NEWS

Prime Minister's press conference held after the Government's 134th regular session

At today's 134th regular session, the Slovenian Government, alongside other resolutions, adopted the wording of the proposal for the Act Amending the Road Transport Act, established the public interest of the Republic of Slovenia in connection with the Trubar House of Literature, and adopted the report of the interministerial working group for combating human trafficking in 2010.

   

Minister Širca and Minister Vlačič presented their resolutions and Prime Minister Pahor fielded questions from journalists on some current issues. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the wording of the draft Act Amending the Road Transport Act (ZPCP) and submitted it to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia for discussion under an emergency procedure.  The fundamental objective of the proposed Act Amending the Road Transport Act is to adopt certain measures that would contribute, both directly and indirectly, to the mitigation of the economic crisis's deleterious effects on road transport operations.

   

The Government also established the public interest of the Republic of Slovenia that th Velike Lašče Municipality should be granted additional funds for 2011 and 2012 from the budgetary funds of the Ministry of Culture for the operation of the Velike Lašče–Trubarjevi Kraji Public Institute for Culture and Tourism.  The minister responsible for culture and the Municipality of Velike Lašče will conclude a contract each year determining the scope of the obligations of the municipality and the amount of additional funds to be allocated to the municipality for the operation of the public institute. It is in the public interest of the Republic of Slovenia that the Trubar homestead, which represents the national historic and symbolic core of the Slovenian people, should be supported.

  

The Government adopted the report of the interministerial working group for combating human trafficking in 2010. Last year, the interministerial working group for combating human trafficking focused considerable attention on prevention activities aimed at raising the awareness of the wider, professional and other target audiences on the links between human trafficking and other forms of exploitation. The latter has been on the increase, particularly in some economic sectors.  As the pitfalls posed by human trafficking are unpredictable and mostly encountered by the young, several programmes aimed at raising awareness among pupils and secondary school students were carried out.  The role played by non-governmental organisations was very significant in this respect.  As in past years, the number of criminal offences related to human trafficking is relatively low. Since human trafficking is an issue in our region, particularly the region gravitating to the area of South-East Europe, activities carried out in dealing with this issue were focused on projects with wider regional importance. As a result, in 2010, two initiatives were proposed to enhance cooperation between the countries of South-East Europe in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking offences. The ministers of internal affairs of the countries of South-East Europe supported the two initiatives, the implementation of which will be focused on over the next two years.  The occurrence of human trafficking is, to a large extent, intertwined with other fundamental human rights violations. In recent years, within the framework of this report, this issue is especially summarised in connection with illegal migration, child trafficking and child internet pornography as well as unaccompanied children in procedures for obtaining international protection in the Republic of Slovenia.  Special attention was paid to the latter, particularly with regard to the potential of human trafficking taking place.