simon Popek, the ten films to be screened in the Perspectives section this year are very communicative, offering satirized takes on reality.

The cases in point include Woman at War by Benedikt Erlingsson, The Load by Ognjen Glavonić and Little White Lie by Tomas Alzamora.

The festival will see several Slovenian films, including Urša Menart's My Last Year as a Loser in the Perspectives section.

The closing film, Winter Flies is an award-winning road movie by Olmo Omerzu, the Slovenian director who lives and works in the Czech Republic.

The festival will pay homage to German director Christian Petzold, who will be in Ljubljana for the occasion.

The retrospective section will be dedicated to the Czech New Wave, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Prague Spring and the death of two key protagonists of the wave - Miloš Forman and Juraj Herz.

Keep up with the latest movies playing in the capital with our weekly What’s on in Ljubljana guides, while parents will be pleased to learn about Kinobalon, Kinodvor’s programme for children (including babies and toddlers)

The East by Northeast section will see films by directors from former Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.

The Avant-Premieres section will include The House that Jack Built, the latest film by Lars von Trier, and Utoya - July 22, Erika Poppe's single-take reconstruction of the killing spree carried out by right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik.

Also screened will be films by Jean-Luc Godard, Gaspar Noe, Luca Guadagnino, Kiril Serebrenikov, Yorgos Lanthimos, Jafar Panahi and Claire Denis.

Apart from the Kingfisher, several other awards will be given out at the closing ceremony on 17 November, including the audience's award, the award for best short film and the FIPRESCI award.

The films will be screened at several venues in Ljubljana as well as in Maribor, Novo Mesto and Celje until 18 November.

The LIFFe website, in English and with all the details of the screenings, can be found here

STA, 6 November 2018 - Researchers at the Jožef Stefan Institute have swept the field in a global machine learning competition aimed at leveraging the movement sensor capabilities of smart phones.

Participating in the Sussex-Huawei locomotion and transportation challenge, 11 researchers of the institute's Department for Intelligent Systems, separated into two teams, won first and second prize.

Using a combination of deep and classical machine learning models, the two teams were the only among 35 participating groups to exceed 90% accuracy with algorithms helping to identify whether the person carrying a smart phone is sitting still, walking, running, cycling or taking the bus, car, train or subway.

The winners were declared at the high-profile Ubicomp conference, which was organised in Singapore this year.

The achievement was also presented today by the heads of the two Slovenian teams; intelligence system department boss Matjaž Gams and the head of the institute's ambient intelligence group Mitja Luštrek.

"If the phone knows how we are moving, it can for instance provide useful advice related to transport, choose to reduce the number of notifications when we're driving, or switch the phone from ringing to vibrating mode when we're using the noisy metro," Luštrek illustrated.

The teams were using data collected over several months by researchers from the University of Sussex during their daily commutes.

While mentioning the possibility of marketing the solutions to companies developing mobile applications and phones, Luštrek explained that similar methods were already being used at the institute in several intelligent systems projects, including for applications in healthcare.

Related: In world first, Ljubljana hospital grows new nose on patient’s forearm (video)