What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.
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FRIDAY, 8 January
BRDO PRI KRANJU - The government modified its strategy for fighting the coronavirus epidemic in favour of a relaxation of restrictions on a regional basis instead of a nation-wide approach. It said decisions will be made weekly according to a five-tier plan that has thresholds of new cases and hospital figures.
BRDO PRI KRANJU - PM Janez Janša said he expected his government to continue business as usual after 15 January when the centre-left opposition plans to call a vote of no confidence. Janša noted the likelihood of the vote coinciding with the peak of the coronavirus epidemic. Should this be the case, it would mean the epidemic was being used to serve political goals.
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's exports in November 2020 were up by 0.9% year-on-year, as imports rose by 11.9%, the Statistics Office said. In the January-November period, exports were down by 2.7% and imports dropped by 6.9%.
LJUBLJANA - Slovenian Sovereign Holding said it had filed a suit for the annulment of the sale of a state stake in a venture capital fund shortly before a EUR 360 million worth takeover of the biotech firm Bia Sepparations in which the fund owned a minority interest in excess of 10%. It said it was acting to protect the interests of the state.
LJUBLJANA - Researcher Nejc Hodnik of the National Chemistry Institute received a grant from the European Research Centre (ERC) Proof of Concept programme to test the commercial potential of his work in the field of hydrogen fuel cell catalysts. Hodnik acquired an ERC Starting Grant in 2019.
CELJE - An explosion at the main bus station in Celje at around midday was caused by a gas leakage and injured three people. While they were all taken to the local hospital, none of them sustained serious injuries.
SATURDAY, 9 January
LJUBLJANA - A number of additional activities deemed essential were permitted to reopen, including surveying services, cleaning services, medical pedicure and construction works with zero contact with clients. Museums and galleries were closed again and sports activities restricted.
LJUBLJANA - Anti-government protestors who were rallying Friday evenings for months filed complaints against the work of police officers during protests, including criminal charges against ten of them. They said they were a target of intentional discreditation.
BERLIN, Germany - Saša Šavel Burkat took over as the new head of the Slovenian Berlin Culture Centre. The Culture Ministry described the new culture attache as an exceptional connoisseur of contemporary Slovenian and German production.
SUNDAY, 10 January
DRAŽGOŠE - President Borut Pahor honoured the 79th anniversary of a defining World War II battle as he laid a wreath at the Dražgoše memorial in the north-west of the country. Addressing the media, he was hopeful the nation would be able to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Slovenia's independence in June united and en masse.
MONDAY, 11 January
LJUBLJANA - Foreign Minister Anže Logar presented to the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee the background of and Slovenia's planned activities regarding plans by Italy and Croatia to proclaim exclusive economic zones in the Adriatic. The strategy was endorsed unanimously by the committee behind closed doors.
LJUBLJANA - One of the two police trade unions went on strike to demand higher pay in line with a 2018 agreement that ended a previous strike. PSS trade union head Rok Cvetko said the strike would continue until a deal was clinched with the government, which deems the trade union's demands unjustified.
LJUBLJANA - The Constitutional Court stayed the implementation of a law on EUR 780 million in investments in the Slovenian Armed Forces in 2021-2026 pending its final decision on the law's constitutionality. If it turned out the act is unconstitutional, the consequences of its implementation would be more severe than if it is stayed for a relatively short time until it has reached its decision, it said.
LJUBLJANA - The Economy Ministry unveiled a programme for development incentives for 2021, worth a total of EUR 660 million, including EUR 248 million in grants. The priorities of the programme include providing liquidity to companies and assistance in green and digital transition for higher added value.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - European Commission spokesperson for competition Arianna Podesta said state aid rules enable EU member states to grant state aid to press agencies as compensation for services of general economic interest, as she commented on the Slovenian government's decision to solicit a state aid opinion from the Commission following legislative changes adopted to secure financing for the STA.
LJUBLJANA - The number of deaths in Slovenia in 2020 is expected to be the highest since WWII based on data collected so far by the National Institute of Public Health. The number of excess deaths in 2020 compared to 2019 was 3,153, 262 were not related to Covid-19. Compared to the last five years, excess deaths reached 3,821, of which 930 were deaths not related to Covid-19.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Slovenia along with Belgium and the Netherlands became the new host country of the rescEU mechanism, providing storage of medical equipment for fighting cross-border medical threats. The countries involved in the project receive funding from the EU Commission to create strategic supplies of the equipment to be distributed around Europe.
TUESDAY, 12 January
BRDO PRI KRANJU - PM Janez Janša and NIJZ director Milan Krek presented Slovenia's vaccination plan until the end of June, as vaccination was launched around the country. The country expects to get some 17,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine a week until the end of March, or a total of 245,500 doses. People older than 80 will thus be vaccinated first, to be followed by those older than 70 in the last week of January.
LJUBLJANA - The highly virulent variants of the SARS-Cov-2 virus known as the UK and South African strains have not been detected in Slovenia so far, said Miroslav Petrovec, the head of the Institute of Microbiology. The institute processes roughly half of all PCR tests done in the country.
LJUBLJANA - Concern was raised after the Interior Ministry released a document with pay data for nearly 9,000 members of the police force and ministry employees, including criminal investigators and members of special forces. While this information is public knowledge according to the law governing freedom of information, the General Police Directorate believes the list's publication "may affect internal security in the police". Prime Minister Janez Janša announced that the "operative part" of the police force would be extracted from the single public sector pay system.
LJUBLJANA - Labour Minister Janez Cigler Kralj announced that 9,500 elderly in Slovenia's care homes had already received the first of the two Covid-19 vaccine jabs, which means almost all of those who had not yet recovered from the disease, and just over 3,000 or a quarter of the staff.
LJUBLJANA - The Fiscal Council made a renewed call for transparent and temporary coronavirus relief measures, finding the actual realisation of the measures last year was below government projections but had a significant impact on the worsening state of public finances. Preliminary data put the budget deficit for 2020 at EUR 3.5 billion.
LJUBLJANA - Karl Erjavec announced that four MPs of his Pensioners's Party (DeSUS), which left the government coalition in December, would contribute their signatures in support of a motion of no-confidence in the Janez Janša government. This would mean the informal Constitutional Arch Coalition (KUL), which brings together five left-leaning parties in a bid to oust the government, has 43 votes secured, three short of the required majority.
MARIBOR - An underage girl was killed after she was hit by a passenger train with preliminary police inquiries indicating she and her friend had been taking photos on the tracks. While the investigation is ongoing, the police ruled out foul play and suicide.
WEDNESDAY, 13 January
BRDO PRI KRANJU - The government decided to extend a vast majority of existing coronavirus restrictions until 22 January. It also extended the formal state of the epidemic by 60 days.
LJUBLJANA - Prime Minister Janez Janša called for speeding up vaccination as he attended an informal video conference of EU health ministers on Covid-19 vaccination in his capacity as health minister. He also proposed increasing capacities for vaccine production within the EU.
LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's total of coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic rose to 145,478 with 23,167 infections still estimated to be active and an average of 1,535 daily cases confirmed over the past 7 days, data from the National Institute of Public Health show. The Covid-19 death toll climbed to 3,093. Hospitalisations rose to 1,266 with 199 patients in intensive care.
LJUBLJANA - The KSJS association of public sector trade unions, acting through a police union, brought a collective labour dispute to demand all public employees who have worked in their workplace during the coronavirus epidemic get a bonus amounting to 65% of hourly pay for risk working conditions for all the hours put in during the formal duration of the epidemic.
LJUBLJANA - The EU Court of Justice ordered Slovenia to pay a EUR 750,000 fine for failing to timely transpose into national legislation the 2016 changes to the EU directive on markets in financial instruments or failing to notify the European Commission about this.
THURSDAY, 14 January
LJUBLJANA - The government set up a task force for trilateral talks with Croatia and Italy on cooperation in the northern part of Adriatic Sea after the three countries' foreign ministers agreed to enhance cooperation in Trieste last December amid plans by Croatia and Italy to declare exclusive economic zones.
HELSINKI, Finland - Foreign Minister Anže Logar set out the priorities of Slovenia's EU presidency in the second half of the year as he met his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto and Europe Minister Tytti Tuppurainen during a working visit to Helsinki. He was also received by President Sauli Niinisto.
LJUBLJANA - The government provisionally approved the release of overdue budget payments to the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) as required by the 7th economic stimulus package. The funds were cleared based on a message by EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager which "indicates the possibility of a positive European Commission decision regarding the transfer of state aid for the STA" as the government awaits a final decision, the Government Communication Office said.
CELJE - President Borut Pahor joined appeals to the public to get vaccinated against Covid-19 when their turn to get a jab comes. He believes immunisation will make it possible to end the health crisis this year.
LJUBLJANA - Jelko Kacin, the government's Covid-19 spokesman, was named state secretary at the prime minister's office tasked with coordinating the logistics of mass vaccination, effective on 18 January.
