Slovenian government

Dallas – Public Administration Minister Boštjan Koritnik on Friday addressed the opening of a business and investment conference Texas Feels Slovenia as part of his visit to the US. According to the ministry, a number of potential US business partners and investors attended the conference.

Ljubljana – President Borut Pahor discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the importance of Ukraine-Russia negotiations hosted by Turkey in Tuesday’s telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The presidents also reaffirmed the good and friendly bilateral relations, the president’s office announced.

Zagreb – Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar, Croatia’s Gordan Grlić Radman and Italy’s Luigi Di Maio met in Croatia on Monday as part of the trilateral cooperation effort for the north Adriatic Sea. They also discussed Ukraine and Logar and Grlić Radman talked about an “agreement about an agreement” on joint fishing in the border Bay of Piran.

Brussels – Slovenia is still among the NATO countries with the lowest defence spending. It ranks 25th in terms of efforts to have 2% of GDP allocated for defence and 26th when it comes to defence investments, Defence Minister Matej Tonin said in Brussels on Thursday as a two-day NATO ministerial drew to a close.

Brussels – As the last session of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council under the Slovenian EU presidency got under way on Sunday in a bid to reach a political agreement on the fishing quotas for 2022, Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek said he expected the talks to be tough but was confident a balanced solution would be found.

Ljubljana – Slovenian Caritas has raised nearly EUR 41,000 in aid for the earthquake-stricken Haiti since the start of November in a campaign as part of a three-year strategic humanitarian partnership with the Slovenian Foreign Ministry, the Catholic charity said in a release on Tuesday.

Brussels – The European Commission said on Tuesday it would keep monitoring closely the situation of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) following the signing of the contract on the STA public service for the last two months of the year. The Slovenian authorities must ensure that the independence of the agency is fully preserved, it added.

Oswiecim/Krakow/Ljubljana – Parliamentary Speaker Igor Zorčič attended a two-day memorial event in Poland, where he addressed the participants of a symposium on anti-Semitism in Krakow on Monday. He then visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on Tuesday to deliver a speech and lay a wreath at the Auschwitz Death Wall.

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Janez Janša will lead a sizeable Slovenian delegation to the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, to be held between 31 October and 12 November. The roadmap posted on the government website estimates the cost at EUR 1.2 million, most of which is to be spent on an EU pavilion.

Maribor – The newspaper Večer is concerned in Saturday’s commentary that the Slovenian government is not working on any measures to stem rising energy prices, a global trend which the newspaper says will soon also strongly affect Slovenian households.