The British-Slovenian Chamber of Commerce organized a business breakfast entitled "Corporate culture change in Companies with FDI" yesterday in Ljubljana to discuss foreign direct investments. Numerous participants attended the panel where the highest representatives of Laško Union, Trimo, Iskraemeco, PwC and Droga Kolinska / Atlantic Group companies shared their experience on corporate culture changes in the light of foreign investments.

Yesterday, the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Milan Brglez, and the associates form his Office officially received the PanSlovenian Investors` & Shareholders` Association (VZMD) President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, and showed great interest in hearing the VZMD initiatives and proposals.(Photo by Barbara Žejavac, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia)

At the meeting, Mr. Verbič presented the standpoints and concrete proposals of the VZMD regarding the issues and regulation of the status of the expropriated holders of shares and subordinated bonds of Slovenian banks, also due to the recent decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia (VIDEO from the VZMD's press conference). On this occasion, he also presented the VZMD starting points for the special act, which should remedy the unconstitutional lacuna regarding the judicial protection against the Bank of Slovenia's Emergency measures decisions. Furthermore, VZMD proposes solutions entirely based on the provisions from already existing law - specifically the Employment Relationships Act, Labor and Social Courts Act, Court Fee Act, and Non-litigious Civil Procedure Act - and at the same time also proposes that this time the Ministry of Justice should be actively included in the drafting of the special act, in addition to the Ministry of Finance.

The PanSlovenian Shareholders' and Investors' Association (VZMD) welcomes the fact that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia finally completed the constitutional review of the legal regulation of the expropriation of holders of Slovenian banks' subordinate bonds and stocks on October 27, 2016; it recognized two articles of this regulation (Article 350.a of the ZBan-1 and Article 265 of the ZRPPB) as unconstitutional since the expropriated persons were deprived of the right to efficient judicial protection (Article 23 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia). The review was triggered by an initiative written by the lawyer Mr. Miha Kunič and the prime mover of the initiative Mr. Tadej Kotnik, member of the VZMD Expert Council, on behalf of the 158 expropriated natural persons.

The 8th international congress of the influential organization European Federation of Building Societies (EFBS) entitled »Brave New World for Finance?« started on 19 October 2016 in Budapest. After the evening gala reception at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the conference was opened by Mr. Dániel Palotai, the Managing director of the Hungarian National Bank, and Mr. Boris Vujčić, Governor of the Croatian National Bank. The highly visible congress hosted six round tables, and the 3rd session »Financial stability, consumer protection, long-term financing – European and national initiatives«, featured a presentation by the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, who attended the conference at the invitation of the organizers. The presentation was prepared in cooperation with European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users (Better Finance) and Romanian Association of financial services users (AURSF).

A market of 850 million consumers might experience significant changes in buying and selling habits in the coming months. As part of the international business-investor programs Invest to Slovenia (investo.si) and the International Investors` Network (invest-to.net), the Pan-Slovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD) received information on - as it seems - currently the biggest European project of a new, digital economy: »wee 2.0«(VIDEO). The latter also creates - in addition to cost-free mobile payment - interesting investment opportunities, at the individual level, as natural persons, and at the level of legal persons, organizations, chambers of commerce, associations, clubs etc. Opportunities for collaboration, participation and joint ownership in the company (project operator), which definitely bring about great challenges and opportunities, can be explored by submitting the form.

Before last night's football match between Slovenia and England, Ljubljana hosted the SPORTS MEETS BUSINESS conference as well as guests and a business delegation from the United Kingdom.

The PanSlovenian Investors` & Shareholders` Association (VZMD) welcomes the Initiative to deputies to submit a proposal to adopt an authentic interpretation of the Book Entry Securities Act (ZNVP-1) submitted last week by the Slovenian Consumers' Association (ZPS), a European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC) member, to the National Assembly of Republic of Slovenia. In the initiative, they suggest that the deputies submit a proposal to accept an authentic interpretation of the Act where paragraph 4 of Article 48 of ZNVP-1 is interpreted in a such a way that the consumers will actually be protected against prohibitive costs of opening and closing of, as well as operations, on a trading account.

Yesterday, the 6th Ljubljana Forum began at the Ljubljana Castle which this year focuses on the future of smart and green cities. The forum was opened by Mr. Zoran Janković, the Mayor of Ljubljana, Mr. Tomaž Berločnik, Chairman of the Board of Petrol, Mr. Joris Scheers, the President of the European Council of Town Planners, and Mr. Blaž Golob, the President of Ljubljana Forum. The participants were addressed via a videoconference by Mr. Miro Cerar, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia.

In parallel with the international conference of the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users (Better Finance) on Tuesday in Brussels, the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič, also met with the Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Euro and Social Dialogue as well as for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, Valdis Dombrovskis. After Briton Jonathan Hill resigned from the office of the Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, Commissioner Dombrovskis is now in charge of two commissioner areas.

A meeting of the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users (Better Finance) began in Brussels yesterday which was attended by the member of its Executive Board and the PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD) President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič. In addition to numerous bilateral and multilateral meetings held by representatives of investors' and shareholders' associations from all of Europe, the meetings of the Executive Board and the Legal Committee took place yesterday, followed by a gala dinner with a number of prominent guests. The General meeting and an international conference which will be attended by the European Commission Vice-President, and Commissioner for Euro and Social Dialogue, and Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, Valdis Dombrovskis, Chair of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), Gabriel Bernardino, Director General of Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE), Rainer Riess, CEO of Euronext, Stéphane Boujnah, will be held today.