Prime Minister Janez Janša is attending a European Council meeting in Brussels, where he and the other EU leaders are discussing the COVID-19 situation, digital transformation, energy prices, migration and external relations.

Ten years ago, millions of Syrians took to the streets of Dara’a, Aleppo and Damascus, calling for democracy and respect of their fundamental rights and basic freedoms. The brutal response by the regime triggered over the span of a decade one of the most serious criminal enterprises and humanitarian crises since the Second World War resulting in more than 400 000 deaths and in countless violations of human rights.

Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, Dr Rado Genorio, together with Jan De Haes, Chairman of the Arboretum Committee, and Abraham Rammeloo, Director of the Arboretum, today 19th of March 2021 ceremoniously planted Tetradium daniellii, bee tree.

After attending the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, Foreign Minister Anže Logar met with his host Sophie Wilmès, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Foreign Trade and the Federal Cultural Institutions, for a bilateral visit to the Kingdom of Belgium. The ministers welcomed the development of Slovenian-Belgian relations and confirmed their mutual interest in further consolidating them at the bilateral, European, and multilateral levels.

The prime minister Marjan Šarec hosted a visit by the Belgian prime minister and newly elected President of the European Council Charles Michel. The visit by this senior European politician is part of his preparations prior to assuming the role of President of the European Council, having previously paid visits to Berlin and Rome. Mr Michel was elected to the post on 2 July and will start work on 1 December.

Austria, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden attach the utmost importance to the preservation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), signed by Iran and unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council, as a key instrument for the non-proliferation regime and a major contribution to stability in the region.

State Secretary Dobran Božič today hosted Thomas Antoine, Secretary-General of the Benelux Union. The Secretary-General’s visit falls into the framework of enhanced cooperation between Slovenia and Benelux, which was kicked off in 2017 at prime minister level and was consolidated by the summit of the four prime ministers in Ljubljana in February 2018. Secretary-General Antoine was also received for a courtesy call by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Miroslav Cerar.