European Union

Former Polish prime minister and EU Council president Donald Tusk has made a comeback into national politics, by taking his over his former political party, the centre-right Civic Platform opposition party. "The evil that PiS is performing is evident, shameless and permanent. It's happening every day, in almost every matter," he said in a speech in. Warsaw Saturday, referring to the ruling and nationalist-populist Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The EU will have to strike harder at Belarus' top company, Belaruskali, to influence the regime, its workers have said.

Slovenia will give special attention to the discussion on the Western Balkan integration into the EU during the six months that it will hold the presidency of the EU Council, its prime minister Janez Janša said.

Azerbaijan on Saturday (3 July) handed over to Yerevan 15 Armenian troops captured last year in the wake of an armed conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, officials said.

The European Parliament will debate in Strasbourg the breaches of EU law and of the rights of LGBTIQ people in Hungary, and adopt resolutions on the issues.

Slovenian President Borut Pahor has criticised Interior Minister Aleš Hojs for using the term "swine" in a comment interpreted as targeting a senior member of the EU Commission, urging the minister to apologise.

The migrant workers are exploited (by landlords and dairy-businessmen) like slaves. They work up to 14-hours per day, every single day non-stop without any leave, for barely €400 per month. If they get injured, their bosses hide these incidents.

The Libyan coast guard actively works with smugglers and are run by a militia, an ex-Libyan lieutenant police officer. The EU is buying the guard three new P150 high speed patrol boats.

Spain has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases, with the 14-day average of infections per 100,000 residents climbing to 152.8, according to the latest data provided by Spanish health authorities. EURACTIV’s partner EFE reports.  

The European Commission has drafted plans to set an EU-wide minimum tax rate for polluting aviation fuels, as it seeks to meet more ambitious targets to fight climate change, a document seen by Reuters shows.

The unprecedented push for renovation across Europe needs to be in line with its climate ambition and work in synergy with the rest of the EU's climate legislation in order to fulfil its potential, writes Adeline Rochet and Pedro Guertler.

A carbon border adjustment measure (CBAM) cannot provide carbon leakage protection for aluminium. Consequentially, it will not contribute to emission reductions in Europe or globally.  Aluminium must remain under the current carbon leakage framework, at least in the initial phase.

Cyprus said a deadly forest fire that was the worst to hit the island in decades was close to being brought under control Sunday (4 July) after water bombing by Greek and Israeli aircraft.

Britain has announced it will seek harsher sentences for migrants caught entering the country without permission amid a record-breaking surge in arrivals over the English Channel.

European Union targets to boost biofuel use are likely to have led to the deforestation of an area roughly the size of the Netherlands over the last decade to expand soy, palm and other oil crops, a report said on Monday (5 July).

Italian police said on Saturday (3 July) they had broken up a number of online schemes offering to sell fake European Union digital COVID-19 status certificates or purported coronavirus vaccines.

Belarus' leader Alexander Lukashenko on Friday (2 July) ordered the closure of the border with Ukraine, seeking to block what he called an inflow of weapons to coup-plotters detected by his security services, BelTA state news agency reported.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday (2 July) pledged support for Lithuania, which is experiencing a quickly growing flow of Middle East migrants though its 679-kilometre border with Belarus.

Written by Klemen Žumer and Yann-Sven Rittelmeyer.

Since 1991 the Republic of Slovenia has had a parliamentary system composed of the Državni zbor (National Assembly) and the Državni svet (National Council). The Slovenian Parliament has the features of an ‘incomplete bicameral system‘, based on ‘asymmetric duality‘ – the National Council has less authority and fewer competences than the National Assembly, in accordance with Chapter IV of the Constitution.

The National Assembly is described as the ‘supreme representative and legislative institution, exercising legislative and electoral powers as well as control over the Executive‘. Its members are elected every four years from nine constituencies by a universal, equal, direct, and secret vote. Different, specific, rules apply to the election of one member each of the Italian and Hungarian national communities. The Government of Slovenia is accountable to the National Assembly, and the Prime Minister is elected by the National Assembly by a majority vote of all of its members.

The National Council is the representative body for social, economic, professional, and local interests and has mainly a consultative role. According to Article 96 of the Constitution, it is composed of a fixed number of representatives of labour and social interests (employers, employees, farmers, crafts and trades, independent professions and non-commercial fields) and representatives of local interests (territorial interests). The members do not hold office professionally and are elected for a five-year term from the relevant interest organisations or local communities. Political parties are not specifically represented in the National Council but it is not entirely free of political influence, especially when it comes to members representing local interests.

The National Assembly is the sole body that can adopt laws, under a legislative procedure governed by the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly. Legislative proposals may be initiated by the Government, any Assembly member, a minimum of 5 000 voters (Article 88 of the Constitution), or by the National Council (Article 97). Whereas the National Assembly is in charge of adopting the laws, the primary role of the National Council is to convey its opinion and it has a ‘suspensive veto’ that allows to ask the National Assembly to examine a law once more, within seven days of its adoption and before its promulgation. Like the National Assembly, the National Council can also demand inquiries on matters of public importance, when this is requested by a third of its members (Article 93).

Read this complete briefing on ‘The Slovenian Parliament and EU affairs‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

In the framework of the LIFE TACKLE project, we are not only looking at professionals in the sporting sector (stadium managers, footballers, team owners, etc) but also at those who breathe so much life into football: the fans. FIGC, the...