Ljubljana, 22 June 2020 – Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for the ERDF, the ESF and the Cohesion Fund, has issued a funding decision for the project Ensuring flood protection in the Drava river basin - Ptujska Drava river. The EUR 15 million flood protection project will receive a contribution from the European Regional Development Fund amounting to over EUR 11.4 million. The project will be carried out by the Slovenian Water Agency.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has issued a financial support decision for the project “Drainage and treatment of wastewater in the Upper Sava River basin – Municipality of Jesenice”. The project worth EUR 2.4 million will be implemented by the Municipality Jesenice and will receive EUR 829,000 of Cohesion Fund support.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Anže Logar hosted the Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria, Alexander Schallenberg. Today’s was the first bilateral meeting between the ministers, while they already met in person on 16 June in Vienna at the multilateral meeting of foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, which was hosted by Austria. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they held frequent telephone conversations, sometimes even several times per day, if necessary.

Today, Prime Minister Janez Janša received the Doyen of the Diplomatic Corps in Slovenia, the Apostolic Nuncio to Slovenia, Archbishop Jean-Marie Speich. In their talks, they affirmed the importance of relations between the Republic of Slovenia and the Holy See, also in the light of two upcoming commemorations – the thirtieth anniversary of the Holy See’s recognition of Slovenia (2022) and the twentieth anniversary of the Agreement between the Republic of Slovenia and the Holy See on Legal Issues (2021).

Renewable energy sources are important for achieving sustainable and secure energy supply, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing the economy. In Slovenia, the most important renewable energy source is wood, which in 2018 accounted for 48% of renewable energy sources in energy supply.

Produced using a natural and biodynamic approach, the orange wine from Božidar Zorjan’s winery in the Pohorje mountains was rated the best orange wine.

From 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2021, the Germany–Portugal–Slovenia trio will take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has issued a financial support decision for the project “Economic and business zone Zagorje”. The project worth a little under EUR 990,000 will be implemented by the Municipality Zagorje ob Savi and will receive EUR 608,000 of European Regional Development Fund support.

Today, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Anže Logar and Minister of Economic Development and Technology Zdravko Počivalšek chaired the Internationalisation Council session.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has issued a financial support decision for the project “Wastewater collection and treatment in the Dravinja River basin – municipality Slovenska Bistrica”. The project worth over EUR 13 million will be implemented by the municipality Slovenska Bistrica and will receive EUR 5.9 million of European Regional Development Fund support.

Today Prime Minister Janez Janša attended an informal video-conference meeting of the European Council. At the meeting, the heads of government were briefed on the progress of the negotiations on future relations between the EU and the United Kingdom. The main topic of discussion was the new proposal for the multiannual financial framework and recovery instrument prepared by the European Commission. At the meeting the participants held a first exchange of views.

"Despite the increased number of coronavirus infections in recent days, we cannot yet talk about the second wave of the epidemic, but we are preparing for it," said Minister Gantar yesterday, emphasising Slovenia's commitment to controlling the epidemic.

Prime Minister Janez Janša attended a video conference of the leaders of the EU Member States and six Eastern Partnership countries (Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia).

Today's press conference on the current COVID-19 situation was attended by the Minister of Health, Tomaž Gantar, the Minister of the Interior, Aleš Hojs, the Director of the National Institute of Public Health, Milan Krek, and the Government's spokesperson, Jelko Kacin.

On the basis of the Intervention Act on removing barriers for the implementation of important investments to restart the economy after the COVID-19 epidemic, the Government has determined the list of important investments (the Intervention Act) that can be further expanded.

Minister for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion Zvonko Černač met today with mayors from the Posavje region. They discussed progress in the implementation of 2014-2020 projects and preparation of the programming period beyond 2020.

In today's virtual meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Anže Logar underlined the positive bilateral cooperation between the two countries and Slovenia’s interest in strengthening the economic ties. The two ministers commended the cooperation in multilateral structures.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has issued a financial support decision for the “Call for proposals to co-finance vocational training of educational staff in short-cycle higher education and educators in non-formal education programmes for adults in the period 2020-2022”. The call for proposals is worth EUR 1,248,000 and will be implemented by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. European Social Fund contribution amounts to EUR 1 million.

Prime Minister Janez Janša has warned of the imminence of a possible second wave of the coronavirus epidemic.

Today, Prime Minister Janez Janša attended a dynamic demonstration of the Leap 2020 military exercise at the Ivan Cankar barracks. After the exercise, he addressed the participants.