STA, 18 August 2022 - A 1,530-metre tunnel that will make part of on an upgraded rail track connecting Maribor and Šentilj on the border with Austria was broken through on Thursday with the first train to run through it by the end of next year. The old tunnel will make part of a new cycling path.

The Maribor-Šentilj rail upgrade is valued at almost EUR 300 million, which makes it the biggest rail project in the country at the moment apart from the construction of a new rail track between Koper and Divača on the other side of the country.

The cost of the construction of the Pekel tunnel and a 900-metre-long Pesnica viaduct is valued at EUR 101 million.

The Pekel tunnel is located north of Maribor, to the east of the existing rail track, which is running through the Počehova tunnel. The new tunnel also includes a rescue tunnel.

"The new tunnel will make traffic faster and above all much safer, and the old one will be used more sustainably for cycling," Infrastructure Ministry State Secretary Alenka Bratušek said.

"The tunnel is being built using the so-called new Austrian method," Dejan Jurkovič of the Infrastructure Agency said.

The contractor is the Slovenian company Kolektor. "Our workers have proved that we perform work professionally, at high-quality, fast and efficiently," the company's representative Andrej Košir said.

One of the major challenges was the construction of the section below the expressway running through Maribor. "The tunnel is about seven metres below the motorway. Here, the daily progress was between one and one and a half metres, while on the north side it was about four metres," said Jurkovič.

The tunnel's construction is slated for completion by March 2023 after which it needs to be fitted with a track and other equipment. It is to open to traffic by the end of next year. "Traffic is expected to be moved from the old tunnel to the new one in late 2023," said Jurkovič.

Danes smo bili priča preboju predora Pekel, ki je del nadgradnje žel. proge Maribor-Šentilj-d.m.
Predor dolg 1530 m bodo v celoti zgradila slovenska podjetja. Gre za pomemben dogodek, saj dobesedno odpiramo nove poti in povezave in s tem omogočamo gospodarski in družbeni razvoj. pic.twitter.com/poz6vwI0R6

— Ministrstvo za infrastrukturo (@mzi_rs) August 18, 2022

The EU-subsidised upgrade of the 18-kilometre Maribor-Šentilj railway also includes what Jurkovič said would be the longest rail tunnel in Slovenia. The Pesnica tunnel is to be completed in spring next year and will wrap up the rail upgrade project.

Following the upgrade, trains will be able to travel at speeds of up to 120 km/h, up from the current top speed of 80 km/h. The number of trains the track can handle will increase from 63 to 84 a day, and cargo capacity from 6.3 to 9.9 million tonnes a year.

STA 13 June 2022 - Prime Minister Robert Golob visited Maribor, Slovenia's second largest city, on Monday, underlining that the only right way forward for the country is polycentric development. He believes the eastern half of the country needs a capital that would equal Ljubljana, adding that Maribor has a lot to offer.

The prime minister believes that Maribor may develop better in the future and that the city will gain back "some of its former splendour".

Pointing out an example of good practice of a decentralised state, Golob talked about the Energy Agency, which is based in Maribor.

"This is one of the few, I'm afraid even the only state institution which has been based in Maribor ever since it was established. It is independent and doing a very good job."

The prime minister believes that Maribor has enough human resources and expertise for an institution of such a calibre.

He believes that decentralisation must be based on advantages of individual areas. One cannot expect that all regions will develop equally in all fields, he said, adding that north-eastern Slovenia had the most potential in agriculture.

Predsednik vlade ?? dr. Robert Golob obisk v Mariboru zaključuje v Ljudskem vrtu, kjer je od predsednika @nkmaribor Draga Cotarja prejel dres 16-kratnih državnih prvakov v nogometu. pic.twitter.com/E9m6XgOBaG

— Vlada Republike Slovenije (@vladaRS) June 13, 2022

Golob was accompanied on his working visit by Digital Transformation Minister Emilija Stojmenova Duh and Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Food Irena Šinko.

Among other things, they visited the Energy Agency and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, discussing government's priorities, including green transition, food, agriculture and self-sufficiency.

Maribor University Rector Zdravko Kačič welcomed Golob's decision to make Maribor the destination of his first visit in his role as prime minister.

"His words show support for our efforts and understanding of the situation in which Maribor and the entire Eastern Cohesion Region have found themselves" as regards unfavourable trends in people commuting daily from Slovenia's border areas to Austria for work, said Kačič.

Golob also met Maribor Mayor Saša Arsenovič. The latter told the press they discussed a number of topics, including regional development and de-bureaucratisation, as well as elderly care, youth and work force drain.

"We also agreed that greater support will be needed for the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy ... to boost the success of drawing funds from direct operations, not only for projects aimed at closing development gaps between regions," said Arsenovič.

When asked whether Golob and Arsenovič discussed possible cooperation for the upcoming local election, the mayor said "not in the least", while Golob said his Freedom Movement would have its own candidates contend in all urban municipalities. Slovenia has 212 municipalities, of which 12 have urban municipalities.

Golob said he would visit Maribor again soon alongside Health Minister Danijel Bešič Loredan to discuss health care. He said the Health Ministry had started working on a Covid exit strategy.

STA, 9 June 2022 - A large bronze fountain has disappeared from the Maribor city park during construction works. The Maribor police department has told the STA police are investigating a grand theft.

The 1980 fountain Fitoliti (Phytoliths), the work of Maribor-based sculptor Vojko Štuhec, is located in the part of the park where renovation works have been under way for a year.

It is just over a metre and a half tall and made out of bronze and granodiorite, a rock similar to granite.

The only fountain in the Maribor park, it represents phytoliths, rigid, microscopic structures made of silica that are found in some plant tissues and persisting after the decay of the plant, which according to the Maribor Art Gallery symbolically unite the transience of plants and the permanence of rocks.

The Maribor police said on Facebook yesterday that someone had put the sculpture on a truck at night and taken off with it.

"This is an inadmissible criminal act and a sign of disrespect to the cultural heritage of Maribor," the municipality said.

The investigation is ongoing.

STA, 21 April 2022 - The city of Maribor launched on Thursday a bicycle sharing system called Mbajk that currently comprises 21 docking stations and 210 bicycles spread across the broader area of the city centre. The first hour of rental is free of charge.

The system is scheduled to officially open after the May Day holidays.

The bikes are for single-ride hire, not for multi-hour or full-day hire. "This is a practical and environmentally friendly addition to the public passenger transport system in the city," the Maribor municipality said.

Users can rent a bike at any of the stations and return it to any of the stations as well. Bikes can be rented via the terminal at the station or using the Mbajk mobile app. Users can also check the availability of free bikes and locks for each station.

They pay an annual registration fee of EUR 3. The first hour of each rental is free for an unlimited number of rentals. Users can register for the system at www.mbajk.si.

The system will be operational 24 hours a day and every day of the year.

The municipality has contracted Europlakat to set up the system under a 15-year contract. The company provided 15 stations and 150 bicycles, while other partners, led by the NLB Group, provided the rest.

According to Maribor Mayor Saša Arsenovič, the network will be expanded further in the future.

STA, 20 April 2022 - Maribor Mayor Saša Arsenovič has regretted the incident in which he got physical with a 13-year-old boy on Easter Sunday after what he says was an act of vandalism, while deciding not to resign as mayor. He has apologised to everyone involved and to the public, noting that he had only grabbed the boy by the arms.

 It was reported on Tuesday by the newspaper Večer that Arsenovič had been accused by a father of the 13-year-old of physically assaulting his son and causing him light injuries.

The father told Večer that on Easter Sunday Arsenovič attacked his son after he and a group of other children took some used tennis balls from a garbage can near a tennis court operated by the local tennis club.

In today's statement, Arsenovič said he regretted the incident and apologised first to the teenagers, and then to the parents, expressing the understanding that they wanted to protect their child, as he would probably do the same.

"I also apologise to all people of Maribor," he said, adding that "despite vandalism, wantonness and insults", he could and should have acted differently and less violently.

He reiterated that he only wanted to "stop the boy and teach him that common property should not be treated in such a way and that insults do not lead anywhere", adding that "he was very restless and upset, so communication was not possible."

The mayor asked the boy for a meeting. "Given that neither he nor I did the right thing, it might be time for us to meet, perhaps also with the parents, and to try to do something good together."

According to Večer, the boy's father does not accept the apology. "He has further hurt and humiliated me with his statement," he said, adding that "a person who cannot manage stress has no business holding such a position."

Local politicians have also responded to the incident, with some of them calling for the mayor's resignation. Arsenovič said he had considered resigning, but decided not to do so after careful deliberation and numerous calls to stay in office.

The father reported the attack to the police and filed a motion to prosecute the mayor for the alleged causing of light bodily harm. The boy allegedly has bruises on his neck, as evidenced by a photo, and his knee was also allegedly injured.

The mayor said he did not know where the boy had gotten these injuries from. "I certainly didn't grab him by the neck, but I did stop him," he said today.

Večer reported that an eyewitness has taken to social networks to say that Arsenovič was not chocking the boy, and that he had only grabbed him after the boy tried to get away.

Klemen Kokol of the tennis club denied that anyone was allowed to take used tennis balls around the court, adding that damage had been done to the property of the tennis club over the Easter holidays.

Arsenovič faced allegations of violent behaviour in the past, as he allegedly bit a part of a finger off a waiter some 20 years ago, and grabbed a young scooter driver by the hand and took away his keys last autumn after he caught him driving in the pedestrian zone.

"I protect the safety in pedestrian zones and I'm making an effort for scooters not to be there," Arsenovič said about the alleged incident at the time.

STA, 19 April 2022 - The Maribor Higher Court has quashed the December 2021 ruling sentencing to life in prison Silvo Drevenšek, who pleaded guilty to murdering his former spouse and her parents in front of his four-year-old son on Christmas Eve 2020. The court has made the decision because six instead of five judges ruled on the case.

The ruling, the first life imprisonment since this sentence was reintroduced to the Slovenian criminal code in 2008, is thus annulled and the case is being sent to retrial.

The Ptuj District Court, which delivered the ruling in early December 2021, appointed a sixth judge to the panel deciding on the case to avoid extending the court procedure if any of the members for example got ill.

But a record of the meeting of the panel of judges held on 6 December shows that all six members ruled on the case, which is a major violation of the criminal procedure, reporting judge Simona Skorpik said at today's hearing at the Maribor Higher Court.

This is why the panel of judges of the higher court chaired by Breda Cerjak Firbas annulled the ruling ex officio without dealing with the contents of the ruling or the appeal filed by the defence.

Both the prosecution and defence were surprised by the decision. "A lot has been invested in this procedure and I am sorry it has come to this. But the court needs to be allowed to decide and rule. That is its function," senior prosecutor Teja Kukovec Belšak said coming out of the courtroom.

Drevenšek's lawyer Andrej Kac said he had been convinced that the ruling would fall but he did not expect it to happen this way. "I am surprised by the reason for returning the case to retrial at the first instance. I did expect, however, the ruling to be annulled and sent into retrial based on its contents and explanation."

According to the higher court's head, Drevenšek refused to attend today's hearing but he remains in custody.

Drevenšek confessed to the triple murder just before the end of the main hearing at the end of 2021.

The panel of judges led by Marjan Strelec almost entirely upheld the proposal of the prosecution, which argued that Drevenšek, who was sane when he committed the act, had killed three people out of revenge after the partner left him and demanded a division of common assets.

The defence subsequently lodged an appeal. Kac said the case was open for many reasons. He argued the prosecution had not managed to present evidence of aggravating circumstances, which are crucial for determining the sentence.

The murders took place on Christmas Eve when Drevenšek, 35, entered the house he used to share with his estranged spouse in Gerečja Vas, a small village in eastern Slovenia, after having agreed to give his four-year-old son a Christmas gift.

Once he entered the house, he stabbed her with a kitchen knife several times until she bled to death.

After killing his former partner, he entered the neighbouring house, where his son, at the time aged four, was minded by his former partner's parents.

He used the same kitchen knife to kill the grandfather, while the grandmother suffered injuries so bad she died in hospital later the same day.

Strelec said in explaining the ruling that the crimes had been proven beyond reasonable doubt and conducted in the worst form, and that Drevenšek had been aware of his actions, which had been premeditated.

STA, 31 March 2022 - Enter Štajerska, an information office organised by the regional chamber of commerce to support domestic as well as foreign companies interested in doing business in this north-eastern region, opened in Maribor today.

Štajerska Chamber of Commerce director Aleksandra Podgornik described the office as an entry point for the launch of a company, for legal assistance, networking and support.

She noted the region's long entrepreneurial tradition as well as the export-oriented nature and strong presence of many of it's companies in the European and global business arena.

There are over 16,000 firms in the region, employing almost 80,000 people, mostly in manufacturing.

While located at the crossroads of two European transport corridors, Štajerska also has the Maribor University and other educational institutions, which, combined with a long industrial tradition, provides for a diversity of knowledge, the Chamber of Commerce said.

Enter Štajerska will be the source of information on matters like company launch red tape, residence and work permits, real estate purchases and trademark registration. Advice will also be given to those wishing to establish companies abroad.

Visit the site, in English, here

STA, 24 March 2022 - The University of Maribor has enabled Ukrainian students who had to leave their country due to the war to enrol temporarily in its study programmes without tuition under a student exchange scheme. They can also apply for scholarships that will cover their living expenses for the first few months in Slovenia.

The university said in a press release on Thursday that it was looking for solutions that would provide support for students, university teachers, researchers and other staff from Ukraine affected by the war.

It has established a single entry point in English and Slovenian, and opened the e-mail address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for all questions.

"As enrolment is not possible during the academic year, we cannot formally enrol Ukrainian students, but we will integrate them in the study process as part of the Erasmus student exchanges for a transitional period," the university said.

The work done during this period will be recognised as part of the formal enrolment in study programmes for the 2022/23 academic year, by which time the integration of Ukrainian students in tertiary education is planned to be systemically regulated.

The university is looking to provide accommodation to Ukrainian students in dormitories, centres for extracurricular activities and other suitable state-owned facilities.

Ukrainian students can apply for scholarships, and the student status allows them to get subsidised meals and do student work. The association of psychology students in Maribor has offered them private therapy talks in English free of charge.

The university has also enabled higher education teachers, associates and researchers from Ukraine to join the teaching and research work, and research and development projects as part of the Erasmus+ programme.

STA, 12 January 2022 - An unexploded Second World War bomb has been found at a construction site in Maribor. The site has been cordoned off as a precaution and a bomb disposal team will neutralise and remove the device, which weighs 250 kilos, on Sunday.

The explosive ordnance disposal team has been dispatched to the site after police received a report about the unexploded bomb on Tuesday afternoon and cordoned off the area. The team decided it will defuse and remove the bomb on Sunday, early in the afternoon.

All residents will be evacuated from a 300-metre zone around the site, said Maribor Deputy Mayor Samo Peter Medved, urging people to adhere strictly to the rules and instructions.

In addition to evacuating locals in the 300-metre zone, movement will be restricted in a 600-metre zone around the site. People will be allowed to stay in their homes in this area, but they will be forbidden to move outside, either on foot or otherwise.

The Maribor Police Department has asked the media to stay away from the scene for their own safety and not to interfere with the work of the experts on the site.

"We will inform you when the bomb has been removed and, if necessary, we will keep the public informed of any measures taken in connection with the removal of the bomb," it said.

Maribor, Slovenia's second largest city, was one of the most bombed cities in the lands of the former Yugoslavia during the Second World War.

The most high-profile find in recent years was the discovery of two unexploded bombs near the city's largest shopping centre and the UKC Maribor medical centre in October 2019, when their removal also prompted the evacuation of people from the surrounding area.

This time around, the device has been found in the Tezno borough in the south-eastern part of Maribor, and the removal plan is the same as what unfolded in 2019.

Darko Zonič, the head of the disposal team who was also in charge of the bomb removal in November 2019, said that in the worst-case scenario the device, a typical aerial bomb with two fuses, will have to be detonated.

The Maribor municipality meanwhile noted that last autumn the city council adopted a new decree on protection against natural and other disasters, including protection against unexploded ordnance.

The regulation envisages three levels of hazard, and in areas with a higher or medium level of hazard, prior to the start of construction work, a preliminary site investigation is required due to the possibility of finding bomb residues.

"Unfortunately, this did not happen in this case, but fortunately there were no consequences," said the deputy mayor, confirming that the Tezno area is one of those where the probability of finding unexploded ordnance is quite high.

In the Maribor area, 29 bomb attacks were carried out and a total of 15,795 bombs were dropped between January 1944 and April 1945.

The possibility of finding unexploded ordnance in the areas of Allied bombing is thus relatively high, and so is the possibility of an accident due to the uncontrolled activation of the bombs, the municipality warns.

STA, 29 November 2021 - The rising prices of energy in wholesale markets are already affecting retail prices of distance heating. In November, the costs of distance heating were up by 38% on average. It was the most expensive in Maribor and the cheapest in Celje, shows a survey by the Energy Agency [Agencija za energijo].

In nine Slovenian municipalities - Ljubljana, Maribor, Kranj, Celje, Slovenj Gradec, Velenje, Jesenice, Ravne na Koroškem and Trbovlje - the average retail price of heating for a typical household in a multi-apartment building with the average annual consumption of 6.21 megawatt hours rose by 38% to EUR 118 in November in year-on-year comparison, the agency says on its website.

The price of heating went up the most in municipalities where the main source of energy is gas or coal.

According to the agency, the rising price of heat from distribution systems, which are predominantly gas-fired, is mainly driven by new contract prices for this source of energy source and by monthly purchases of missing carbon dioxide emission allowances. Meanwhile, the price of heat from distribution systems whose primary fuel is coal is most affected by high prices for emission allowances.

In November, the biggest annual surge was recorded in Marbor and Jesenice (by 77%), and in Trbovlje (by 43%).

In Maribor, the retail price of heat also went up by 18% in monthly comparison. At EUR 173.54 per megawatt hour, it is the highest among all nine municipalities included in the survey. Jesenice follows with EUR 166.18, which remained flat compared to October.

In Jesenice, the authorities agreed last week to reduce the variable part of the price for November and December by EUR 15, while talks on other solutions are under way as well.

In Celje, the price remains stable and the lowest, at EUR 83.75 per megawatt hour. The agency says this is mainly because a significant share of heat is obtained from waste processing and wood biomass.

The Energy Chamber warns that the state must be prudent when introducing measures for mitigating the negative effects of energy prices both for households and companies. There must be no interfering with market mechanism, the chamber said after Friday's session of its managing board.

The measures for mitigating the effects of energy price hikes must be introduced as soon as possible, as operations of certain companies are already seriously in danger, the chamber said, noting that distance heating systems were under big financial pressure.

"Short-term measures to mitigate the energy market situation must be targeted and temporary and must not affect the functioning of the market as a whole and the long-term competitiveness and investment capital of energy companies, which is key to the green transition to a climate-neutral society," the chamber stressed.

At the same time, the measures should help maintain the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries, especially those that have already made significant efforts to improve energy efficiency.

The chamber believes the state could also use the Climate Change Fund to cover the extraordinary costs of large energy-intensive industrial consumers who have contracts with domestic electricity producers.

The chamber also stressed that the current situation was ideal for all stakeholders to focus on longer-term measures, which could include investing in sufficient capacity or building new power generation units, including nuclear power generation units, and in all available renewable energy sources, as well as in the energy recovery from waste.