On 3 December 2019, Slovenia’s oldest and largest institution of higher learning – the University of Ljubljana – celebrated its one hundredth birthday.

In taking the PISA literacy test, Slovenian students achieved 507 points on average, which is above the OECD average.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, Managing Authority for EU Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for the project Expansion of the business-economic infrastructure in the Business Zone Ajdovščina – Pod železnico 3. The project is worth a good EUR 645,000 with the European Regional Development Fund contribution amounting to EUR 245,000.

As part of the ongoing e-ARH.si project, the 4th e-ARH.si International Conference was held at Austria Trend Hotel in Ljubljana on November 20-21, 2019.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the stopping of the "rally of truth" in Ljubljana. The rally was planned to take place on December 1, 1989 and was organized by the Committee of the Association for the Return of Serbs and Montenegrins to Kosovo - Božur. It was officially announced on November 6 and on November 20 it was prohibited based on the decision made by the City Secretariat of the Interior. Since despite the prohibition the rally organizers insisted on coming to Slovenia - according to some estimations approximately fifty to sixty thousand people were to participate - Slovenia was forced to take special measures.

Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Andrej Benedejčič attended the Fourth Review Conference of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (Ottawa Convention), held in Oslo between 25 and 29 November 2019.

On Monday, December 2, 2019, the reading room of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia is opening an information office, where visitors are welcome to use lists of our archival records and other finding aids, order archival records, or obtain information about the use of such records.

In collaboration with Danish and Chinese colleagues, Slovenian scientists have decoded the genome of the olm, a cave-dwelling animal also known as Proteus anguinus or, more colloquially, as the “human fish”.

The government has defined the text of the draft Act amending the Intellectual Property Act and adopted a decision to send material aid to Albania following a bilateral request.

On 28 November, Vice Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China Qin Gang hosted State Secretary Simona Leskovar for political consultations as part of regular Slovenia-China dialogue. The last consultations took place in February 2017.

The Slovenian Government responded to the appeal of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and will allocate EUR 40,000 for urgent humanitarian aid for migrants on the Western Balkan route.

Today, 28 November 2019, a seminar on joint municipal administrations in Bavaria and Slovenia is being held at the Ministry of Public Administration. The seminar was organised by the Ministry in collaboration with the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior on the basis of the programme adopted by the Permanent Slovenian-Bavarian Commission the previous year. The local self-government has been part of the Commission's programme since 1995.

Today and tomorrow, 28 and 29 November 2019, Director-General of the Public Sector Directorate at the Ministry of Public Administration Peter Pogačar and his delegation are attending the EUPAN Directors General meeting.

As part of the response of the EU civil protection mechanism, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia has agreed to send two experts to help coordinate international assistance in the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Albania.

State Secretary Dobran Božič today received the President of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Regional Council Piero Mauro Zanin during his visit to the Republic of Slovenia.

God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya, a film by Teona Strugar Mitevska that also involves a Slovenian co-producer, has won the 2019 LUX Film Prize, presented by the European Parliament.

Slovenia’s largest and longest-running publishing event, the Slovenian Book Fair, started at the end of November.

By pressing a large red button at the main offices of the University of Maribor on Wednesday, the prototype HPC RIVR @ UM supercomputer was symbolically booted.

Last week, the National Assembly adopted state budgets for the next two years. With the adopted budget for 2020, more than € 10 billion will be spent on priorities in the field of development, welfare state and security; at the same time, it is our responsibility to ensure long-term fiscal sustainability.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, Managing Authority for ESIF and Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for the project “Housing communities for vulnerable groups”. The project is worth over EUR 517,000 and will receive over EUR 196,000 of Regional Development Fund support in the frame of Integrated Territorial Investments (ITS) instrument.