Legislators

Brussels – A short ceremony was held in Brussels on Wednesday to mark the 30th anniversary of Slovenia’s independence. Among the attendees were MEPs from Slovenia and both Slovenian ambassadors in Brussels. Officials pointed to the path Slovenia has walked in the 30 years and the challenges ahead, especially the EU presidency in the second half of the year.

MEP Corina Cretu, former European Commissioner for Regional Policy, expressed, on Friday, in Tulcea, her trust that all the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (PNRR) sent by member-states will be approved by the European Commission and encouraged the small and medium-sized enterprise owners to access structural funds.

Angela Merkel's conservatives were heaving a sigh of relief on June 7 after a convincing win in the last regional vote before a general election that also exposed the weaknesses of the Green party, their main rival at the national level.

However, critics have argued from the outset that the system is vulnerable to fraud. Now those premonitions have come true.

Fifteen boats packed with hundreds of migrants landed on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday and officials said they were expecting numbers to increase as the weather improved, news wires reported.

The European Commission on Thursday said that it had approved, under EU state aid rules, the Slovenian government's compensation of 2.5 million euros to the Slovenian Press Agency, STA, "to fulfil its public service mission", which is currently hindered by disagreements with the government led by Janez Jansa.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday (21 April) that the European Union needs more power to coordinate the bloc's response to health crises like the coronavirus pandemic, and did not rule out a treaty change to secure them.

Armin Laschet, leader of Germany's Christian Democrats (CDU), won the backing of senior party members at an internal meeting to run as the conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel at a September federal election, party sources said on April 20.

Ljubljana – Education Minister Simona Kustec and Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager discussed via video call on Monday Slovenia’s EU presidency agenda in digitalisation and artificial intelligence. The pair agreed that people must come first, and that AI and digitalisation must serve the society.

Brussels – The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Slovenian maker of prefabricated construction elements Trimo by the Irish Kingspan Group. It is concerned that the transaction may reduce competition and lead to price increases.