Politics

10 Mar 2021, 10:00 AM

STA, 9 March 2021 - A European Parliament policy department service compiled an in-depth document on the situation in Slovenia in preparation for Friday's session of the Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group. The document, which is for internal use only, also details Prime Minister Janez Janša's attacks on media.

"The government's relations with the media are very tense, with the prime minister directly attacking media and individual journalists, notably by Twitter," reads the document, prepared by the service of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.

The 33-page document describes the developments in Slovenia mainly in the past year. With respect to media, it lists a long list of concerns in relation to media freedom and protection of journalists.

It notes attacks and threats, smear campaigns, prosecution of journalists and media, political and business pressures including by blocking public funds, which it says are leading to self-censorship.

The document also includes a table of attacks by the prime minister and other government representatives with hateful language against journalists and media.

"This behaviour is uncommon for leaders of European democratic states based on the rule of law and fundamental rights and respectful of the European values," reads the document.

It adds that persons in important governmental roles and representing a whole community and country are expected to strive to unite them by fostering dialogue and consensus, at all levels.

Direct and personal attacks by those in power, including by inciting others to do the same, as well as blocking or threatening to block funds for media, can be interpreted an abuse of a position of power aimed at intimidating and silencing them by exerting a chilling effect based on fear, it says.

The document also notes political influencing through media owners and the financing of Slovenian media by Hungarian companies affiliated with the ruling Fidesz party and Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

It says that Nova24TV was initially financed by members and supporters of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) but was later recapitalised by Hungarian companies, noting that Nova24TV generated a loss of over EUR 1 million in its first two years of activity, which suggested Hungarian media businessmen enabled the continued existence of the channel.

The document also writes about government officials' attacks on representatives of the judiciary and notes replacements in senior positions in the country's police, armed forces, statistics office and intelligence agency. "It was the first time that such dismissals happened without stating a cause," it reads.

The document furthermore notes pressure faced by NGOs, replacements in the leaderships of museums and procedures against government members, as well as anti-government protests and the fines faced by the protesters.

The European Parliament will discuss threats to media freedom in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia on Wednesday.

All out stories on media freedom and Slovenia

09 Mar 2021, 19:55 PM

STA, 9 March 2021 - Prime Minister Janez Janša called on the director of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), Bojan Veselinovič, to step down. "It is time for the director as a political tool of the extreme left to step down and take responsibility for his unlawful actions. And allow the STA to work and develop normally," Janša wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

The STA turned to the prime minister's office for explanation about which unlawful actions Janša was referring to. In response, the office said it would not comment additionally on the issue.

The prime minister also said in the tweet that since the STA had been led by Veselinovič, "journalists with fatal disease are being dismissed and lie is often being sold as the truth".

Janša made the statements while sharing a tweet by the head of the Government Communication Office (UKOM), Uroš Urbanija, who tweeted that Veselinovič was lying when he told the TV show Tednik on Monday that the STA did not wish to respond to UKOM's inquiries about the length of news articles.

The government said on Twitter this was "fake news".

In response, the STA published a letter by Urbanija today, sent last October, in which Urbanija asks how many interviews with pop singers had the STA published, and how long they were.

He also inquired about how the STA guaranteed that statements written by someone at the agency were being objectively reported on, whether the opinion of every employee of the agency had been obtained before one such statement, and why the STA had not published an article about this.

The letter by Urbanija came a few days after the prime minister labelled the STA a national disgrace on Twitter after learning that an interview with rapper Zlatko published by the STA was longer than the agency's article about an event featuring Janša and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban.

Urbanija also accused Veselinovič once again of concealing documents.

"Without arguments and proof the prime minister can obviously afford anything. Even abjectly abusing the deceased by means of untruthful statements that have been denied publicly on several occasions," Veselinovič said in response.

He said the comments made by Janša were unworthy of the prime minister of a country that will preside the Council of EU and celebrate its 30th anniversary this year.

The STA management has said several times that all the documents are available to the government as the legal representative of the sole shareholder of the agency. The government has not requested the documents but the UKOM has, providing no government authorisation for acting on its behalf.

The Trade Union of Slovenian Journalists denounced Janša's call for Veselinovič's resignation as unauthorised and unlawful interference in the editorial autonomy of a public information service.

The trade union added that the prime minister was also persisting in violating the legislator's clearly expressed and enacted will to provide uninterrupted financing to the STA to allow it to inform citizens in an unbiased and independent way.

The union expressed its support for the STA staff and management, urging the state again to honour its financing obligations, and the prime minister to stop stepping up uncertainty for "distinctly short-term political purposes".

The STA's operations are at risk after the financing of the public service has again been suspended in 2021 despite the provisions of the seventh coronavirus relief act, which says the STA must be funded in line with its business plan regardless of the signing of a special contract on the public services.

The STA requested for the contract to be signed at the end of 2020 but has not received a reply.

The STA receives about EUR 2 million for its public services from the state a year, which is almost half of the agency's annual revenue.

All our stories on media freedom and Slovenia

08 Mar 2021, 11:54 AM

STA, 8 March 2021 - The Slovenian PEN Centre and Mira, the women's committee at the centre, warned of violence against women ahead of Woman's Day, 8 March, while the Manager Association warned of inequalities at work, aggravated by the Covid-19 epidemic. A number of online discussions on the problems and potential of women will be held today.

The Slovenian PEN Centre and Mira addressed a letter featuring a list of eight demands to the government, National Assembly and Slovenian citizens ahead of Woman's Day. Their main demand is redefinition of rape and protection of the rights and duties of citizens in line with the Constitution.

They oppose a model of society that does not allow women to decide freely on giving birth, and call for a legal restriction of hate speech on social media.

They also warn of women and female writers being subjected to physical attacks, mocking, censorship and violations of rights in the pandemic year.

Woman who are publicly stating their opinion are often intimidated, and women - be it politicians, authors, journalists, experts or any other public figures - are targets of smear campaigns more frequently than men, they said.

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Seen in Ljubljana, Photo: JL Flanner

The PEN centre and Mira believe that the ban on assembly as part of epidemic measures has narrowed down the possibilities of men and women to stand up to this.

Due to the pressure on the STA, public media and government representatives of ministers who cannot directly and independently communicate with the media, the public and media life is being subjected to censorship and self-censorship, which puts the fundamental right of democracy - the freedom of speech - at risk, they wrote.

According to the Manager Association, the epidemic has made differences between men and women in professional settings worse.

Results of last year's survey by consulting company McKinsey show that one in four women in the US is thinking of quitting her job during the epidemic although she did not even consider this in early 2020. This could jeopardise the results of decades of efforts to achieve gender equality in business, the association warns.

However, this crisis is also an opportunity to make companies more flexible and sympathetic, and create equal opportunities for both sexes, the association said, pointing to appointments of several women to senior positions in Slovenia in recent months.

The epidemic has increased gender inequality, because women took on most of the burden related to providing for children and distance learning as well as household choirs, because men mostly work in the more profitable sectors and because the sectors dominated by women have been more affected by the epidemic.

"This is why it will be an even greater challenge to increase the share of women in top positions in business - in Slovenia it currently stands at about 25%, according to data by the European Institute for Gender Equality," the association said, noting this would be one of the goals of the national programme for equal opportunities of men and women until 2030, which is now in public debate.

One of the measures from the programme is also improving digital competences of women. Slovenia is currently faced with a great challenge of gender segregation in the digital sector, as more than 80% of men are currently educated and employed in this sector, the association said.

Several NGOs have also warned that the health, and social and economic crises have deepened the known problems of women and created new ones. Violence against women is on the rise and it is time for action, SOS Telefon and Iskra said in their call to the government, which was backed by the Karitas Safe House for the Primorska region and the 8 March Institute.

The SOS hotline said that between 1 January and 30 November 2020 an almost 13% rise in the number of cases of domestic violence had been processed by police.

Several events will be held today to mark Women's Day. The PEN centre will host an online reading, and the Office of the European Parliament in Slovenia will host an online debate on the role of women in the fight against the virus.

The Association of Slovenia Journalists will host an online debate on female journalists in the Slovenian society and the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts on women's jobs, from factories to offices.

The National Council, the upper chamber of parliament, will mark the day with a debate entitled To Be Successful and to Be Happy.

Women's Day highlights the issue of violence against women every year. In Slovenia, legislative changes redefining rape in line with the principle that only yes means year sponsored by the government, which the 8 March Institute has also been campaigning for, are expected to bring positive changes.

Recently, a debate on violence against women was sparked by actor Mia Skrbinac speaking up about sexual harassment at the Ljubljana Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television.

The United Nations began celebrating 8 March as Woman's Day in 1977 to commemorate the day when women working in the textile industry in New York staged a protest against inhumane working conditions and low pay in 1857.

07 Mar 2021, 12:30 PM

STA, 6 March 2021 - Media developments in Slovenia are being monitored by the US administration, which has noted in this respect that freedom of the press is a fundamental principal of democracy.

Asked by the STA about whether they follow the media developments in Slovenia, the US Department of State said the Department and the Embassy in Ljubljana were monitoring threats against journalists and the integrity of public media in Slovenia closely.

Freedom of the press is a fundamental principal of democracy, and the United States looks forward to continuing to partner with Slovenia to promote the open exchange of ideas and information essential for accountable governance around the world, the Department of State added in its comment.

The New York Times reported on developments in Slovenia in January, describing Prime Minister Janez Janša as a nationalist politician who has been compared to former US President Donald Trump.

"Mr. Janša has long been known for attacking opponents online, including news media he considers biased, as well as for opposing immigration. But since his return to power, another issue beloved of populists has become a focus: culture," the New York Times wrote in an article focusing on replacements of museum directors.

Janša endorsed Trump ahead of the EU presidential election last year, tweeting that Joseph Biden "would be one of the weakest US presidents" should he win. A day after the 3 November election, when vote count was under way, Janša tweeted it was "pretty clear that American people have elected Donald Trump". Janša congratulated Biden after he was inaugurated as president.

Media freedom in Slovenia will be discussed at the plenary session of the European Parliament next week.

06 Mar 2021, 12:08 PM

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 5 March 2021. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here

Mladina: Slovenian media not leftist

STA, 5 March 2021 - The left-wing weekly Mladina rejects the allegation that Slovenian media have left bias, arguing in Friday's commentary that the opposite is in fact true: the majority of Slovenian media are conservative and promulgate economic liberalism.

In the commentary On Media Bias, Mladina takes the example of both leading TV stations, public broadcaster RTV Slovenija and private broadcaster POP TV, which it says are "economically not just liberal but mostly neo-liberal," rarely giving leftist ideas airtime.

"Both stations advocate low taxes, and businessmen are the principal interlocutors when it comes to assessing the effectiveness and quality of the state administration. Speaking against the capitalism order is near blasphemy."

The commentator argues that Slovenia in fact has just one properly leftist party in parliament, the Left, which is "despised and denigrated by the majority of Slovenian journalists and editors".

"The Slovenian media industry is far from leftist. If one compares them to German media, the majority of Slovenian media would place in the conservative camp - and even the magazine you are holding would be more centrist than leftist in Germany."

The commentator also says it is not true Slovenian media are friendlier to "so-called left parties" and their leaders, they are just as ruthless to them as they are to Prime Minister Janez Janša and his SDS, and not just when left parties are in government.

The SDS's fishy dealings and Janša's odd statements appear in media reports so often not because of alleged media bias, but because of the simple fact that "Janša and the SDS are connected to so many inadmissible actions, suspicious transactions and instances of questionable conduct that this is of course news for the majority of the media".

"It is possible to criticise Slovenian media for many things. But if Janša was treated as uncompromisingly as they treat the other politicians, the majority of present-day youngsters would only know the name Janez Janša from the history of independence because he would have been long gone from Slovenian politics."

Demokracija: Janša’s invitation to EU fact-finding mission

STA, 3 March 2021 - The right-wing magazine Demokracija welcomes Prime Minister Janez Janša's invitation for the European Commission to send a fact-finding mission to Slovenia in the latest editorial, expecting it will put the record straight and show how biased Slovenian media are.

The weekly says Janša's letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for Brussels representatives to come to Slovenia to see the state of the rule of law, democracy and media freedom themselves brought an expression of concern on the faces of the left wing.

"The media mainstream reported that the Commission president rejected the possibility of a visit by a special group. In their view this is her brush-off to the Slovenian PM. Well, it is a poor consolation. It was merely a clear message that in writing reports about Slovenia the Brussels bureaucracy will take into account not just what it is being sold by the prevailing media, NGOs, 'academics' and left political parties (including at the EU level), but will also listen carefully to right-wing government structures.

"And it was a word of caution to European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova (who has been leading an outright campaign against the government over alleged violation of media freedom), to take that into consideration. This is one of the reasons we were able to read dramatic writings at the weekend about 'Brussels' interference as a double-edged sword' [...]"

The weekly finds that Janša's letter has achieved its purpose. "The parasites have come out in the open at last. It is clear they do not want a disclosure (when talking about the media) of the dirty details, incestuous links and ideologically coordinated attacks that have led to a completely distorted media landscape that has been teaching the audience what to think rather that give it an opportunity to think based on unbiased and credible information.

"More than 80% of the media structure in Slovenia is of the left world view, the ideological competition is being under attack all the time and the prevailing concept in the media is political correctness and liberal democracy as the only redeeming and allowed ideology," writes the weekly under the headline Parmenides' Chariot.

All our posts in this series are here

06 Mar 2021, 09:23 AM

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 February
        LJUBLJANA - Prime Minister Janez Janša wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with an invitation for the Commission to appoint a fact-finding mission that would visit Slovenia to get acquainted with the state of democracy, rule of law, independence of the judiciary and media plurality.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's GDP dropped 5.5% in real terms last year over the year before, the Statistics Office said. Domestic spending saw a considerable drop, while external demand also suffered a blow.
        LJUBLJANA - The Covid-19 lockdown had a significant impact on sales in the services sector and retail in 2020, as it was down by a combined 9.6% compared to the year before, Statistics Office data showed. The drop in the services was 11.6% and in retail 6.2%.

SATURDAY, 27 February
        KOPER - Tighter coronavirus restrictions kicked in in the coastal Obalno-Kraška region after the epidemiological situation in the south-west worsened. Gatherings were banned and travel between the region and the rest of Slovenia is restricted to work- and health-related reasons.
        OBERSTDORF, Germany - Ski jumper Anže Lanišek won the bronze medal on the normal hill at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf. Gold went to Polish Piotr Zyila, while German Karl Geiger was second.

SUNDAY, 28 February
        VELENJE - The Velenje Local Court gave Luka Štitić a two-month suspended sentence with a one year probation period for threatening Prime Minister Janez Janša on social media during last year's anti government protests. The ruling is final.
        OBERSTDORF, Germany - Cross-country skiers Anamarija Lampič and Eva Urevc won bronze in the women's team event at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. The pair fell short of gold by 3.46 seconds.

MONDAY, 1 March
        BRDO PRI KRANJU - Foreign Minister Anže Logar hosted his counterparts from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia to discuss Slovenia's upcoming EU presidency and the coronavirus pandemic. "The meeting was a great opportunity to present our views and priorities for the presidency so as to harmonise key issues that will be on the EU's agenda," Logar said.
        LJUBLJANA - The government adopted a revised vaccination strategy envisaging 61 vaccination centres, including 13 in hospitals. Health Minister Janez Poklukar said on Tuesday priority groups remain the same, with health workers in top tier, followed by people over 80, 75 and 70, and then vulnerable patients with chronic conditions.
        LJUBLJANA - Prime Minister Janez Janša indicated Slovenia was not planning public spending cuts, having weathered 2020 better than expected due to stimulus measures. "We're not planning any cuts. We're planning a recovery this year," he told the National Assembly.
        KLAGENFURT, Austria - The Slovenian ethnic minority won an absolute majority in the municipality of Globasnitz (Globasnica), where Bernard Sadovnik was also reelected mayor in Sunday's local elections in the state of Carinthia. This is the first time the Slovenian minority United List (EL) party has won an absolute majority in any municipality.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia has decided to increase aid to Yemen by 20%, pledging a total of EUR 120,000 for 2021-2023, Foreign Ministry State Secretary Stanislav Raščan told a high-level conference on Yemen. The increased contribution means Slovenia will have donated over half a million euro for the aid effort in Yemen since 2016.
        LJUBLJANA - Two months after the expiration of public and commercial news service contracts between the STA and the government, the STA restricted access to its news items for the government administration. Parliament Speaker Igor Zorčič said the time had come to resolve the matter in court.
        LJUBLJANA - All persons who had been in contact with an individual whose coronavirus infection was confirmed to be the South African variant last week have so far tested negative, the National Institute of Public Health said. The infected doctor had high-risk exposure contacts with four persons who have been ordered to self-isolate.
        ŽIRI - Alpina, a footwear maker, said it would reduce its headcount by more than a tenth at its main production location in Žiri after a dismal year marked by store closures and the long shutdown of ski slopes. 18 workers will be made redundant and 20 will either retire or await retirement on the dole.
        LJUBLJANA/KOPER - The government approved EUR 1.4 million for promotion of the economic activity of the Italian minority in Slovenia in 2021-2024. The goal is to improve the community's economic potential by nurturing the growth of existing and incorporation of new companies.

TUESDAY, 2 March
        LJUBLJANA - Four centre-left opposition parties filed a proposal for the National Assembly to call a consultative referendum on the government-sponsored bill on the National Demographic Fund. The Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), Social Democrats (SD), Left and the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) argue the bill would give the government centralised control over ownership and management of EUR 8.6 billion in state assets.
        LJUBLJANA - A new Strategic Council for Foreign Policy, led by Foreign Minister Anže Logar, held its maiden session. It decided the current foreign policy strategy, last adopted in 2015, would be "refreshed". Proposals are currently being drawn up at the ministry.
        LJUBLJANA - Justice Minister Lilijana Kozlovič was urged to step down as the opposition is unhappy with her handling of the appointment of Slovenia's two members of the European Public Prosecutor's Office. The development comes after Kozlovič of the junior coalition SMC said her ministry had asked for the proposal of two prosecutors to be put on the government's agenda several times, but received no reply.
        LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian central bank said the anti-crisis measures had contributed to the economic recovery and to keeping the country's potential afloat, albeit at the expense of public finances. A gradual approach and targeted withdrawal of measures would be needed so that the economy is not exposed again to negative shocks.
        LJUBLJANA - Following the identification of the UK and South African variants in Slovenia, the Nigerian strain of coronavirus has also been confirmed in the country, POP TV reported, adding that seven cases had been detected so far.
        LJUBLJANA - Health Minister Janez Poklukar appointed a new medical taskforce that advises the ministry on measures to contain Covid-19. It will be headed by Mateja Logar, an infections diseases specialist at the UKC Ljubljana's department of communicable diseases. She succeeds Bojana Beović, who resigned as she took over as new head of the Medical Chamber, but is staying on as a member.
        SOLKAN - Slovenian company Instrumentation Technologies, a provider of advanced instrumentation in the field of basic particles accelerators, was reported acquired by ARX Equity Partners, a private equity group headquartered in Prague. The price was not disclosed.
        LJUBLJANA - Telecoms incumbent Telekom Slovenije said it was being sued by the telecommunications company T-2 for around EUR 50 million for the damage that the latter allegedly suffered between September 2018 and July 2020. The claim refers to Telekom's wholesale prices.

WEDNESDAY, 3 March
        LJUBLJANA - The government decided all secondary school students who have been learning remotely will return to in-person teaching on 8 March. The change comes after schools reopened in mid-February, but only final-year secondary students returned to classrooms to prepare for school-leaving exams.
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia is planning to start mass vaccination of teachers against Covid-19 next week, Jelko Kacin, the coordinator for the logistics of mass vaccination, announced as he visited a vaccination point in Ljubljana. If everything goes according to plan, Slovenia could administer about 240,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in March.
        BRUSSELS, Belgium - Three of Slovenia's four MEPs from the European People's Party (EPP) did not back changes to the rules of procedure allowing the European People's Party (EPP) to suspend or exclude a member party from its ranks. Ljudmila Novak, the fourth Slovenian EPP MEP, voted for the changes, having been one of its proponents.
        LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly passed legislation enacting Slovenia's EUR 70 million guarantee for the Pan-European Guarantee Fund, a new mechanism of the European Investment Bank designed to help business cope with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
        LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly passed legislation designed to end fictitious registrations of residence. The amendments to the residence registration act will crack down on fictitious registrations at addresses that are not residential, or residential addresses where the size of the living quarters clearly precludes the registration of a large number of people.
        LJUBLJANA - The National Assembly voted 48:38 in favour of amendments to the act governing the STA that require the STA English Service to report on the work of NGO. The English Service already reports on NGOs, but the law on the STA does not stipulate this as an explicit requirement.
        MARIBOR - A total of 28 house searches were carried out by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in relation to a suspected money laundering scheme worth millions of euros involving shell companies and the withdrawal of large amounts of cash from bank accounts. Several media reported the sting focused on Slovenian tax advisor Rok Snežič.
        ŠOŠTANJ - The Šoštanj thermal power plant decided not to introduce co-incineration of non-hazardous waste after the Šoštanj city council voted against it. It will also discontinue a procedure to have its environmental permit changed to allow co-incineration.
        
THURSDAY, 4 March
        LJUBLJANA - It was revealed that media freedom in Slovenia will be one of the items on the European Parliament's agenda as it meets for a plenary next week. The expansion of the agenda was proposed by the S&D, the second largest group in the EP. Although invited, PM Janez Janša and Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti will not take part.
        LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian Association of State Prosecutors turned to the Council of Europe (CoE) to complain about "inadmissible pressure" that they say Prime Minister Janez Janša and media that he controls are exerting on prosecutors.
        LJUBLJANA - The government decided bars and restaurants in two eastern regions, Posavje and South-east Slovenia, will be able to start serving customers outdoor as of 8 March. Initially, this will be a one-week test to see how things turn out.
        LJUBLJANA - The government adopted a reform banking bill, which transposes the provisions of a major EU directive and creates the legal basis for the participation of workers in bank supervisory boards.
        LJUBLJANA - Two contractors submitted financial offers for the first part of main works on the Divača-Koper rail section. A consortium led by Slovenian builder Kolektor CPG values the works at EUR 403.6 million, while the offer by Austrian builder Strabag and its consortium is EUR 463.5 million.
        LJUBLJANA - The Court of Audit said the government, the Public Administration Ministry and the Office for the Protection of Classified Information were ineffective in providing for cybersecurity in 2016-2019. It points to the government's failure to adopt an information security strategy, as well as to understaffing and underfunding.

 

04 Mar 2021, 21:00 PM

STA, 4 March 2021 - Media freedom in Slovenia will be one of the items on the European Parliament's agenda as it meets for a plenary next week as the planned debate on government attempts to silence media in Poland and Hungary has been expanded to include Slovenia.

The expansion of the agenda was endorsed by the Conference of Presidents, which comprises the European Parliament's president and the political group chairmen. It was proposed by the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second largest group in the EP, which also includes two out of Slovenia's eight MEPs. The debate will be held on Wednesday at 3 PM.

The largest political group in the European Parliament, that of the European People's Party (EPP), which also includes the party of the Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša, said it had opposed expanding the debate to Slovenia.

Before the plenary, the situation in Slovenian media landscape is scheduled to be discussed on Friday afternoon by the EP's group for democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights.

The group, led by Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld (Renew), is expected to host an online meeting with various stakeholders.

While the final list of participants could not yet be obtained, the three-hour meeting is expected to start at 1:30pm and should be virtual and open to public.

The draft list features European Commission representatives and a number of invitees from Slovenia, including Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina, NGO association CNVOS director Goran Forbici, public broadcaster RTV Slovenija supervisory board member Borut Rončevič, DNS and ZNP journalist associations presidents Petra Lesjak Tušek and Matevž Tomšič, investigative journalist Lenart J. Kučić and Marko Milosavljević, a professor at the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Studies.

The group's chair has also invited Prime Minister Janez Janša and Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti. The pair have recently said the debate should be public and in an in-person format held in the European Parliament. There should also be enough time to comprehensively present all the discussed topics.

Janša and Simoniti also invited in 't Veld to join a fact-finding mission to Slovenia that Janša proposed in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last Friday.

The EPP group today officially welcomed Janša's invitation for a fact-finding mission to Slovenia, arguing that debate on the situation in Slovenia would be suitable if such a mission showed it was justified. Concerns linked to the rule of law are not a political game played every time someone you do not like says something, the EPP group spokesperson said.

The S&D is focusing on Wednesday debate. Asked whether they were considering initiating Article 7 procedure in Slovenia's case, the group's leader Iratxe Garcia did not rule out the option but said the debate on Wednesday would show whether further steps were needed. She noted the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs would be responsible for such a move.

04 Mar 2021, 13:00 PM

STA, 3 March 2021 - Slovenia will roll out biometric identity cards in line with legislation passed by the National Assembly on Wednesday that implements an EU requirement that all member states should start issuing biometric identity cards by August 2021.

Under the amendments to the act on identity cards, the new card will have a chip containing images of two fingerprints and a photo of the holder.

The biometric data on the chip can only be used to verify the authenticity of the card, or the identity of the holder when they cross the border.

Since the EU regulation makes it possible to use identity cards as a means of electronic identification, the new cards will contain electronic identification and a digital signature certificate.

The card will be merely the medium for these features, their practical use will be determined by the Public Administration Ministry in a separate law.

Deputy groups welcomed the legislation as a step forward in digitalisation, noting that it will be more versatile and will facilitate e-government and e-commerce services.

Slovenia has had biometric passports since 2006 and the main features of the amendments follow the provisions of the act on passports.

03 Mar 2021, 17:24 PM

STA, 3 March 2021 - A total of 28 house searches were carried out in Slovenia Wednesday by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in relation to a suspected money laundering scheme worth millions of euros. It unofficially involves tax advisor Rok Snežič and Bosnian citizen Dijana Đuđić.

In addition to Slovenia, house searches were also carried out in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as the scheme is being investigated that allegedly involved a number of Bosnian citizens, with Slovenian Rok Snežič as the mastermind.

Unofficial information by POP TV says that he was helped in the money laundering scheme by Dijana Đuđić, a Bosnian citizen known for a controversial EUR 450,000 2017 loan to the Democratic Party (SDS) of Janez Janša, currently the ruling party in Slovenia.

The Bosnian authorities are conducting a parallel organised crime and money laundering investigation, which targets Đuđić and the persons connected with her in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A house search was reportedly carried out today at her home.

Snežič is suspected of having organised a group of citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina who opened bank accounts in Slovenia, Austria and Hungary, on which they received money as payment for fictitious services performed by shell corporations.

They would then withdraw the money from the banks in cash, and Snežič is suspected of taking Đuđić personally from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Slovenia several times to withdraw cash there.

Unofficially, the illegal transactions worth millions of euros also involved the companies owned by Roman and Dominik Vuk, the brother and son of Miran Vuk, the former mayor of Zavrč. They used to be provided tax advice services by Snežič.

The latter is suspected of giving instructions to the persons involved in the money laundering scheme and organising the chain of financial transactions. Điđić used to make cash withdrawals of up to EUR 400,000 at once.

The financial transactions made by Đuđić raised red flags years ago at the Slovenian Office for Money Laundering Prevention, which suspected that it was money laundering.

Acting NBI director Petra Grah Lazar told the press today that eight house searches were still under way. She added that the NBI had launched the investigation in 2018 based on various tips. Foreign authorities are also involved.

The Slovenian and foreign suspects are suspected of committing several criminal acts between 2016 and 2018, including the issuing of unwarranted receipts for various services to receive a total of EUR 7 million in illegal gains, Grah Lazar said without naming any suspects or other details of the investigation.

Asked whether the EUR 450,000 loan from Đuđić to the SDS, which was later returned, was part of these transactions, she said that she was not able to provide concrete information but noted that no political party was being investigated.

A total of 19 persons have been made suspects as part of the investigation, and neither of them have been detained, the police also said.

03 Mar 2021, 14:24 PM

STA, 3 March 2021 - Slovenia's per capita GDP measured in purchasing power standard (PPS) reached 89% of the EU's average in 2019, an improvement of two points from 2018. Western Slovenia reached 106% of the average, whereas the country's other cohesion region, Eastern Slovenia, only reached 73%, the latest Eurostat data show.

Having posted solid economic growth in 2014-2019, Slovenia's GDP gradually converged towards the EU average in this period after its gap had been widening for several years. The figure rose from 83% in 2014 to 89% in 2019.

The average development gap between the country's two cohesion regions meanwhile remained almost unchanged in 2019 over 2018 after it had been widening for several years. In both Western and Eastern Slovenia it decreased by one percentage point.

Eurostat data shows that Slovenia's GDP per capita reached EUR 23,200 in 2019, which translated into 27,700 PPS. Western Slovenia meanwhile generated EUR 27,600 or 33,000 PPS and Eastern Slovenia EUR 19,100 or 22,900 PPS.

There was a considerable variation both between and within EU member states in 2019: Bulgaria's North-West region and France's overseas region Mayotte did worst at 32% of the EU's average, while with the UK excluded, Luxembourg did best with 260%.

More on this data

03 Mar 2021, 13:11 PM

STA, 2 March 2021 - A round table debate was critical of the government's measures to stem the Covid-19 epidemic and the manner in which it communicates with the public. Warnings could be heard about the state of human rights eroding under the current government and there were calls for citizens not to be silent about such developments.

Among others, Monday's debate hosted by the Coordination of Patriotic and Veteran Organisations featured lawyer Nataša Pirc Musar, the former information commissioner, who is concerned about the "unbearable erosion of law" during the current government.

She also noted the easiness with which measures are being taken without due deliberation, and is especially bothered by the "true hooliganism" of the government adopting regulations for which is its clear in advance that they are unconstitutional.

Pirc Musar has been noticing over the past year "how the right political pole has become the fiercest advocate of the freedom of expression", while forgetting about the remaining human rights. The former is limited with other rights, including with the right to privacy.

According to her, the principle of proportionality should be followed under which certain human rights may be limited in a democracy under certain conditions. She thus called on citizens not to be quiet as "this is the only was to prevent the terrifying erosion of human rights and law as a whole".

Slovenia's former Ambassador to Switzerland Marta Kos talked about the government's communication during the epidemic, which according to her was unified and efficient in the first wave, while inadequate in the second wave.

For this reason, the measures have not had the effect that they could have, Kos said, noting that the government had made three major mistakes. "Instead of building trust, it is undermining it," she said about the first mistake.

The second mistake is the "constant persecution of the media" that could have severe long-term consequences. "Where there is no free media, there is no democratic society," she said, adding that the government was behaving "indecently" when it came to the financing of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA).

Kos mentioned as the third mistake the "inappropriate communication with which the government is undermining Slovenia's reputation in the world". She is concerned that Slovenia might have lost a lot of credibility in the international arena in recent months.

Former Health Minister Dušan Keber pointed to what he believes are mistakes in decisions to stem the epidemic that are the consequence of a misplaced theory about the spreading of the novel coronavirus, which he believes is transferred aerogenically.

On the other hand, all measures and instructions are based on the theory that the virus is spread by droplets, and Keber instead proposes that the main measure should be regular ventilation of public and private spaces.

This should be discussed as frequently as wearing face masks and hand sanitation, and citizens should also be encouraged to wear thicker masks that stop aerosols. All measures for outdoors could practically be dropped, he said.

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