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The Buzz in Slovenia: Interview with Ana Grabnar of Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & Partners

The Buzz in Slovenia: Interview with Ana Grabnar of Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & Partners

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“There is a lot going on at the moment, politics-wise,” says Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & Partners Partner Ana Grabnar. “One of the coalition parties left the coalition and joined opposition parties in filing for a no-confidence vote for the government – that took place this week.”  The opposition did not gather the necessary majority; “surprisingly it gathered even fewer votes than predicted,” she says.

“The result is, rather confusing, as the current government is now formally a minority one, but de facto it seems it enjoys the support of the majority and will likely finish the term,” Grabnar points out. The next elections take place in about a year. 

Meanwhile, the focus is still on combating the coronavirus, which hit Slovenia quite hard in the second wave. Most legislative activity is thus primarily related to anti-corona measures (including restrictions on foreign investors in order to protect public interest projects), but Grabnar says there is movement in a few other areas as well. “There have been some recent changes to the Companies Act, and the Competition Act is set to be updated soon as well,” Grabnar says, noting that the activity is mainly related to the effort to harmonize Slovenia’s legal framework with that of the EU. “Some country-specific additions to the Companies Act include new restrictions on establishing entities in Slovenia,” she says, “the list of restrictions now includes some additional criminal acts or violations of tax and labor law.” Grabnar reports that the additions seem reasonable but will create an “additional bureaucratic burden for foreign entities establishing companies in Slovenia due to the obligation of filing necessary proofs.”

In addition, she says, the “environmental law permitting procedures are up for streamlining as well,” and that legislation designed to enable this is in the works.

Finally, Grabnar reports that infrastructure projects – some of which were commenced before the pandemic – are moving along “nice and strong.” According to her, “construction, logistics development, heating plant refurbishing and the like – it’s all going well and there is activity in the market.” She concedes that Slovenia’s unemployment rate was “a bit higher” this January than it was in December, or January of last year, but she says that “there are upticks expected.” According to her, “the real question is what will happen after the adopted anti-corona measures run out.”

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