At the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Anže Logar paid an official visit to the Portuguese Republic today. Slovenia and Portugal maintain close and friendly ties and are partner EU Member States as well as NATO allies. In 2021, the countries will be holding successive presidencies of the Council of the EU for the second time, for which intensive preparations are already under way.

Today, on 29 September, State Secretary Tone Kajzer participated in an informal video conference of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council in the format of development ministers, focusing on relations with Africa, the state of play of EU-ACP Post-Cotonou negotiations and the situation in Belarus.

Prime Minister Janez Janša was a guest on A Talk with the Prime Minister broadcast on Nova24TV. He talked about the epidemiological situation in the country and the measures taken to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, the fifth anti-corona legislative package, the Government's international activities, the EU funding secured by Slovenia, the Demographic Fund and current political topics.

Minister without portfolio, responsible for Strategic Projects and Cohesion Zvone Černač has participated in a high-level videoconference on Implementation and strategic orientations of future Cohesion Policy instruments. The videoconference was held under the auspices of the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Today, Slovenia and the rest of the world celebrate the first ever International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, which was designated by the UN General Assembly with the support of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). FAO stresses increasing levels of hunger, recalls the consequences of food waste for the environment and calls for action on all levels.

The Minister of the Interior, Aleš Hojs, spoke about two ordinances adopted by the Government over the weekend. The Government spokesperson, Jelko Kacin, presented the epidemiological data.

Today, State Secretary Gašper Dovžan received the State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Ambassador Nathan A. Sales. During their discussions, the State Secretary underlined Slovenia’s commitment to counter-terrorism within the scope of the European Union, with particular focus on the challenges posed by the misuse of new technologies.

Prime Minister Janez Janša today attended a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the promulgation of amendments XCVI, XCVII and XCVIII to the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia. The keynote speakers at the ceremony, which took place at the Crystal Hall of the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana, were Dr Ludvik Toplak, President of the Socio-political Chamber of the Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia at the time, and Borut Pahor, President of the Republic of Slovenia.

At the invitation of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland, Mr Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, the Minister, Dr Aleksandra Pivec, participated in the meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the Visegrád Group, extended to include Slovenia, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania (hereinafter referred to as V4+7 VG) that took place in Poznań, Poland.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has issued a funding decision for the project Wastewater collection and treatment in the Kolpa River basin – Municipality of Metlika. The project with a total budget of EUR 952,000 will receive a contribution from the Cohesion Fund in the amount of nearly EUR 336,000. The project will be implemented by the Municipality of Metlika.

On 25 September 2020 at the 27th Days of Slovenian Public Administration organised by the Faculty of Administration of the University of Ljubljana, the winner of the competition for best improvement in public administration entitled »The Shift Forward 2020« was announced. The title went to the Government Communication Office for their Model of the central call centre for public information and raising awareness in the event of an epidemic.

Today, Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Arancha González Laya received Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Anže Logar on an official visit to the Kingdom of Spain. Slovenia and Spain are two friendly countries and allies, sharing similar views within the EU and NATO but also concern over numerous international issues.

The Government has been briefed on the Assessment of the epidemiological situation in the EU Member States, the Schengen Area countries, the Balkan countries and the selected third countries, the Assessment of the epidemiological situation in countries and the European Commission's recommendation Re-open EU, and the definition of the criterion for a worsening epidemiological situation and the epidemiological trends in the cumulative 14-day incidence per 100,000 people prepared by the National Institute of Public Health. The Government has assessed the expert justification of the restrictions laid down in the Ordinance on imposing and implementing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the external border crossings and at control points at the internal borders of the Republic of Slovenia and decided that these restrictions will continue to apply.

At today's meeting by correspondence, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia issued the Ordinance on imposing and implementing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the external border crossings and at control points at the internal borders of the Republic of Slovenia, which will be published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.

Metoda Dodič Fikfak, Director of the Institute of Occupational, Traffic and Sports Medicine, and the Government spokesperson, Ambassador Jelko Kacin spoke about the current situation regarding COVID-19 at a press conference.

On Thursday, 24 September 2020, Germany, Portugal and Slovenia organized a joint Trio event, currently presiding the Council of the EU, as a side event of the 75th United Nations General Assembly: “Digital Societies: towards a human-centred, trustworthy and value-based digital transition”.

New York, 24 September 2020 – On the margins of the Climate Week taking place during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), members of the Green Group (Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Iceland, Singapore, Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates) call for action in combating climate change in their joint statement.

Today, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Anže Logar took part in the virtual ministerial meeting of the Central European Initiative (CEI) Member States. He apprised the participants of Slovenia’s successful response to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, pointing out that the general and special measures adopted by the Slovenian government to curb the epidemic remain in effect.

The press conference on the latest situation regarding the Covid-19 disease was attended by the Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Janez Cigler Kralj, the deputy head of the Centre for Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Public Health, Nuška Čakš Jager, and Government spokesman Jelko Kacin.

At it's session, the Government discussed the proposal for the Act Determining the Intervention Measures to Mitigate and Remedy the Consequences of the COVID-19 Epidemic for Citizens and the Economy, took note of the Autumn Forecast 2020, and discussed the proposal for the National Demographic Fund Act.