STA, 6 December 2021 - Paying a visit to Ljubljana, European Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi said on Monday that no one could dismiss European delegated prosecutors without the consent of the EU's chief prosecutor. She drew attention to pressure on Slovenian prosecutors, telling them: "Stay vigilant, speak up, you are not alone." 

Slovenia's two delegated prosecutors Tanja Frank Eler and Matej Oštir have been appointed for fully-fledged five-year terms, starting with 1 December, she highlighted at an online news conference.

She said that for the first six months since the European Public Prosecutor's Office's (EPPO) launch, "Slovenia was a member of the EPPO zone only on paper". "This delay did not only affect possible criminal investigations in Slovenia, but also all the cross-border investigations the EPPO initiated in other participating member states involving Slovenia."

The EPPO head warned about pressure on Slovenia's judiciary, stressing the importance of an independent judicial branch. "Only an independent judiciary can enforce the law equally for everybody," she said.

"I was very impressed by the courage and determination of Slovenian judges and prosecutors, including our new colleagues, to safeguard judicial independence." She also urged her colleagues in Slovenia to "stay vigilant, speak up", telling them they were not alone in these efforts.

"I was not born yesterday. I have experienced all sorts of attacks, intimidation and tricks to reduce the independence of judiciary," Kovesi said, noting that judicial independence can be chipped away through small steps such as funding cuts and legislative changes.

EPPO prosecutors are "independent from any national authorities, but they are in the same boat as national prosecutors". Whatever affects the latter also has an impact on the former, she added, referring to such changes or cuts.

The Slovenian government has recently proposed changes to public prosecution legislation that would enable it to recall delegated prosecutors and give it a greater say in their appointment procedure.

Kovesi said that any changes in the national legislation that affect the EPPO would be monitored by the office and the European Commission would be notified if the changes go against the EPPO regulations. A procedure may then be launched against the country in question.

She underlined, however, that EPPO prosecutors are appointed by the EPPO college, and without the consent of the EU's chief prosecutor no one can dismiss them.

The national authorities have started to transfer to the EPPO all the on-going investigations falling under its remit. So far, some 2,500 criminal reports have been processed and more than 500 criminal investigations have been launched for an estimated damage of some EUR 5 billion to the EU budget, she told the press.

According to Slovenia's State Prosecutor General Drago Šketa, there are 20-30 investigations currently open in the country.

Kovesi is happy that the EPPO office in Ljubljana has been finally launched, noting that the office is not a foreign institution. Delegated prosecutors have the same powers as their national counterparts and they bring their cases to trial in front of national courts, she added.

Šketa also welcomed the fact that the EPPO is now operational in Slovenia. "I'm convinced that the work of this new European institution will have extremely positive effects in the long term. State borders should not be a bigger obstacle for prosecution authorities than for offenders," he told the press conference.

Responding to the government's public prosecution bill, State Prosecutorial Council head Tamara Gregorčič again stressed the importance of prosecutors' independence.

The council strongly opposes the proposed changes which would interfere with the constitutionally guaranteed independence of public prosecutors and allow pressure to be exerted on their appointments or work, she reiterated.

STA, 6 December 2021 - The Constitutional Court has found the government's regulation imposing Covid-19 recovery or vaccination mandate (PC) on state administration employees at workplace in contravention with the constitution for not being aligned with the relevant law. The court already stayed the regulation in late September.

STA, 5 December 2021 - Six Italian military doctors and nurses arrived in Slovenia on Sunday to help the medical teams of the Slovenian Armed Force helping at Covid-19 hospitals. Another nine could not arrive due to the bad weather but will join them on Monday.

The Italians were welcomed at the barracks in the city of Kranj by Slovenian Defence Minister Matej Tonin and Health Minister Janez Poklukar this afternoon.

That up to 30 Italian military staff would help Slovenia cope with the tense situation at hospitals was agreed by Tonin and his Italian counterpart Lorenzo Guerini in Rome last month.

Today, two doctors and four male nurses, members of the Italian navy and air forces arrived, to be joined tomorrow by the nine police medical staff (carabinieri) whose flight was cancelled due to bad weather.

The 15 Italian medical professionals, of whom five doctors, are to help the Slovenian military teams at UKC Ljubljana, the country's largest hospital.

Mixed teams are expected to feature one Italian doctor, two Italian nurses, one Slovenian nurse and two Slovenian military paramedics.

The military teams at another thee Slovenian hospitals, in Celje, Novo Mesto and Maribor, will remain unchanged.

In Celje and Novo Mesto, five members of the Slovenian Armed Forces are helping out, ten in Maribor and 15 at UKC Ljubljana.

One of them, nurse Alen Oderlap said they were doing their best to helo the civilian teams and patients. "There is a lot of work and every helping hand is welcome," he said.

Italian doctors Claudia Dedalo and Sandro Pricone said they already had some experience from Covid wards, while they see their Slovenian campaign as valuable experience and as an exchange of experience that could be valuable in other crises.

Minister Tonin is confident that the Italian team's know-how and experience will contribute to the mixed military teams to be effective and meet the expectations.

Minister Poklukar said the situation at Slovenian hospitals was still very difficult for medical staff, while response to any major natural disaster or accident would be impaired, which is why the help from Italy was so valuable.

Under the current agreement with Italy, the Italian medical staff will help in Slovenia until the end of the year.

Whether they continue into next year depends on the situation at hospitals and the epidemiological situation in Slovenia and neighbouring countries, Poklukar said.

Italian Ambassador to Slovenia Carlo Campanile said: "When Italy needed medical support, Slovenia was ready to help, and we have not forgotten it."

STA, 4 December 2021 - A group of protesters against government Covid-19 measures and the new bill on additional measures for curbing the epidemic and its consequences gathered in the Ljubljana city centre on Saturday. There were some clashes with police and a few protesters have been detained.

The protesters gathered unannounced in Ljubljana's Republic square at the invitation of the Resni.ca (Truth) party and civil initiatives. The party head, Zoran Stevanović, addressed the protesters, none of whom wore face masks or adhered to the rules on distancing.

Since the rally was unannounced police were at the site, and after three hours they called on the protesters to leave the site but they refused.

Stevanović said they had invited people to a peaceful, loud rebellion in Republic Square and to a festival of freedom.

In his speech at the square, he called for elimination of Covid-19 measures and a new government. He finds attempts at legalising obligatory vaccination unacceptable and also the punishing of the disobedient. Other speakers highlighted the same issues.

After a couple of hours, the rally moved to the Prešeren Square and the old town, accompanied by police.

At around 3pm police stopped the rally in Adjovščina Square, urged protesters to leave the site and stop obstructing traffic.

Protesters clashed with the police in the near-by Miklošičeva Street, where police blocked the road. Some of the protesters have been detained while most left the site at around 3:30pm.

Web portal N1 reported that the Interior Ministry planned to demand a reimbursement of the costs of police protection from the alleged organisers of the rally.

The ministry told N1 that talks were under way with police and the state attorney's office about filing claims for reimbursing the costs of police work at unannounced rallies from the organisers.

The epidemiological situation in the country has been improving but the National Institute of Public Health estimates that there are still over 30,400 active infections in the country, while hospitals are treating over 1,000 patients, including almost 260 in intensive care.

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic last spring, the government has sent several anti-Covid bills to parliament, the last one being adopted on 19 November. The latest bill envisages measures worth EUR 180 million to help mitigate the consequences of the epidemic.

What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.

If you’d like to keep up on the daily headlines then follow those here, or get all our stories in your feed on Facebook.

FRIDAY, 26 November
        LJUBLJANA - Travellers arriving in Slovenia from areas with the new coronavirus variant that the WHO has declared to be of concern face mandatory quarantine on arriving in Slovenia under a decision taken by the government. Entry is banned to foreigners without a residence permit in Slovenia arriving from those areas.
        LJUBLJANA - The government made a few changes to Covid restrictions, including detailing rules for open-air Christmas fairs, which will have to be fenced off with separate entrances and exits. Open-air stalls serving food and drinks need to put up notices limiting customer numbers.
        BRUSSELS, Belgium - EU ministers in charge of research adopted conclusions on new governance of the European Research Area (ERA) and a three-year action plan, which Slovenian Minister of Education, Science and Sport Simona Kustec hailed as an important milestone for European science and a major achievement of Slovenia's EU presidency.
        LJUBLJANA - EU environment ministers endorsed the further implementation of the EU Urban Agenda by adopting the Ljubljana Agreement. Slovenia's initiative to include small and medium-sized cities in policy-making processes was also successful.
        LJUBLJANA - A police inquiry found that officers acted lawfully when they used various types of force during a 5 October riot by opponents of vaccination and the Covid pass mandate in Ljubljana. The commission, appointed by Police Commissioner Anton Olaj, did however identify certain irregularities in the use of tear gas.
        LJUBLJANA - The Supreme Court annulled the verdict in the Balkan Warrior drug trafficking case and ordered a retrial, and the defendants, including the chief defendant Dragan Tošić, were released. The court of first instance will now have only two years to process the case before it becomes statute barred.
        LJUBLJANA - The government approved a draft agreement on the basis of which 13 Slovenian feature films currently kept at the Yugoslav Cinematheque in Belgrade, Serbia, will return to Slovenia. The classics, including the first Slovenian feature sound film On Our Own Land (1948), had been sent to Belgrade because Slovenia did not have an adequate storage facility.
        TRIESTE, Italy - Slovenian literary historian and academician Boris Paternu died at the age of 95. His expertise was Slovenian literature of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, while he also extensively studied the poetry of Slovenia's greatest poet France Prešeren.
        
SATURDAY, 27 November
        LJUBLJANA - The Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) of the previous prime minister endorsed its election manifesto and platform at a virtual congress setting out solutions which they say should restore a normality in Slovenia and pave the way for a development breakthrough. Marjan Šarec said the next government would have its work cut out fixing the consequences of the current rule.
        LJUBLJANA - New Slovenia (NSi) met for a virtual congress in preparation for next year's general election where their leader Matej Tonin said the Christian democratic party should get the mandate to form a government in order to avoid the "inefficiency" of the centre-left and the "sharpness" of the SDS, the NSi's partner in the current coalition.
        LJUBLJANA - The national advisory committee on immunization recommended a booster shot of a vaccine against Covid-19 to all adults, after initially recommending boosters for several most vulnerable groups, including everyone over 50.
        NIZHNY TAGIL, Russia - Slovenian women ski jumpers secured their first ever double victory in the individual World Cup event. Ema Klinec won the second event of the season after finishing as the runner-up at the same venue yesterday. Her teammate Urša Bogataj placed second.

SUNDAY, 28 November
        BELGRADE, Serbia - Visiting Belgrade as part of the preparations for the next summit of the Brdo-Brijuni Process, President Borut Pahor met his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić. Pahor said that the process of EU enlargement to the Western Balkans was too slow, which led to renewed policies of nationalism and border changes that threaten security.
        RUKA, Finland - A day after fishing second at the men's Ski Jumping World Cup event, Slovenian ski jumper Anže Lanišek won the second such event at Finland's ski resort this season in what is his first World Cup individual event victory.

MONDAY, 29 November
        PRISHTINA, Kosovo - President Borut Pahor called for headway in the Prishtina-Belgrade dialogue as he held talks with Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and PM Albin Kurti. He endorsed Kosovo's efforts to join Euro-Atlantic organisations and urged the country to continue adopting and implementing reforms, while emphasising the need to implement the Kosovo-Serbia agreements reached so far.
        BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) discussed a report on a mission to Slovenia it completed in October. The debate saw a heated exchange between Slovenian MEP Romana Tomc, who said the mission had missed the mark, and chair Sophie in 't Veld, who dismissed the criticism and urged the EPP to cooperate constructively.
        LJUBLJANA - Montenegrin Speaker Aleksa Bečić started a three-day visit to Slovenia by holding talks with his Slovenian counterpart Igor Zorčič. The pair discussed primarily Montenegro's European prospects, with Zorčič saying that as the presiding EU country, Slovenia was committed to accelerating the EU enlargement process in cooperation with Western Balkan countries.
        BRUSSELS, Belgium - In response to the coronavirus pandemic, EU education ministers adopted recommendations on blended learning approaches which combine school site and other physical environments away from the school as well as digital and non-digital learning tools.
        LJUBLJANA - The Legal Network for the Protection of Democracy, an NGO, presented amendments to the communicable diseases act after parts of the law were found in breach of the constitution and the National Assembly failed to amend them by the deadline imposed by the Constitutional Court. Efforts were launched to get deputy groups to support the bill.
        LJUBLJANA - The Programming Council of RTV Slovenija confirmed the public broadcaster's production plan for 2022, which had been met with criticism from the broadcaster's news staff because several news shows are being cancelled and some moved to the lower-rated second channel. In a secret ballot, 17 councillors voted in favour, two were against and five abstained.
        BRUSSELS, Belgium - The Slovenian Press Agency (STA) is one of the 16 European press agencies to join forces in a common European press centre whose creation was announced by the European Commission. The pan-European Newsroom will be supported with EUR 1.76 million in EU funds and coordinated by the German news agency dpa.
        LJUBLJANA - Telekom Slovenije, the state-owned telecoms operator, announced it will quit the electricity retail business as of New Year's, the second company to leave the retail market in the last few months amidst surging electricity prices. Telekom has a 2% share of the household market.
        
TUESDAY, 30 November
        LJUBLJANA - PM Janez Janša spoke with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg via videoconference about the Covid-19 pandemic, including the new Omicron strain of coronavirus, to note the importance of booster vaccine shots. They assessed the epidemiological situation and exchanged information about measures aimed at managing Covid-19 and their effects.
        LJUBLJANA - A commission appointed to examine the death of a 20-year-old woman after she was given the Janssen vaccine in September announced its unanimous assessment that the death was "definitely linked" to the vaccination. The investigation confirmed the vaccination led to the thrombotic thrombocytopenia.
        LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor warned against politicisation of police as he addressed a ceremony remembering the 1989 Operation North, a police campaign which prevented a Serbian nationalist rally in Ljubljana. He said depoliticisation of police started at the time of Operation North and was one of the milestones in Slovenia's independence process.
        BRUSSELS, Belgium - The EU ministers in charge of sport endorsed the European model of sport that calls for solidarity, open competition and accessibility of sport for all. Slovenian Minister of Education, Science and Sport Simona Kustec said the adoption of the resolution was a "historic day for sport and the European Union".
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's GDP grew at an annual rate of 5% in the third quarter of 2021. Just like in the previous quarter, it was largely fuelled by household consumption, up by 9.3%, and gross capital formation, up 9.6%, the Statistics Office said.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's annual inflation rate accelerated to 4.6% in November from 3% in the month before, the highest it has been since late 2008, on the back of higher prices of oil derivatives. At the monthly level prices were up by 0.7%.

WEDNESDAY, 1 December
        RIGA, Latvia - Following a two-day NATO ministerial, FM Anže Logar said the developments after the withdrawal from Afghanistan had come as a surprise and had brought up numerous risks that needed to be properly addressed. When planning future missions, goals should be laid out in advance according to regional characteristics, he noted.
        LJUBLJANA - Interior Minister Aleš Hojs rejected allegations by NGOs that Slovenian police officers were engaged in pushbacks on the Slovenian border in an interview with the newspaper Delo, while he criticised Croatian police for giving migrants instructions to ask for international protection in Slovenia.
        ROME, Italy - The Italian Chamber of Deputies put into law a government decree on the transfer of National Hall in Trieste thus giving the go ahead for the process to start to return it to the Slovenian community there. The return was agreed during last year's ceremony marking the centennial of the torching of the building by the Fascists.
        LJUBLJANA - The Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief officially set up an RescEU stockpile of protective personal equipment. The first batch of face masks has been already received, and in 2022, the reserve is expected to provide supplies of protective masks, gloves, coats, aprons, goggles and visors.
        LJUBLJANA - The government will allocate an additional EUR 210 million to agriculture in 2023-2027, on top of the EUR 100 million promised in the summer under an agreement reached as agricultural organisations met with PM Janez Janša and Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek.
        LJUBLJANA - The State Prosecutorial Council expressed strong opposition to the proposed amendments that would give the government greater say in the appointment of Slovenian prosecutors delegated to the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), saying that this allowed for "inadmissible political staffing."
        LJUBLJANA - Electronic tolling for cars was officially rolled out. Annual e-vignettes for cars and semi-annual e-vignettes for motorbikes became available immediately, with weekly and monthly e-vignettes to follow in February 2022.
        PARIS, France - The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) substantially upgraded Slovenia's economic growth forecast. It projects the economy to expand by 5.9% this year, up from its May forecast of 3.5%, whereas the outlook for 2022 was revised by 0.8 percentage points to 5.4%. Growth is projected to slow to 3.2% in 2023.
        
THURSDAY, 2 December
        BRDO PRI KRANJU - Interior Minister Aleš Hojs said after a meeting of home affairs officials from the EU and the Western Balkans that they had agreed on the need to improve the exchange of information and cooperation on the ground in the combat against organised crime and terrorism and managing of migration.
        LJUBLJANA - The government adopted a new version of the national foreign policy strategy, which takes into account new challenges, particularly hybrid threats and other crises. The document, titled Slovenia: Safe, Successful and Respected in the World - Foreign Policy of the Republic of Slovenia, is a revised and updated version of the country's strategy endorsed in July 2015, said the Government Communication Office.
        BRUSSELS, Belgium - EU member states confirmed the common agricultural policy (CAP) for 2023-2027 to make the CAP greener, fairer and more transparent at a session chaired by Slovenian Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek, who said the new CAP was a milestone in the EU's agricultural policy.
        STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Attending a session of the OSCE Ministerial Council, Foreign Minister Anže Logar advocated the restoration of mutual trust and strengthening of political will of the organisation's members.
        STRASBOURG, France - President Borut Pahor attended a ceremony remembering Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who served as the president of France from 1974 to 1981 and is remembered for his role in the Convention on the Future of Europe, which concluded its work in 2003 by drafting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.
        LJUBLJANA - Lovro Šturm, former minister, Constitutional Court judge in the 1990s and professor emeritus at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law, died aged 83. In 2000 he served as minister of education and sport in the Andrej Bajuk government and in 2004-2008 as justice minister in the first Janez Janša government.
        LJUBLJANA - The government endorsed the decision of the council of UKC Ljubljana, Slovenia's largest medical centre, to appoint acting director Jože Golobič for a full term.

STA, 2 December 2021 - The government has submitted to parliament a bill amending the financing of municipalities act whose goal it says is to streamline the procedure to award funds to the local communities with Roma settlements. The amendments also expand the list of state-subsidised services provided by joint municipal administrations.

A release issued after the government session on Thursday said one of the changes concerned the provision on the co-financing of municipalities with Roma populations which the government says has been open to misinterpretation.

Apart from the systemic solution applying to all municipalities with recorded Roma settlements, the proposed amendment would secure an additional amount of 100% to the municipalities located in development regions whose at risk of development index is 125 or more.

The indicator comprises more than a dozen indices and is used to monitor regional development based on the national average. The figures above 100 show a development lag to the average.

In response to the Human Rights Ombudsman's call to select a ministry that will conduct oversight of municipalities with Roma communities that have not yet set out detailed programmes and measures in compliance with the Roma community act and local government act, the government called on the municipalities with Roma communities to consistently meet their obligations.

Another change in the bill on municipalities financing expands the list of tasks performed by joint administrations of several municipalities that are co-funded from the state budget.

The release says that the introduction of new technologies leads to new services on behalf of residents, which also creates the need for new staff qualified to manage and provide the new tasks of joint administrations. By subsidising that staff the state would help boost the municipalities IT-wise and in providing new services to the residents.

STA, 1 December 2021 - The number of new daily coronavirus infections was down both in weekly and daily comparisons on Tuesday to 2,257 as almost a third of PCR tests came back positive. The National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) estimates there are around 35,000 active cases in the country. Another 15 people died of Covid-19 yesterday.

The rolling 7-day average dropped further to 2,063, down by 126 from the day before, and the cumulative 14-day incidence per 100,000 residents was down by 96 to 1,664.

The estimated number of active cases fell by about 2,000 compared to the day before to 35,000.

Yesterday's test positivity rate was 32.4%, down by almost 14 percentage points compared to Monday.

According to the government, hospitalisations were down by 27 to 1,101, with the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care dropping by three to 277. 15 people died of Covid-19 yesterday.

The youngest hospitalised patient is 27 years old, as is the youngest patient in intensive care.

Robert Carotta, the Health Ministry's coordinator for Covid beds, said at today's press conference that hospitalisations had apparently reached a plateau that would probably continue until mid-December, while noting that the healthcare system still operated at maximum capacity.

It seems that projections under which the number of ICU patients would reach 320 will not be realised, he said, adding that the "dropping of the daily number of newly-infected people inspires hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel."

Carotta is meanwhile puzzled by what he sees as many Slovenians not being aware of the seriousness of the situation, with almost 300 patients in ICT units becoming an accepted fact.

"At the same time, we live almost normally, we want mass events," he said, noting that an accident with a large number of victims would result in a collapse of the healthcare system.

All the latest data on COVID and Slovenia

STA, 30 November 2021 - Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek has called on businesses to organise work from home wherever possible and to stick strictly to the Covid pass rule and other precautionary measures in what he says is the only way to avoid potential new restrictions.

In his call to businesses on Tuesday, Počivalšek, said Slovenia could not afford a shutdown or new harsh limits on economic activities. "We must do all in our power to avoid new restrictions on activities or lockdown," he said.

He said past experience had shown those could be prevented by work from home, strict adherence to the reconvalescent-vaccinated-tested rule and other precautionary measures. "We are confident that we can overcome the current health crisis together and ensure work and life to go on as normally as possible."

While Slovenia has been seeing a steady decline in new coronavirus infections, hospitals continue to be overrun with Covid-19 patients. Another concern worldwide is the new Omicron variant of the virus, which has not yet been detected in Slovenia.

The National Institute of Public Health estimates just over 37,000 people are still actively infected in the country after 2,482 new cases were confirmed yesterday for a 14-day incidence per 100,000 residents of 1,760. Of the 1,128 Covid-19 patients treated in hospitals 280 require intensive care.

All the latest data on COVID and Slovenia, with some nice visualisations

STA, 30 November 2021 - A commission appointed to examine the death of a 20-year-old woman following her vaccination with the Janssen vaccine in September has unanimously assessed that the death was "definitely connected" with the vaccination. 

STA, 29 November 2021 - The Slovenian Press Agency (STA) is one of the 16 European press agencies that will join forces in a common European press centre whose creation was announced on Monday by the European Commission in a bid to strengthen the European media space. The pan-European Newsroom will be supported with EU funds.

This will be "the first ever pan-European newsroom space, which will allow journalists to report jointly on EU affairs and promote, let's say, a spirit of collaboration", European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said as he announced the new project at an event in Brussels on Monday.

The Commission will support the project with around EUR 1.76 million, which will be used, among other things, to finance training and set up a new multilingual website with selected texts on EU topics from participating news agencies, said the Commission.

The project is due to start in January, while the Newsroom is expected to become operational in mid-2022.

The STA's acting director Igor Kadunc welcomed the project. "We are pleased that the European Commission has recognised the importance of news agencies in providing and disseminating credible information in Europe and the world, and we are proud that the STA is participating in this project," he commented.

The project will be coordinated by the German news agency dpa. The other participating agencies are also AFP (France), ansa (Italy), AGERPRES (Romania), APA (Austria), ATA (Albania), Belga (Belgium), BTA (Bulgaria), HINA (Croatia), EFE and Europapress (Spain), TASR (Slovakia), FENA (Bosnia-Herzegovina), MIA (North Macedonia) and Tanjug (Serbia).