Today and tomorrow, 28 and 29 November 2019, Director-General of the Public Sector Directorate at the Ministry of Public Administration Peter Pogačar and his delegation are attending the EUPAN Directors General meeting.

As part of the response of the EU civil protection mechanism, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia has agreed to send two experts to help coordinate international assistance in the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Albania.

State Secretary Dobran Božič today received the President of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Regional Council Piero Mauro Zanin during his visit to the Republic of Slovenia.

God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya, a film by Teona Strugar Mitevska that also involves a Slovenian co-producer, has won the 2019 LUX Film Prize, presented by the European Parliament.

Slovenia’s largest and longest-running publishing event, the Slovenian Book Fair, started at the end of November.

By pressing a large red button at the main offices of the University of Maribor on Wednesday, the prototype HPC RIVR @ UM supercomputer was symbolically booted.

Last week, the National Assembly adopted state budgets for the next two years. With the adopted budget for 2020, more than € 10 billion will be spent on priorities in the field of development, welfare state and security; at the same time, it is our responsibility to ensure long-term fiscal sustainability.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, Managing Authority for ESIF and Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for the project “Housing communities for vulnerable groups”. The project is worth over EUR 517,000 and will receive over EUR 196,000 of Regional Development Fund support in the frame of Integrated Territorial Investments (ITS) instrument.

On 26 and 27 November 2019, the Public Sector Inspectorate of the Ministry of Public Administration is hosting colleagues from the Administrative Inspection of the Montenegrin Ministry of Public Administration.

Prime Minister Marjan Šarec has visited the Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for the Support and Integration of Migrants accompanied by the Minister of the Interior, Boštjan Poklukar.

As a green country with a wealth of natural resources and biodiversity, Slovenia is aware of the importance of the fight against climate change.

State Secretary Simona Leskovar attended the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in the format of development cooperation ministers. Based on the final report issued by the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons, the ministers discussed the EU’s future financial architecture for development and the support for countries in transition, with particular focus on Sudan and Ethiopia. This was followed by a discussion on gender equality and education in development cooperation.

The Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, Ambassador Andrej Benedejčič, stated at the 24th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention: “Only a multilateral approach, assisted by the Convention and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, can pave the way for a world free of chemical weapons.”

Today marked the beginning of the 10th edition of Slovenian Development Days in Ljubljana, dedicated to the challenges of development cooperation ensuing from climate change, with the first two panel discussions on youth and climate change and on circular economy. “By adopting new political and legislative orientations and the requirement for all Slovenian development cooperation projects or programmes to refrain from promoting an increase in fossil fuel consumption, Slovenia contributes, in concrete terms, to the fulfilment of the Paris Climate Agreement commitment to third countries,” explained Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Miro Cerar in his introductory address.

At the UNESCO General Conference in Paris on Monday it was confirmed that the first global centre for artificial intelligence under the auspices of UNESCO will be located in Ljubljana.

The eighth session of the Slovenian-Turkish Joint Economic Commission, co-chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia Dr Miro Cerar and the Minister for Youth and Sports of the Republic of Turkey Dr Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu, was held at Brdo Congress Centre today.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, Managing Authority for EU Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, issued a grant decision for the project Housing development the Dečkovo naselje settlement. The project worth a good EUR 13.5 million will receive over EUR 4.6 million of European Regional Development Fund support under the integrated territorial investments (ITI) mechanism.

On 21 and 22 November 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the 27th Meeting of the Tallinn Group, which includes 14 countries supporting EU enlargement. By way of introduction, the participants were addressed by Political Director/Director-General for Common Foreign and Security Policy Matej Marn, who underlined the current status of the enlargement policy and its great significance for the stability and implementation of reforms in the region. He also stressed the importance for the EU to send out clear signals, which must be credible and in line with the undertaken commitments.

The meeting of the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) in Sharm el-Sheikh, were the widest possible global radiocommunication strategy is considered, is coming to an end.

First, some statistics: There were 58 public libraries operating in Slovenia in 2018, which had a total of 273 local branch libraries and 13 mobile libraries.