On Friday, Prime Minister Janez Janša was a guest on the TV programme Odmevi, in which he talked about various current political issues. The conversation focused on the measures related to the containment of the spread of the coronavirus, since the starting point of the interview was the meeting between the Slovenian Prime Minister and the Croatian Prime Minister at Otočec, which also took place yesterday. The first question posed by the anchor of the TV programme, Rosvita Pesek, was if Croatia will be put on the red list of COVID-19 risky countries with regard to the increase in the number of infected persons in Croatia.

At yesterday’s United Nations High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) Zvonko Černač, minister for development, strategic projects and cohesion, presented Slovenia’s second Voluntary National Review of the progress towards meeting the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

This year marks 25 years since one of the heinous crimes was committed at the heart of Europe in plain sight of the international community. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice determined that the massacre at Srebrenica constituted genocide. In 2009, the European Parliament adopted a resolution declaring 11 July Srebrenica Memorial Day.

At the invitation of the foreign ministers of Spain and France, State Secretary Gašper Dovžan participated at an informal video conference between foreign ministers of European and Latin American countries. The EU was represented by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell.

Acting Director-General Barbara Sušnik participated at an informal video conference of Directors-General for EU Affairs.

At the press conference, the deputy head of the Communicable Disease Centre at the National Institute of Public Health, Nuška Čakš Jager, presented the current epidemiological situation in Slovenia. State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Mateja Ribič, and Government spokesperson, Ambassador Jelko Kacin, also spoke about the current situation regarding COVID-19 and the fourth package of anti-corona measures approved yesterday. Slovenia will also present the measures and the current epidemiological situation at today’s meeting between Prime Minister Janez Janša and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and their core expert teams responsible for controlling the epidemic. The meeting will focus on a coordinated fight against COVID-19, curbing the spread of coronavirus, measures for containing the spread especially among the young, and providing assistance to the Western Balkan countries in the fight against the virus.

On Friday, July 10, a ceremony was held at the Edvard Peperko Barracks in Ljubljana marking the return of members of the 6th Slovenian Armed Forces contingent from the Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP). Contingent members performed their duties as part of a battalion battle group in Latvia. On this occasion, they were awarded In the Service of Peace medals.

In cooperation with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - OECD, a special webinar was held today, at which the key findings of the OECD review of digital public administration were presented - Digital Government Review of Slovenia: Leading the digitalization of the public sector - Key findings. The findings from the document were presented to the stakeholders who participated in its creation.

Today, Prime Minister Janez Janša was on a working visit to Brussels. In the morning, he met Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, and later in the day, the Prime Minister met Janez Lenarčič, the Slovenian Commissioner, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.

The Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša, today took part in an online conference entitled "Europe Uncensored". In addition to the Slovenian Prime Minister, the online conference was attended by Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, Aleksandar Vučić, President of the Republic of Serbia, and François-Xavier Bellamy, Member of the European Parliament, philosopher. At the conference, the European leaders spoke about how to shape the future of Europe, given all the key challenges we are facing.

At its regular weekly meeting, the Government adopted a number of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. This was announced at the press conference by the Government spokesman, Ambassador Jelko Kacin, epidemiologist Mateja Logar from the Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Febrile Conditions at the University Medical Center Ljubljana, and Deputy Director General of the Police Tomaž Pečjak.

At Monday's session, the Government, in its extended composition, decided on several actions to contain the spread of coronavirus infections in the country. At the press conference on the current situation regarding COVID-19, the session's conclusions were presented by the Head of the Communicable Disease Centre at the National Institute of Public Health, Mario Fafangel, the Director of the University Clinic of Pulmonary and Allergic Diseases Golnik, Aleš Rozman, and the government spokesman, Ambassador Jelko Kacin.

"The situation in the Balkans is drastically deteriorating", said official spokesman Jelko Kacin at the start of the government press conference, adding that the situation had worsened, especially in countries which, like some Western countries in the past, decided to hold elections (Serbia, Croatia), which will also be held soon in Northern Macedonia.

On Saturday and Sunday, Prime Minister Janez Janša responded on Twitter to the increasing number of confirmed new cases of infection with the new coronavirus during the last two and a half months.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Anže Logar hosted Gent Cakaj, Acting Foreign Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania, who was in Slovenia on a working visit. The ministers expressed satisfaction with the excellent relations between the two countries and were in full agreement that the current situation calls for solidarity in tackling the economic and social impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Minister Dr Logar pledged his full support for Albania’s EU integration.

On Friday, July 3, 2020, a ceremony was held at Camp Villaggio Italia in Pec/Peja, Kosovo, marking the handover and takeover of tasks and areas of operations between the 40th and 41st KFOR contingents of the Slovenian Armed Forces.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr Janez Janša, today met with the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Heiko Maas, who at the beginning of Germany’s EU Council Presidency paid his first visit to Slovenia.

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia decided to include Belgium and the Netherlands in the list of epidemiologically safe counties or administrative units of countries (green list) as from 4 July 2020. It also decided to remove Czechia, Croatia and France from the green list, which means that these countries are now on the yellow list.

The Presidents of the coalition parties, Janez Janša, Zdravko Počivalšek, Matej Tonin and Aleksandra Pivec, and the President of the Slovenian National Party, Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti, and the deputies of the two national communities, Ferenc Horváth and Felice Žiža, today signed an agreement between the political parties and the deputies of the national communities in the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia on cooperation in the adoption of laws and other acts and documents in the period 2020–2022.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) focused on four main aspects in compiling a comprehensive review of digital administration in Slovenia: coordination and management, digital skills, development and provision of services, and data management. In its key findings, the OECD emphasizes that Slovenia is making good progress in the development of a digital public administration, but it needs to improve coordination, vision and analytical approach, and needs stronger leverage to guide digital transformation. For agility and quick adaptation, the comparative advantage of Slovenia is its small size and general enthusiasm for digitalization.