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.

Slovenian prime minister Marjan Šarec is attending the second day of the regular meeting of the European Council in Brussels.

As part of the meeting hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, students participating in the Young Women Ambassadors project learnt more about consular affairs.

State Secretary Simona Leskovar and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central Europe and Holocaust Issues Matthew G. Boyse confirmed the interest in strengthening cooperation between Slovenia and the United States and exchanged positions on topical regional and international issues.

European Vocational Skills Week wrapped up today. A series of events and activities took place across Europe to highlight the benefits of vocational education and training and vocational skills development. The aim of the week, organised annually by the European Commission, is to improve visibility and recognition of vocational education and training (VET) and offer the relevant actors a chance to engage in dialogue. Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for the ESF, the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund, has already approved EUR 40.5 million in ESF funding for programmes and calls for proposals aiming to promote vocational education and training in Slovenia.

At the invitation of his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides, Foreign Minister Dr Cerar paid an official visit to the Republic of Cyprus on 17 and 18 October. He was accompanied by a group of Slovenian business representatives, who attended a business forum held in parallel with the visit.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for the ERDF, the ESF and the Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for the project ‘’Wastewater collection and treatment in the Meža river basin in Municipality Črna na Koroškem’’. Total project budget stands at EUR 3.8 million; the project will receive EUR 1.6 million funding from the ERDF.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for the call for proposals ''Strengthening the competences of young people through active citizenship to increase their employability’’ which is to be published by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. The funding made available under the call for proposals stands at over EUR 2 million, of which EUR 1.6 million comes from ESF. Cohesion region Zahodna Slovenija will receive EUR 1.2 million of the available funding, while cohesion region Vzhodna Slovenija is to get a little under EUR 837,000.

On 16 and 17 October 2019, a high-profile international conference on machine learning and data analytics was held in London entitled "Premier Machine Learning Conference – Predictive Analytics World Business".

Director-General of the Public Sector Directorate at the Ministry of Public Administration, Peter Pogačar, is attending the 38th Annual Meeting of Senior Officials from Centres of Government of OECD countries.

At Ljubljana BTC’s Crystal Palace, Foreign Minister Dr Miro Cerar today participated in a conference entitled “Export smarter: How to enhance the value of Slovenian exports”, organised by the newspaper Delo and the Institute for Strategic Solutions.

Mr Uroš Svete, the Slovenian representative in the Management Board of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), today, on 16 October 2019, attended the regular ENISA meeting at the Agency's head office in Athens.

According to the latest gender equality index for the 28 EU Member States, Slovenia is in 11th place, 0.9 points above the average. As announced today on the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities website, the top three countries are Sweden, Denmark and France and the bottom three are Slovakia, Hungary and Greece.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s theme for this year’s World Food Day is “Our actions are our future. Healthy diets for a zero-hunger world”. The theme is intended to raise awareness of obesity and increasing hunger around the world. Despite the growing hunger, hundreds of tons of food are thrown out every day around the world.

Foreign Minister Dr Miro Cerar was in Luxembourg attending a General Affairs Council (Art. 50) meeting on the state of play regarding the UK’s forthcoming withdrawal from the EU and a General Affairs Council session. The latter concentrated on enlargement and on preparations for the European Council.

On the sidelines of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting, I spoke with Spanish Foreign Minister and future High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. I was interested in his assessment of the situation in Catalonia – and Spain! Not his assessment of the convictions, but of the next steps, both for proponents of Catalonia’s independence and the Spanish state authorities.