Today's conference on the current situation regarding the COVID-19 disease featured Ljubljana Archbishop Stanislav Zore, Bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovenia Leon Novak, deputy head of the Infectious Disease Centre of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) Nuška Čakš Jager and Marta Grgič Vitek of the NIJZ, the national coordinator of the vaccination programme.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia Anže Logar is hosting Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia Nikola Dimitrov on an official visit. Minister Logar expressed continued support for North Macedonia on its path towards European Union membership and outlined the key priorities of Slovenia’s EU Council Presidency.

Ten years ago, millions of Syrians took to the streets of Dara’a, Aleppo and Damascus, calling for democracy and respect of their fundamental rights and basic freedoms. The brutal response by the regime triggered over the span of a decade one of the most serious criminal enterprises and humanitarian crises since the Second World War resulting in more than 400 000 deaths and in countless violations of human rights.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has approved funding for the project Road and utility infrastructure in the industrial-service zone Šentjernej Fairgrounds. The EUR 820,000 project will be implemented by the Municipality Šentjernej and supported by the EU, with the contribution from the European Regional Development Fund standing at nearly EUR 440,000.

14 countries issued a joint statement expressing concerns regarding the recent WHO-convened study in China, while at the same time reinforcing the importance of working together toward the development and use of a swift, effective, transparent, science-based, and independent process for international evaluations of such outbreaks of unknown origin in the future. The signatories also underscore the need for a robust, comprehensive, and expert-led mechanism for expeditiously investigating outbreaks of unknown origin that is conducted with full and open collaboration among all stakeholders and in accordance with the principles of transparency, respect for privacy, and scientific and research integrity.

V skladu s sprejetimi sklepi in usmeritvami Vlade Republike Slovenije, bo v času od 1. do vključno 11. aprila 2021 na Upravni enoti Ljubljana izvajanje nalog omejeno zgolj na nujne zadeve.

Minister Dr Jože Podgoršek and European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius, met today in the late afternoon by videoconference. The Minister has presented to the European Commissioner the Slovenian priorities in fisheries and forestry during the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

State Secretary Gašper Dovžan and State Secretary for EU Affairs of North Macedonia, Kalinka Gaber, today held a discussion expressing satisfaction with the excellent relations between the two countries.

A press conference on the current COVID-19 situation was attended by the State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Mateja Ribič, State Secretary Ajda Cuderman, and the Director-General of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, Mitja Gorenšček.

The last days of March 2021 mark the 31th anniversary since the then Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the National Anthem Act. The seventh stanza of Zdravljica (A Toast), by France Prešeren, set to a piece of music of the same name composed by Stanko Premrl, became the Slovenian national anthem. The journey to the final decision was long. According to historian Božo Repe, Zdravljica is one of the few non-militant anthems.

Following the guidelines of official authorities, the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia will be closed from April 1st, 2021 until further notice. To obtain information or data from archival records, please contact the archive in writing by regular mail or e-mail or during office hours by telephone.

The Director-General for European Union Affairs, Ambassador Barbara Sušnik, today held bilateral consultations with Slovakia by videoconference. She and the Slovak Director-General for European Affairs, Tomáš Kozák, exchanged views on topical bilateral, European, and international issues.

The International Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI) is a newly established category II centre set up at the Jožef Stefan Institute under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the first and the only centre directly focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) with global outreach. The establishment of the IRCAI centre in Slovenia demonstrates that Slovenian researchers play a leading role in this field of scientific research and that the country provides a stimulating environment for developing a centre of this kind.

Today saw the start of the 11th session of the United Nations Open-ended Working Group on Ageing, which will take place until 1 April 2021. In addition to a high panel on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on older persons, this year's session will focus on the “Right to Work and Access to the Labour Market” and “Access to Justice”.

On 24 and 25 March 2021, a delegation of the Republic of Slovenia and Acting Director-General for International Law and Protection of Interests Marko Rakovec participated in the 60th meeting of the Committee of Legal Advisers on Public International Law (CAHDI) of the Council of Europe.

Today's press conference on the current situation related to COVID-19 featured the head of the advisory group Mateja Logar and the head of the Intensive Therapy Department of the Infectious Disease Clinic of the University Clinical Centre (UKC) Ljubljana Matjaž Jereb.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has approved EU funding for the project “Promoting entrepreneurship in Natura 2000 – Vudina Business Zone”. The project worth over EUR 940,000 will be implemented by the municipality Velika Polana and will receive nearly EUR 700,000 of European Regional Development Fund support.

Today, 17 years ago, Slovenia became a full member of NATO, the most effective alliance in the history of mankind, joined by 30 countries from all over the world. As part of today’s short celebration, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anže Logar, together with Slovenia’s first Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council, Ambassador Matjaž Šinkovec, officially raised the NATO flag in front of the Ministry.

This week is marked by the first part of the Generation Equality Forum, which takes place between 29 and 31 March 2021 in Ciudad de México. The second part will be held in Paris towards the end of June under the auspices of French President Emmanuel Macron. The event is set up as an initiative to promote gender equality and women’s rights based on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted in 1995. Mainly organised by UN Women, Mexico and France in cooperation with civil society, the Forum aims to strengthen and encourage countries to commit to concrete action to achieve genuine gender equality by 2030.

At today’s session, the Government adopted measures to contain the COVID-19 epidemic. Most of the measures will be in force from 1 April up to and including 11 April 2021.