Slovenia

LJUBLJANA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- About 1.7 million eligible voters in Slovenia will be invited to cast their ballots on April 24 to elect the country's new Parliament.

Most polls predicted a close race between Prime Minister Janez Jansa's Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and the center-left Freedom Movement (FM), a new party headed by Robert Golob.

Polls indicate that each of these two parties could win around 25 percent of the vote and several other parties could pass the 4-percent threshold for parliamentary representation.

LJUBLJANA, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The Slovenian government set the maximum retail price of gasoline from Tuesday in order to curb large price hikes, the government said on its website on Monday.

The maximum price of 95-octane gasoline was set at 1.503 euros(about 1.6491 U.S. dollars) per liter and that of diesel at 1.541 euros (about 1.6908 U.S. dollars) per liter. The set prices will be valid for 30 days. The set maximum prices are by 4 to 8 percent lower than those on Monday. Until now the prices were set freely by fuel retailers.

LJUBLJANA, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Jansa tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Jansa said on his Twitter account that self-tests showed that his two sons were positive yesterday, and he tested positive today.

"All classic symptoms. Mild ones for now. Let it stay that way," he tweeted.

Slovenia's daily number of COVID-19 cases fell to 5,076 on Tuesday from 11,119 a day before and the record 24,178 on Feb. 1, the National Institute of Public Health said on Wednesday.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia’s populist prime minister on Monday blamed a rise in COVID-19 infections on protests in early October that erupted into clashes between police and thousands of opponents of vaccination and coronavirus restrictions.

Prime Minister Janez Jansa was responding in parliament to opposition criticism over the use of force by police against the protesters, including tear gas and water cannons. Jansa defended police actions, accusing the demonstrators of attacking the police.

KRANJ (Slovenia), Oct 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — The European Union (EU) is committed to the integration of the Western Balkans, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the conclusion of the EU-Western Balkans summit here on Wednesday.

“The Commission’s message is very clear. First of all, the Western Balkans is part of the same Europe as the European Union. We share the same history; we share the same interests, the same values and I am deeply convinced also the same destiny,” Von der Leyen told a press conference after the summit.

BRDO CASTLE, Slovenia (AP) — European Union leaders gathered Wednesday to reassure six countries in the Balkans region that they could join the trading bloc one day if they meet its standards, but the presidents and prime ministers are unlikely to give any signal about when the nations might advance in their quests.

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- In a debate on Afghanistan on Thursday, foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) discussed how to engage with the Taliban, in particular humanitarian aid and a possible tide of Afghan refugees.

"The purpose of the meeting is to try to reach an agreement on coordinated engagement with the Taliban on the basis of certain conditions, and on the possibilities of cooperation with regional players," the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists before the start of the informal meeting in Slovenia.

BRDO, Slovenia, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Two senior European Union officials urged the bloc's governments on Thursday to set up a rapidly deployable military force to intervene around the world, saying the crisis in Afghanistan would provide the catalyst to end years of inaction.

The EU's top diplomat and its military chief said the bloc needed to react to conflicts beyond its borders and that the creation of a "first entry force" of 5,000 troops was the way forward, reducing dependence on the United States.

BRDO CASTLE, Slovenia (AP) — Still reeling from the European Union’s shortcomings in Afghanistan, officials from the 27-nation bloc met Thursday to discuss ways to improve their response to future crises and not be so reliant on the U.S.

European ministers of defense and foreign affairs gathered in Slovenia for talks also involving NATO and U.N. officials to look at ways to improve the bloc’s operational engagement and develop a rapid response force capable of operating in difficult military theaters.

KRANJ, Slovenia (AP) — Tiny Slovenia took charge of the world’s largest trading bloc this week, and immediately shone a harsh spotlight on one of the European Union’s most vexing problems: How to accommodate increasingly vocal member countries with very different visions of Europe’s future.

Already, nationalist governments in Hungary and Poland are worrying their more politically mainstream partners in the 27-nation EU. Some fear that new legislation introduced by the two countries could undermine democratic standards and the independence of the judiciary.