While during the early post-war years the Yugoslav trade unions were actively involved in rebuilding the demolished state and assisting people devastated by the war, as well as helping workers complete their planned tasks later on, the implementation of self-management limited their activities. From then on their primary purpose was to provide rewards for workers and help employees hold their elections or organize their work. Their educational role took central stage and this new direction of thought can clearly be seen also in the here presented report of the union branch office, which operated in the old and respectable crown jewel of Slovenian hotel industry – the Hotel Union in Ljubljana.

Technical assistance to Montenegro in data management continues. Miro Lozej and Paula Kolenko from the Data Management Division of the Information Society and Informatics Directorate visited Montenegro from 28 to 30 October 2019 to present the experience of the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration in this area.

The European Commission published the results of the third call for proposals as part of the WiFi4EU initiative on its website.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Miro Cerar is paying a working visit to the United Arab Emirates, where the formal opening of the first Slovenian embassy in the Gulf states will be held on Tuesday, 29 October 2019. The visit by the Slovenian Minister coincides with the first meeting of the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation between Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates.

Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec is today on an official visit to Hungary at the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Their meeting signals an affirmation of good neighbourly relations and regular political dialogue between Slovenia and Hungary, and at the same time marks the first official meeting between the two current prime ministers.

Slovenia's bilateral technical assistance to Montenegro continues.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Miroslav Cerar meets Tatjana Rojc, senator in Italian Parliament.

At the beginning of this week, from 21 to 23 October 2019, three events related to e-government were held in Helsinki within the Finland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union, i.e. the SEMIC 2019 conference, the Digital Government Conference and the regular Meeting of EU Chief Information Officers.

On Thursday, 24 October 2019, the 3rd International conference on e-identification and e-trust services – ZEIDES 2019 was held at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel.

Three years ago, news of the birth of “baby dragons” at Postojna Cave circled the globe.

Prime minister Marjan Šarec addressed participants of the 10th conference of Slovenian scientists and businesspeople from Slovenia and around the world at the Institut Jožef Stefan (IJS).

Today Minister Dr Cerar held a meeting with President of the International Criminal Court Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji.

In its assessment of the fulfilment of the Schengen rules and standards, the European Commission wrote on Tuesday that Croatia has met the conditions for joining the Schengen Area.

Andrej Benedejčič, Ambassador-at-Large for arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, attended the NATO Conference on Weapons of Mass Destruction in Brussels. This annual event reaffirms the commitment of the North Atlantic Alliance to ensure military transparency and predictability. The meeting is primarily devoted to preparations for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference to be held in New York in mid-2020, as well as to discussing a new security reality after the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Regular political consultations between Slovenia and Turkey have been held today led by the Political Director/Director General for Common Foreign and Security Policy Matej Marn and Director General for Central Europe and Balkans in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Ambassador Sadik Babür Girgin. Interlocutors have discussed the bilateral relations between countries, including economic cooperation and cooperation in multilateral affairs.

At Cankarjev Dom, prime minister Marjan Šarec addressed those attending the event to announce the winners of the Slovenian Gazelle awards, which are given by Dnevnik to successful Slovenian companies.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, partner in INNOVA-FI project, participated at workshop on the topic of the role of financial instruments (FIs) in the regional ecosystem and territorial cohesion that took place during the European Week of Regions and Cities on Thursday, October 10, at Brussels Convention Centre. The session was organized as a joint effort of Startup Europe Regions Network (SERN) and ESPON.

The European Commission published the most recent results of the regular comparative analysis of the development of eGovernment services in the European Union in 2019 (eGovernment Benchmark). The measurements were carried out in 2018.

18 October – EU Anti-Trafficking Day – is intended to raise awareness of human trafficking and to encourage everyone involved to work harder in the fight against this phenomenon. “In Slovenia we are working for the fourth year in a row to increase awareness of forced labour and labour exploitation, which is a too-little recognised form of this serious crime”, said State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior and National Anti-trafficking coordinator Sandi Čurin.