Tomorrow headlines for Slovenia: Thursday 22nd October 2020

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This summary is provided by the STA:

On Tuesday, 1503 coronavirus cases were registered in Slovenia, eight people died

LJUBLJANA – A record of 1,503 Sars-CoV-2 infections was confirmed in Slovenia on Tuesday, as the positivity rate of the test exceeded 25%. Eight Covid-19 patients died on the deadliest day to date, bringing the death toll to 200. Hospital admissions for Covid-19 increased by 20 to 333. The number of patients in the intensive care unit decreased by one to 55. Health Minister Tomaž Gantar said the number The number of beds needed for Covid-19 patients is increasing by 10-12 daily, however there were still enough beds available. According to him, 100-150 intensive care beds were manageable for Covid-19 patients, but he found that beds were required as well as trained staff.

Cinemas, music venues will be closed and top-class sport can continue

LJUBLJANA – Galleries, museums, archives and libraries are the only cultural institutions that will be allowed to offer personalized services to visitors in most parts of Slovenia from Thursday under the government regulations that came into force today. Some top-level sports can also be continued for registered athletes over the age of 15. Top competitions in selected group sports – ice hockey, basketball, soccer, volleyball and handball – as well as in individual sports are permitted.

Constitutional Court, C-Bank candidates do not have the necessary parliamentary support

LJUBLJANA – Anže Erbežnik received two votes before being appointed judge of the Constitutional Court in a secret ballot of 44:35 in the National Assembly. The result was the same for the candidate for the lieutenant governor of Banka Slovenije, Arjana Brezigar Masten, who also needed an absolute majority of all votes. The majority of the alternate groups did not indicate their preferences in the debate that led to the vote. Both candidates had been approved at committee level. President Borut Pahor said he would repeat both calls for proposals.

Major changes to the Act to Combat the Transplant Commission have been passed

LJUBLJANA – MPs have passed amendments to the Integrity and Prevention of Corruption Act, which the government believes will strengthen the preventive and supervisory role of the Anti-Graft Commission. They also aim to clearly delimit the powers in the prosecution of corruption between the Commission on the one hand and the police and prosecution on the other. Transparency International Slovenia welcomed the changes but said it was only the first step in a major overhaul of the anti-corruption framework.

Logar discusses Covid-19 measures with the Latvian counterpart

RIGA, Latvia – Foreign Minister Anže Logar continued his three-day trip to the Baltic States by meeting his Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkevičs for talks on the importance of coordinating measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. They called for a common EU approach to co-ordinating these actions, but noted that this was largely a responsibility of national governments. Ministers talked about the possibility of crossing national borders in a way that EU citizens are least affected and businesses can continue to operate normally.

Parliament amends the law to combat the disposal of packaging waste

LJUBLJANA – The National Assembly has unanimously passed amendments to the Environmental Protection Act to address the long-term problem of packaging waste and implement EU directives on site. Under the changes, packaging waste treatment companies must accept all waste from waste disposal companies based on a fee paid by the companies that produce such waste. The amended law will allow a decree to be passed extending the obligation to pay waste packaging fees to those who put less than 15 tons of packaging on the market per year. This threshold is blamed for the large amounts of rubbish piles at utility companies.

Parliament passes a law on efficient energy use

LJUBLJANA – The National Assembly has passed a new Energy Efficiency Act, in which almost all the representative groups express their satisfaction with the document that aims to exclude energy use from the Energy Act and incorporate EU legislation on the ground. The law provides for measures to increase efficient energy consumption in all sectors and with the involvement of all stakeholders. At the EU level, energy efficiency must be increased by 32.5% by 2030, while Slovenia is aiming for 35% between 2007 and 2030, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Blaž Košorok, told MPs.

There is a legal basis for the electronic toll on cars

LJUBLJANA – The National Assembly has approved an amendment to the Motorway Toll Act that creates the legal basis for electronic car tolls. The new system is scheduled to go into operation at the end of next year and drivers can buy “electronic vignettes” via an app, online or at petrol stations. Slovenia currently has annual, monthly and weekly toll stickers for cars and annual, six-month or weekly toll stickers for motorcycles. These categories remain unchanged, as do the prices for the time being.

Slovenia regards the agreement on the CAP as an exceptional achievement

BRUSSELS / LUXEMBOURG – After lengthy negotiations, the EU agriculture ministers have reached an agreement on the new common agricultural policy (CAP) for 2021-2017. The Slovenian Jože Podgoršek described the deal as an exceptional achievement for the entire agricultural sector. “Slovenia has managed to secure important elements for the development of agriculture, taking into account environmental protection directives,” he said. The Minister added that special attention was paid to smallholders as the administrative burden is reduced.

According to C-Bank, the economic outlook is deteriorating and the labor market remains stable

LJUBLJANA – The Slovenian Central Bank noted that the economic outlook has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks, with services being the sector most at risk. The increasing uncertainty is likely to delay companies’ investment decisions, while the situation on the labor market remains favorable due to government measures. In its latest publication on economic and financial trends, Banka Slovenije says that the eurozone crisis would have been much deeper without the quick and comprehensive response of economic policies.

The prosecutor is appealing the decision to terminate the case against the deceased collaborative general

LJUBLJANA – Prosecutors have appealed the Ljubljana District Court’s decision to suspend the re-trial of the late collaborative General Leon Rupnik after the Supreme Court overturned his 1946 death sentence. This emerges from a report in the Dnevnik newspaper. The prosecutor in charge appealed on October 12, denying the district court’s argument that a dead person could not be found guilty of a crime and that the case would place the court in an absurd position if it were a less severe sentence than it already had imposed issued executed. Prosecutors have reportedly argued that retrial in the case no longer constitutes criminal prosecution and that the trial could not be stopped like a regular criminal trial.

Slovenia ranks close to the OECD average in digital government

LJUBLJANA – Slovenia ranks 17th in the OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) 2019, the first OECD survey on the use of digital technologies and data for user-controlled public services in 33 countries. With an overall score of 0.51, Slovenia is just above the OECD average of 0.50. Slovenia was close to the OECD average in most of the categories, and above it in the “Open by default” category, ie the extent to which data, information, systems and processes are accessible to the public.

Changes in work during the pandemic discussed at the AmCham event

LJUBLJANA – The coronavirus pandemic has shown what work could look like in the future, the participants at the AmCham Business Breakfast agreed. However, shortcomings in working from home were also exposed, and Labor Minister Janez Cigler Kralj said the government is aware of the challenges and is making efforts to address them. The mass shift towards remote working has shown shortcomings in terms of business readiness and also in terms of legislation, said Sanja Savič of PwC Slovenija at the online event. The minister agreed that administrative procedures needed to be simplified and said the ministry was trying to ensure that a simple appendix to the employment contract was sufficient for the transition to remote work.

NGOs are driven out of the Metelkova network

LJUBLJANA – More than a dozen independent producers and non-governmental organizations are at risk of being evicted from the government premises of a former military compound on Metelkova Street in Ljubljana, where some of the key events leading to Slovenia’s independence took place. Some of the NGOs that have their premises in the building received an appeal from the Ministry of Culture on Monday to move out or stand before the court by the end of January 2021. The ministry, which has highlighted that users paid rent and that some didn’t even pay for their running costs, says the building is in disrepair and is due for renovation. The NGOs argue that the budget for the planned renovation is not planned until 2023 and is refusing to leave the country.

Cinematheque opens new exhibition space with Fellini display

LJUBLJANA – The Slovenian Cinematheque will open its new exhibition space on Friday with an exhibition dedicated to the Italian director Federico Fellini. In addition to the exhibition, the Cinematheque also planned a Fellini retrospective to celebrate the centenary of his birth. However, due to the coronavirus situation, the screenings had to be postponed. The traveling exhibition shows, among other things, stage sets, Fellini’s original drawings, costumes and interviews as well as private letters and family pictures.

In Croatia, charges have been made of drug smuggling through Slovenia

ZAGREB, Croatia – Croatian prosecutors have charged 13 people, believed to be two Slovenian citizens, with smuggling and selling illegal drugs that also took place on Slovenian territory. The Croatian Bureau for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (USKOK) announced that the drugs were purchased in the Netherlands and that rental apartments in Slovenia’s Pohorje Hills were used as a place to store the drugs.

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