On 19 August, the President of the Republic of Slovenia signed a decree on the appointment of Blažka Kepic as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Slovenia to the Portuguese Republic resident in Ljubljana.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food hosted an international ministerial conference under the title Strengthening the Formation and Transfer of Knowledge for the Advancement of Agriculture and the Countryside that was held ahead of the AGRA Fair. The conference was attended by 15 foreign delegations, including a Turkish delegation that started its working visit yesterday by signing the adopted guidelines for the further cooperation between Slovenia and Turkey.

The European Commission informed the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy of the decision approving the major project for upgrading the existing line of the railway track Maribor-Šentilj-state border. The project worth over EUR 253 million will receive Cohesion Fund contribution in the amount of EUR 101 million. Minister responsible for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion Dr. Iztok Purič underlined that “the project is a major step forward in modernising the Slovenian railway network and therefore boosting Slovenia’s development. The project will also significantly improve the quality of life of local inhabitants.”

Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli is currently on a visit to Slovenia at the invitation of his Slovenian counterpart Aleksandra Pivec. Before the minister's arrival, the two countries held the second expert-level meeting of the Slovenian-Turkish Steering Committee on Agriculture and Forestry.

On 12 August, the President of the Republic of Slovenia signed a decree on the appointment of Tanja Strniša as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Slovenia to the Czech Republic.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for the project ‘’New business incubator facility’’. The overall project budget amounts to over EUR 1.9 million, of which around EUR 1 million will come from the European Regional Development Fund.

Minister Miro Cerar today hosted his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono. This is the first official visit of a Japanese Foreign Minister in the history of independent Slovenia. Minister Kono also met with President Pahor.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for a call for projects under the EUREKA initiative for 2019 which the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology published on 9 August 2019 in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund, issued a grant decision for the project “Economic business infrastructure in the business zone TRIS Kanižarica, part 2: roads B1, G and G3”. The project worth over EUR 571,000 will receive European Regional Development Fund support in the amount of EUR 304,000.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund, has issued a grant decision for the project ''Vrbje business zone''. The project with a total budget of EUR 1.5 million will receive a contribution from the European Regional Development Fund amounting to nearly EUR 626,000.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy, the Managing Authority for ERDF, ESF and Cohesion Fund, issued a grant decision for the “Call for proposals for support services provided by innovative environment entities in the Republic of Slovenia in the period 2020-2022 (SIO 2020-2022)”. The call which makes a total of EUR 10.1 million available will receive European Regional Development Fund support in the amount of EUR 7.4 million. Cohesion region Vzhodna Slovenija will receive support in the amount of over EUR 6 million and cohesion region Zahodna Slovenija will receive support in the amount of over EUR 4 million.

On June 21, 1919, after long and painful negotiations, the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference decided that the Carinthian issue was to be solved by means of a plebiscite conducted in two zones. Zone A was to be until plebiscite occupied and managed by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, and Zone B was to be managed by German Austria. In accordance with this agreement, Yugoslav military troops had to retreat behind the demarcation line.

On 12 July, the President of the Republic of Slovenia signed a decree on the appointment of Alenka Suhadolnik as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Slovenia to the People’s Republic of China.

In the first half of this year, the state budget showed a surplus of EUR 208,2 million, while in the same period last year it stood at EUR 184.2 million. First-half revenues stood at approximately EUR 5.08 billion this year, up 6.8% on the same period last year, while expenditures rose 6.5% and amounted to approximately EUR 4.87 billion.

Today, State Secretary Dobran Božič received Marta Grande, the Chair of the Committee on Foreign and EU Affairs of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, accompanied by Paolo Trichilo, the Italian ambassador to Slovenia, Filippo Giuseppe Perconti, a member of the Committee, and Francesca Piazza, the secretary of the Committee.

At today’s correspondence session, the Slovenian government adopted a decision to propose Janez Lenarčič as a Member of the European Commission from Slovenia. It also decided to establish a Slovenia House in Brussels as a satellite unit of the Slovenian Embassy in Brussels, in order to provide a uniform presentation and promotion of Slovenian creativity, innovation, economic competitiveness, art, science, sports, tourism, gastronomy, winemaking and promotion of the country in general.

The 6th International Conference on Big Data Analysis and Data Mining is being held on the 25th and 26th of July in London. On the first day, dr. Kern Pipan from the IT Directorate of the Ministry of Public Administration gave a successful presentation entitled "Supporting improvements in decision making process using big data analytics in the Ministry of Public Administration of Republic Slovenia". The presentation aroused much attention, including a number of questions regarding the implementation, benefits and future challenges.

On July 11, 2019, the Government of Slovenia endorsed »The Annual Report 2018 on Radiation and Nuclear Safety in the Republic of Slovenia« and sent it to the National Assembly to be discussed on.

Andrej Logar, ambassador-at-large for key and strategic affairs, attended the informal meeting of foreign and internal ministers in Paris, which discussed migration in the Mediterranean. The meeting of the EU and Schengen ministers and heads of several international organisations was convened by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner in the face of the growing challenges of migration management in the Mediterranean, particularly its central part, which is considered the deadliest migration route for migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean Sea.

State Secretary Dobran Božič received Loránt Vincze, the president of FUEN (the Federal Union of European Nationalities), today to present the initiative Minority Safepack. The initiative’s goal is to establish an EU framework of ethnic and linguistic minority members’ rights.