Since yesterday, Friday, you can enter without the 3-G rule and without quarantine. The exception applies initially until August 1, but only for those commuters who live no more than ten kilometers as the crow flies from the common border between Slovenia and a neighboring country and who return within five days of crossing the border, according to the new regulation.
As the government in Ljubljana announced, this is a provisional exception that is expected to be applied until mid-August or at most until the beginning of September. The distance of residence is determined on the basis of the geographical data freely accessible on the Internet and Google Maps.
After Slovenia introduced the 3-G rule for all travelers on July 15, there was a lot of criticism because there were no longer any exceptions for cross-border commuters. Among other things, the Slovenian trade union of migrant workers and the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce (GZS) appealed to the authorities to continue to apply more lenient provisions for commuters.
The GZS warned that Slovenian companies in the border regions, which have a large proportion of employees from neighboring countries, could otherwise have considerable problems. That would be especially the case in the border region with Croatia, where in some Slovenian companies up to a third of the employees commute from the neighboring country.
The commuter union also pointed to logistical difficulties for unvaccinated Slovenian workers commuting to Austria. You would have to test yourself three times a week because the rapid test cannot be older than 48 hours. According to the union, around 35,000 Slovenes commute to Austria. They were also dissatisfied with the border region with Italy.
In order to ease the conditions, the GZS campaigned either for an exception to the requirements or for a regulation based on the Austrian model, where commuters have to test themselves once a week. This solution was also acceptable to the union because the commuters could use the same test for both countries.
Exceptions to the 3-G rule also apply to accompanied children under the age of 15, farmers with land on both sides of the border and for transit and international movement of goods.
