State Secretary Dr Stanislav Raščan received the Special Representative for 16+1 Cooperation, Ambassador Huo Yuzhen.

At today’s session, the Government adopted the Stability Programme and the 2022 National Reform Programme. It extended the currently applicable Decree on excise duty on energy products and the validity of the Decree fixing the excise duty level for electricity.

Standing in front of the Paediatric Clinic in Ljubljana along with Miroslav Petrovec from the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology and paediatrician and infectious disease specialist Tatjana Mrvič, the Minister of Health Janez Poklukar gave a statement regarding the severe acute hepatitis of unknown origin in children.

Foreign Minister Dr Anže Logar took part in the Raisina Dialogue 2022 conference held in New Delhi on 25–27 April, met with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and held other bilateral talks.

On 26–27 April 2022, State Secretary Dr Stanislav Raščan took part in the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development in New York, which highlighted the need to deliver on the central promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on poverty eradication. He also attended the High-Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on Financing for Peacebuilding and held a number of bilateral meetings.

Today, Prime Minister Janez Janša attended the state ceremony marking the Day of Uprising Against Occupation at Mala gora near Ribnica in the Dolenjska region. The Prime Minister took this opportunity to lay a wreath at the TIGR monument.

State Secretary Dr Stanislav Raščan took part, via audio-video conferencing, in the hybrid High-Level Roundtable on the Horn of Africa Drought. He announced Slovenia's contribution worth EUR 100,000 for emergency humanitarian aid to the affected people in the region, which will be channelled through the World Food Programme (WFP).

Today at 7 AM, around 3,000 polling stations for parliamentary elections opened across the country. Voters can cast their ballots until 7 PM.

State Secretary Dr Stanislav Raščan met with Minister of State for Security Policy at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Sztáray, in Budapest. They discussed bilateral cooperation between the two countries and the current situation in Ukraine.

Food waste is not just morally and ethically problematic. In the EU we discard as much as 20% of all food that has been produced to feed people, and waste food is also the third largest cause of greenhouse gases.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Janez Janša, spoke today with the US Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken. In their talks, State Secretary Blinken and Prime Minister Janša stressed the need to continue supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity through robust security assistance. They condemned the horrific atrocities committed by Russian forces in its unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine and stressed the need to hold Moscow accountable.

The Slovenian pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale opened on 21 April 2022 with the exhibition of paintings by Marko Jakše, one of Slovenia's most acclaimed painters. The Slovenian Pavilion is once again located in the Arsenale, one of the two Biennale’s main exhibition venues. The vernissage is scheduled for 23 April, with the exhibition open until 27 November 2022.

In a month's time, on 20 May, Slovenia and the rest of the world will celebrate World Bee Day for the fifth time. Since 2022 is the European Year of Youth, the main topic of this year's celebration is youth and beekeeping. The main purpose of World Bee Day is to raise awareness among the international public about the importance of bees and other pollinators for humanity in the light of food security, the global elimination of hunger, and care for the environment and biodiversity.

The new issue of the News from Nuclear Slovenia is published.

Today, Foreign Minister Dr Anže Logar presented computer keyboards to the President of the Friends of Youth Association, Darja Groznik, and to the Secretary General of Caritas Slovenia, Peter Tomažič, as a symbolic gesture ahead of the Foreign Ministry’s donation of used computer equipment. “We are making a donation to two key organisations as they know best who needs the equipment most. I’m happy that the computers will go to the right hands,” declared Minister Logar.

World Earth Day, which is celebrated on 22 April, is taking place this year with an emphasis on investing in and enriching our planet. The Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning implements a range of measures to preserve the environment by investing in the planet and development opportunities. World Earth Day is intended to raise awareness and show how each of us can make an important contribution towards a more environmentally and climate friendly planet.

Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy has approved EU funding for the project Multipurpose Roma centers as innovative learning environments. The project will foster flexible forms of learning; it will also support the provision of quality career guidance for students across all education levels.

The mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) completed the independent peer review of regulatory framework of nuclear and radiation safety in the Republic of Slovenia as well as the activities at the Slovenian Nuclear Safety Administration (SNSA) and the Slovenian Radiation Protection Administration (SRPA). On Thursday, 14 April 2022, the exit meeting took place, presenting the main findings of the draft report. In a couple of months, IAEA will deliver a proofread and consolidated final report.

Через війну в Україні ЄС зараз стикається з найбільшою кризою біженців з часів Другої світової війни. За останніми підрахунками, близько 4 мільйонів людей були змушені покинути Україну, більшість із них жінки та діти, які є особливо вразливою групою з точки зору торгівлі людьми.

Prime Minister Janez Janša was today a live guest on a Euronews TV programme, where he spoke with Anelise Borges about the situation in Ukraine and the European response to the crisis.