The State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Mr Cveto Uršič, representative of the Health Inspectorate, Ms Deana Potza, Deputy Director-General of the Police, Mr Tomaž Pečjak, and the Government spokesman Mr Jelko Kacin participated at the press conference on the current situation regarding COVID-19.

Prof. dr. Simona Kustec, Minister for Education, Science and Sport, and the American ambassador, Lynda Blanchard, signed an agreement on Thursday, 3 December, on the inclusion of Slovenia in the GLOBE program, and thus invited a new generation of students to join this successful international community of hobby scientists in the GLOBE program.

Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs participated in a videoconference of like-minded Member States on some elements of the Migration and Asylum Pact, convened by Polish minister Mariusz Kamiński.

After 13 years, Slovenia will again be the centre of attention of the international public with its presidency of the EU Council.

The Minister for the Environment and Spatial Planning, Andrej Vizjak, signed an agreement for the co-financing of the Pohorka project, in the scope of the European cohesion programme, which aims to improve the situation of grassland, water, and minority forest habitats, and create quiet areas on Pohorje. The project is worth almost EUR 2.2 million.

Marko Rakovec, Acting Director-General of the Directorate for International Law and Protection of Interests at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and current chair of the Slovenian delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) participated in an online plenary meeting of the organisation. In his address, he underscored the attention Slovenia pays to raising awareness about the unacceptability of antisemitism and about the tragic events of the past, such as the Holocaust and the Porajmos.

Speakers at the press conference on the current situation regarding COVID-19 included the Minister of Health, Tomaž Gantar, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Infrastructure, Aleš Mihelič, the Secretary from the Healthcare Directorate at the Ministry of Health, Doroteja Novak Gosarič, and the Government Spokesperson, Jelko Kacin.

State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Stanislav Raščan, took part in the opening session of the 27th OSCE Ministerial Council held via video teleconferencing. The event is hosted by the Albanian Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edi Rama, as OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, and will conclude on 4 December 2020.

Janez Janša, Prime Minister, Borut Pahor, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, and Igor Zorčič, the President of the National Assembly, commemorated the International Day of Disabled Persons with a special ceremony.

The Director-General for EU Affairs, Barbara Sušnik, held bilateral consultations with David Cvach, Director-General for European Affairs at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

This year’s celebration of France Prešeren’s birthday, which we have been celebrating on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture under the title of This Merry Day of Culture since the 200th anniversary of the national poet’s birth in 2000, will take place virtually.

At its 134th session by correspondence on 30 November 2020, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia was informed by the Government Communication Office (GCO) of the inability to perform Contract No. 81/2019 on the Performance of Public Service in 2020, concluded with Slovenska tiskovna agencija d.o.o. (Slovenian Press Agency), Ljubljana, and the inability to conclude a contract on the performance of public service in 2021.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has issued a financial support decision for the project “Construction of a new building of the Centre for Treatment of Children’s Diseases”. The project worth over EUR 5.8 million will be managed by the Ministry of Health and will receive a little over EUR 4.4 million of European Regional Development Fund support.

Today, the final event of the development cooperation project “School and Peer Mediation in Bosnia and Herzegovina” took place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Carried out in 2019–2020, the project involved primary schools from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the Brčko District, and the Republika Srpska.

Ahead of the December Home Affairs Ministers Council, today the Ministers of Trio Presidency, German minister Horst Seehofer, Portuguese minister Eduardo Cabrito and their Slovenian counterpart, minister Aleš Hojs, exchanged views on the new Migration and Asylum Pact.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Anže Logar took part in the second day of the regular meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which was held via teleconference. Today’s meeting was mostly focused on exchanging views with the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the foreign ministers of Finland, Sweden, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, in particular, on the impact of China’s rise in the global community.

The press conference on the current situation with the COVID-19 disease was attended by the Deputy Head of the Communicable Disease Centre of the National Institute of Public Health Nuška Čakš Jager, DEOS manager Irena Vincek, the representative of the Ministry of the Interior Borut Jakopin, and the government spokesman Jelko Kacin.

The confirmed age of the Old Vine, which grows in Maribor, is over 400 years and it is entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest noble vine in the world. It still bears grapes from which a very special wine is made.

Today, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anže Logar took part in the regular two-day meeting of foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Alliance, organised via video-conference. The meeting primarily focused on the reflection process for strengthening the political dimension of the Alliance and on the NATO 2030 Expert Group’s Report.

At the invitation of the German Presidency, State Secretary Gašper Dovžan today attended a virtual informal meeting of ministers for European affairs. The members of the EU General Affairs Council discussed issues relating to the future of Europe and exchanged views on the possibilities of stepping up coordinated action against the COVID-19 pandemic. Ministers of the Western Balkans countries also joined the discussion.