Looking to access paid articles across multiple policy topics Interested in policy insights for EU professional organisations A fire broke out on Friday evening in the house of Vesna Fabjan a local councillor for the opposition party Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) after an unknown perpetrator threw a petrol bomb through the window A fire broke out on Friday evening in the house of Vesna Fabjan, a local councillor for opposition party Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), in Črnomelj, after an unknown perpetrator threw a petrol bomb through the window. [Shutterstock/Alexandros Michailidis] The objective of the measure is to support sustainable tourism through the revitalisation of cultural heritage and public cultural infrastructure overall revitalisation and modernisation of cultural heritage and public cultural infrastructure owned by the state or municipalities It is expected that this will have a broader positive effect on tourism development The essential requirement is also integration of digitalization and ICT technology for the promotion and interpretation of cultural heritage The Recovery and Resilience Facility contribution to the investment is EUR 42 million with the total value of the investment estimated at EUR 57.34 million Approximately two-thirds of the resources is intended for state-owned cultural infrastructure and one-third for municipality-owned the Ministry of Culture published the call to co-finance projects focused on sustainable restoration and revitalization of cultural monuments owned by municipalities The call offered co-financing the costs of investments in construction costs of implementation of digitization activities information and development of cultural and touristic services and products Only projects with the estimated costs higher than EUR 1 million were eligible provided by the Recovery and Resilience Facility the Ministry of Culture received 39 project applications with a total request for co-financing of EUR 55.39 million The list of co-financed municipal projects: In April 2023 the Ministry of Culture officially approved the program of investment activities on cultural monuments and public cultural infrastructure owned by the Republic of Slovenia a total of 6 cultural monuments owned by the Republic of Slovenia have been confirmed Following a visit to Slavski Laz suspension bridge where joint police and army patrols operate he stressed that the police and army guard the border in an appropriate manner He was also briefed on day-to-day problems and challenges faced by the local population due to illegal migration he met a joint Slovenian and Croatian police patrol accompanied by the Mayor of the Municipality of Črnomelj and members of the Slovenian Army involved in the protection of the border in and around Žuniči stressed the government’s readiness to cover the costs of removing waste left behind by illegal migrants The Prime Minister also pointed out that cooperation with the mayor is very close and that he had learned at first hand that the situation is under control “We have seen how the protection of the border is ensured and can say that the situation is satisfactory.” Did you find the information you were looking for Do you want to receive a response from the responsible institution Clicking on the link will open your default e-mail program and automatically draft a message that you can send to the institution responsible for the content of this website ask for a reply the founder of the eponymous exhaust system maker.Photo: Boštjan Podlogar/STA 2 December - Slovenia has a plethora of companies that are world leaders in niche industries Perhaps the best known among them is Akrapovič a maker of exhaust systems that has grown in three decades from an motorcycle racer's obsession into a huge business with a worldwide presence that dictates global trends in exhaust systems recently received the national award for lifetime achievement in innovation named after Slovenian automotive pioneer Janez Puh he has achieved breakthroughs in exhaust systems for motorbikes and cars "with innovation Akrapovič says he started the company not as a hobby but as an "obsession with perfection." As a racer he started to build his own exhausts Over the years we have developed products that set benchmarks on the market." While he regularly features among Slovenia's most important executives and often speaks up publicly about economic policy Akrapovič says that success is the result of hard work put in by the whole team "This award was a bit of a surprise for us; especially because it actually came from a completely different sphere which recognised the small part we have contributed to the development of technology in Slovenia We are exceptionally proud of that," he said when a rider with their exhaust system won the world championship for the first time "That was a really big leap," he said The number of World Championship titles to date has risen to 190 One of the reasons for this is the way the company operates: it still pays as much attention to feedback from race teams and other partners as it used to all the latest technical developments start on racing bikes." He is particularly proud of the fact that companies entrust them with their motorcycles "That's why we may be the only ones in the world who know what they can do It's a very good feeling," he says when Akrapovič entered into partnerships with storied Italian supercar makers Ferrari and Lamborghini While they have been working with Lamborghini for several years - buyers some of their models can opt for Akrapovič's titanium exhaust system - they have started working together in racing this season equipping Lamborghini's Squadra Corse sports division with their systems in endurance racing Ivančna GoricaA collection of motorcycles equipped with Akrapovič exhaust systems.Photo: Boštjan Podlogar/STA Akrapovič employs more than 1,500 people and is one of the biggest employers in south Slovenia where it also has a development department while production takes place in nearby Črnomelj Because they need staff with specific skills including at their welding training centre in Črnomelj The core company generated just shy of EUR 200 million in sales revenue last year Due to the current turmoil on the European automotive market the company expects this year's figures to be slightly worse as consumers remain reserved But it says that long-term prospects are nevertheless stable as there is still plenty of scope for growth Ivančna GoricaExhaust system maker Akrapovič.Photo: Boštjan Podlogar/STA Sceptics might be tempted to think that the company's prospects are bleak given the strong push towards electric mobility but Akrapovič is cool both about the prospects for electification and its impact on the company's business He says it is based on "unrealistic expectations" he expects no more than a quarter of the cars to be electric with the rest powered by synthetic or other alternative fuels As long as internal combustion engines remain dominant then the company appears to have a bright future Minister Šabeder went on to present the measures taken by the National Security Council (NSC) at today's session: A call centre has been set up today to assist inhabitants in finding information regarding the coronavirus The toll-free telephone number 080 1404 allows people to obtain information every day between 8 a.m Calls will be answered by senior year students of the Faculty of Medicine The Minister pointed out that the spread of infections is in most cases due to failure of inhabitants to follow the instructions and again appealed to all those who show signs of infection to first call their personal doctor and then go to one of the 16 contact points Director of the National Institute of Public Health said that measures were taken at today's NSC session that would help contain the spread of the virus across Slovenia We are still in the first phase of the infection spreading but the number of infected people is still rising the number of infections in Slovenia is increasing at a slower rate Eight secondary cases are related to the infected doctor from the Metlika health centre and one to a Ljubljana resident by way of transmission Nine persons were infected in the Ljubljana region one in Slovenian Istria and ten in the Dolenjska region Infected persons showed mild clinical signs Ms Pirnat thanked all health professionals for their outstanding work All measures for early detection of infection cases will continue to be carried out The current measures adopted in Slovenia are similar to those taken by other countries but will be tightened in order to contain the spread of the infection within controllable limits Prime Minister Marjan Šarec reiterated some decisions of today's NSC session stressing that at the meeting there was also word of actions to be taken by individual sectors given that the coronavirus also touches upon Slovenia's other vital issues besides health the Government has prepared a set of measures Prime Minister Šarec also highlighted the importance of cooperation between the ministers of the outgoing government and those of the new one so that action can continue to be carried out by the newly appointed government the infection is expected to spread and action will be taken accordingly The incoming Prime Minister Janez Janša also believes that the virus will spread and points out that there is an ongoing race with time whether we are able to curb the spread of the virus so that the extent of the infection does not exceed the capacity of our health system He also expressed his gratitude to health care professionals Mr Janša said that both the outgoing and the incoming government have joined forces and are working together to ensure that no opportunity to fight the coronavirus is missed ask for a reply LjubljanaA district heating plant.Photo: Daniel Novakovič/STAFile photo 24 January - The quality of air in Slovenia is improving but some areas are still experiencing significant air pollution PM10 and PM2.5 particles cause trouble in winter while in summer the concentrations of ground-level ozone are concerning shows data by the Environment Agency (ARSO) In 2023 air pollution with PM10 particles was at similar levels as in previous years Measurements for 2024 are yet to be released but those for the first eleven months of the year show that the daily limits were most often exceeded in Črnomelj (25 times) in the southeast of the country followed by Murska Sobota (24) in the northeast and the capital Ljubljana (23) All were still below the permissible annual number of 35 exceedances Preliminary data by ARSO shows that in the northern town of Črna na Koroškem the daily limits were surpassed 52 times though this information may not be completely reliable as the location of the measuring station does not fully meet the legal requirements The authorities are looking for an alternative location The measurements there were also affected by the damage the August 2023 floods caused to the soil and by the ongoing reconstruction works More dangerous for health than the PM10 are PM2.5 particles that can be found in dust The average annual level of those particles was at 14 mg/m3 and did not exceed the annual limit of 20 mg/m3 at any of the measuring stations Pollution was the highest in Murska Sobota with the average annual level at 19 mg/m3 Slovenia is among the EU countries with the highest pollution with both PM10 and PM2.5 particles because of its diverse landscape and location in the Alpine foothills The country remains among EU countries with relatively low pollution levels when it comes to nitrogen oxides pollutants associated with emissions from road traffic head of the air quality sector at ARSO Tanja Koleša said adding that in the last few years the levels have not exceeded the limits but they remain a problem in big cities which is not a pollutant on its own but forms from other pollutants "In the Primorska region the conditions are ideal because a lot of ozone precursors come from the polluted Northern Italy and then react in combination with the heat," Koleša said The levels of polluting particles in the air increase in winter when air is not only polluted by traffic and industry but also emissions from heating In the colder months of the year harmful emissions also stay in the air for longer especially in the case of temperature inversions The situation is the worst in valleys with high population densities Even though harmful emissions are not as high in Slovenia as in some other countries air pollution is still high because the polluted air accumulates in the valleys There are some 20 official measuring stations ARSO chooses an additional location each year to perform the measurements "The results there surprised us because the quality of air was extremely bad," Koleša said adding that the town is in a basin where cold According to a study by the European Environment Agency the mortality rate that can be attributed to long-term exposure to PM2.5 particles in Slovenia decreased by 45% from 2005 to 2022 A shorter term comparison shows that the number of deaths related to the exposure to PM2.5 has increased to 1,280 in 2022 "This is a large figure that compares that of all the factors affects our health," dean of the Nova Gorica School of Environmental Science Griša Močnik told the STA Long-term nitrogen oxide exposure is estimated to have contributed to 140 deaths in 2022 while exposure to ozone contributed to 340 deaths Slovenia has two years to transpose an EU directive on air quality setting stricter limits for pollution levels and increasing the number of measuring stations Last year the government adopted a programme to monitor air pollution which includes measures for the energy sector Households can access subsidies to replace old heating appliances with EUR 117 million made available for 2023-2026 from the Climate Fund New biomass furnaces are still more polluting than other heating sources recommending they be used as a last resort.