Ljubljana related

03 Dec 2018, 11:50 AM

STA, 1 December 2018 - Foreign Minister Miro Cerar said that there were no legal grounds for recognising the German-speaking community as a minority as he responded to a renewed call by the community to be granted the same rights as the Italian and Hungarian communities in Slovenia.

According to a report in Saturday's issue of the newspaper Večer, Cerar told Austrian members of the Slovenia-Styria committee that there were no legal grounds to recognise the minority and "no circumstances that would dictate giving a special status to this ethnic group".

"But we will work to additionally support it in its cultural activities and ensuring its identity," Cerar said on the sidelines of the meeting of the joint committee on Friday.

The Federation of Cultural Associations of the German Speaking Ethnic Group in Slovenia in Slovenia repeated its call to be recognised as a minority in the Constitution this week.

There are around 2,000 “German-speaking Slovenes” in Kočevje and Maribor

It demands that Slovenia and its public institutions finance the operations and sustainable development of cultural associations of the German speaking community in Slovenia, respect the community's members as loyal Slovenian citizens and introduce German as a teaching language in line with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe.

It is estimated that the community has about 2,000 members, most of them living in the area of Kočevje in the south and in the city of Maribor in the north-east.

Slovenia believes that the status of the German-speaking community in Slovenia falls under a 2001 agreement with Austria on cooperation in culture, education and science.

Under the agreement, the German-speaking community enjoys the rights stated in Article 61 of the Constitution, which stipulates that everyone has the right to "freely express affiliation with their nation or national community, to foster and give expression to their culture, and to use their language and script".

20 Nov 2018, 11:50 AM

STA, 19 November 2018 - Foreign Minister Miro Cerer criticised on Monday "immature acts" on the part of Slovenia as a reason for Hungary deciding to pull out of the Koper-Divača rail expansion, saying "Slovenia has missed a unique historic opportunity to the detriment of future generations".

The former prime minister, whose government was in talks with Hungary to take part in this major infrastructure project, believes such treatment of strategic partners does not bode well for Slovenia.

Speaking to the press after an EU ministerial in Brussels, Cerar regretted that as he meets his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó in Ljubljana on Tuesday, they would probably not discuss "further strategic cooperation on the second rail towards the port of Koper".

Despite his government's major effort to get Hungary on board for strategic partnership on this important transport route, Cerar regretted that "a unique historic opportunity has been lost to the detriment of future generations".

"In my view, this is a big defeat for Slovenia," said Cerar, stressing that Hungary had been willing to cooperate for the past three years, but had been driven away by "immature acts" on the Slovenian side.

Infrastructure Minister Alenka Bratušek referred to, but not named

He regretted "completely inappropriate, politically immature statements saying that we will dictate to Hungary the conditions for cooperation". This is in reference to Infrastructure Minister Alenka Bratušek's statements, whom he did not explicitly mention. [More on that story here]

He said that such statements "mean a total lack of understanding of cooperation among countries at high political level", and added that it remained to be proved that the project would be more expensive with Hungary taking part.

He also warned the EUR 200 million that would have been contributed by Hungary would have to come from other sources - from loans or the state budget, which means there will be less money for other projects.

"Those who have caused this situation will have to find an answer to it. They will also have to say where we'll get the money and how we'll treat strategic partners in the future," Cerar said.

Similarly, Defence Minister Karl Erjavec, who is also in Brussels for an EU ministerial, regretted Hungary's withdrawal, pointing to the financial aspect.

"If we look at how difficult it is to draft a supplementary budget for 2019, every cent coming into the country is welcome," said Erjavec, the foreign minister in Cerar's 2014-2018 government.

"Talks with the Hungarian side had been under way. Since the minister [Bratušek] disclosed how they proceeded, Hungary obviously withdrew," said Erjavec, who hopes this is not its final decision.

On Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the idea under which Hungary would take part in the construction of a new railway line between Koper and the inland hub of Divača had been dropped. He also said the country had already started talks with the port of Trieste in Italy, located some 15 km north of Kop

All of our stories about Slovenia and Hungary can be found here

28 Sep 2018, 10:20 AM

STA, 27 September 2018 - Slovenia's ties with the US will grow stronger in the future but not at the expense of the EU or Russia, Foreign Minister Miro Cerar told Slovenian correspondents in New York on Thursday. 

21 Sep 2018, 11:50 AM

STA, 20 September 2018 - Slovenia cannot agree to the European Commission making a political issue out of the implementation of the Slovenian-Croatian border arbitration award, because this also damages the future of the Commission and of the EU, Slovenia's new Foreign Minister Miro Cerar said in an interview with the STA. 

05 Sep 2018, 09:14 AM

STA, 4 September 2018 - Foreign minister nominee Miro Cerar wants Slovenia to have an open, balanced and more uniform foreign policy. In his hearing at the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday he also pledged to strive for the implementation of the Croatian border arbitration decision. Cerar was backed with nine votes in favour and none against. 

12 Jul 2018, 18:23 PM

STA, 12 July 2018 - Prime Minister Miro Cerar said after the last day of talks on defence spending at the NATO summit that Slovenia had made no new promises but was sticking to its commitments from the past. "Our commitments remain the same. We are economical and reliable. We promise only what we can actually keep," he said. 

06 May 2018, 20:24 PM

STA, 6 May 2018 - Prime Minister Miro Cerar met EU Council President Donald Tusk in Ljubljana on Sunday at the start of Tusk's two-day working visit to the country. Addressing the press after the talks, the pair stressed the importance of the European perspective for Western Balkan countries. Tusk praised Slovenia as a success story. 

13 Apr 2018, 09:15 AM

The Modern Centre Party (SMC) was established a month and a half before the 2014 election, which it won in a landslide, becoming Slovenia's first declaratively centrist party to lead a government. But by refusing to take a stand in the divided Slovenia, it has been accused of being lukewarm and has taken blows from both sides. 

20 Mar 2018, 10:46 AM

PM claims he wanted to protect Slovenia against actions by interest groups that threatened its future. 

17 Mar 2018, 12:12 PM

“So that it would not be plundered or brought to a complete standstill.” 

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