Slovak Spectator 1713

8/7/2019 Slovak Spectator 1713

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Better to protest, or negotiate?

UNION members are taking to thestreets after a breakdown in negoti-ations over reforms to SlovakiasLabour Code. The Labour Ministryhas called the unions uninformed,while they retort that the decline inthe economic and social status of

employees has left them with noother choice but to launch protests.Unionists would like to see the ex-isting Labour Code, which wasshaped by the Robert Fico govern-ment,remainunchanged.

However, the current govern-ment, led by Prime Minister IvetaRadiov, says that changes arecrucial in orderto injectmoreflex-ibility and fairness into the code.While employers have also ex-pres sed obj ec tions t o thegovernments proposed amend-ment tothe code,theysay they arecommitted to negotiations. Theunions, by contrast,are now readyto go further, perhaps as far as ageneral strike or even a referen-

dum.Being a woman you know

how a woman protects her familyso that she has more time for herchildren, to bring them up, in-stead of having to spend hours at

work just to survive, the head ofthe KOVO trade union, EmilMachyna, said in an appeal toRadiov as he launched unionprotestson March28.

The prime minister said thattherewasstill enough timeto findacompromise since the Labour Codeisdueto beadoptedonly inMay.

The Ministry of Labour has re-ceived hundreds of comments onthe Labour Code from members ofthe public as part of a review pro-

cess that ended on March 28. Theministry is now set to review thecomments and eventually includesome inthe draft.

SeeCODEpg4

SSELECT FOREX RATES benchmark as ofMarch 31CANADA CAD 1.38CZECH REP. CZK24.54RUSSIA RUB40.29GREAT BRITAIN GBP 0.88

HUNGARY HUF 265.72JAPAN JPY 117.61POLAND PLN 4.01USA USD 1.42

NEWS

FollowingthemoneyA newwebsitebyNGO Fair-PlayAllianceseeksto revealwhoown thebusinesseswhichbenefit themostfrompublictendersandcontracts.

pg 2

Aquestionof faithSlovakia's national census,tobe held inMay,willaskresidentsto statetheirre-ligious affiliation.Churchesand religiousgroups, Jedi included,are

encouragingfollowers tobe counted.pg 3

OPINION

LuckynumbersRobert Ficocan takeheartfromhis Smerparty'sstellarresult in a recent opinionpoll.But ifthe coalitioncangetitsact togetherSmerisunlikelyto matchthat res-ultin an actual election.

pg 5

BUSINESSFOCUS

RevampingrailSlovakia'sthreestate-ownedrailway companiesfacemajor changes,includ-ingthelossof 5,000staff, aspart of government-orderedrevitalisation plans.

pg 6

E-tollwrinklespersistTheelectronictoll system tocharge trucks forusingSlovakia'smain roadshasbeenoperating formorethan a year - andtruckersarestill complainingaboutits faults.

pg 7

CULTURE

PhotosasquestionsAidanSullivan, a jurymember forSlovakias 2010JournalismAwardfor bestnewsphotos,speaksto TheSlovakSpectatorabout thestorytelling power of pho-tographs.

pg11

Minority languages

debate heats upA DRAFT amendment to the law onthe use of minority languages hasheated up the air in parliament andonce again gifted nationalist politi-cians with a stage on which to venttheir spleens. The ruling coalition isseeking deputies support to changethe rules which determine when aminority language can automatic-ally be used in official communica-tion alongside Slovak. The amend-ment would lower the quorum ofminority-language speakers re-quired for this in any given muni-

cipality from the current 20 percentto 15 percent of the population.

Most-Hd leader Bla Bugr saidthat once approved, the legislation,which is being proposed by DeputyPrime Minister for Human RightsRudolf Chmel, a nominee of Most-Hd, will bringSlovakiacloserto themorepositiveexamples in Europe.

The amendment is not bestow-

ing any extra rights on ethnic Hun-garians in Slovakia but is improving

the life of all citizens of Slovakia,Bugr said, as quoted by the SITAnewswire.

Nevertheless, Slovak NationalParty (SNS) boss Jn Slota immedi-ately showered Slovakias ethnicHungarians and ruling coalitionpoliticians who have supported thelegislation with a selection of hisnow-familiar insults. His former SNScolleague, who is now an independ-ent deputy, Anna Belousovov calledthe law not only wrong but evendangerous.

SeeQUORUMpg3

BYBEATABALOGOV&MICHAELATERENZANI

Spectatorstaff

BYBEATABALOGOVSpectatorstaff

Vol. 17, No. 13 Monday, April 4, 2011 - Sunday, April 10, 2011

FOCUSof this issue

On sale nowOn sale now FOCUSof this issue

TRANSPORT

Tax daypasses withless e-stress

THE WEB portal of Slovakias Tax Director-ateis still notfully readyto handlethelate-March rush of those seeking to electronic-ally file their income tax forms, eventhough taxpayers have been encouraged tousethis method.

The Tax Directorate stated, however,that unlike previous years, this yearsthree-day portal blackout from March 25-27did not limit taxpayers ability to electron-ically file documents because its eDANE(eTaxes) application remained available tothose who had installed it on their PCs. In2010 the web portal, with its 3-millionprice tag, was completely unable to handleattempted uploads and forced even themost determined computer geeks to sub-mit their returns by the traditional pen-and-papermethod.

Something else also changed for Slovak

taxpayers this year: for the first time theycould postpone submitting their tax returnby simply notifying the tax office of theirintentionto doso.

SeeFILEpg9

BYBEATABALOGOVSpectatorstaff

Smer surgesever higher

in March poll

IF PARLIAMENTARY elections had takenplace in early March 2011, the oppositionSmerpartywouldnolongerneedtoseekapartner to rule as it would have a simple

majority in parliament and be able togovern alone, an opinion poll conductedinMarch found.Observers said,however,thatSmerssupportmightbe peaking.

The results of the poll, conducted bythe Focus polling agency, show thatSmer would have attracted the votes of44.8 percent of those who said theywould turn out for the election if it tookplace this weekend, up 1.6 percentagepoints from the previous month. Such aresult would secure 76 seats for Smer inthe 150-seat Slovak parliament: a major-ity of 2 seats. It would be the first suchmajority for a single party in Slovakiasmodernhistory.

The poll suggested that the make-upof parties in parliament would notchange. The other opposition party, theSlovak National Party (SNS), would

garner6.2 percent of thevote andthus 10seats,onemorethanitholdsnow.

SeePOLLpg2

BYMICHAELATERENZANISpectator staff

IIHFPresidentRenFasel(above)recentlyvisitedBratislava tomonitorpreparationsfor the2011IIHF IceHockeyWorldChampionship,whichwill beheld inthe capital andin KoicebetweenApril29 andMay 15. Photo:TK


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Slovak bride arrested in Leeds

A SLOVAK citizenwas arrestedinLeeds, UK,after policeraided a weddingserviceat thetownhallas part ofa crack-downon shammarriages.Theydetainedthe 23-year-oldPakistanigroomand the22-year-old Slovak bride onMarch29,theDailyMailre-portedon itswebsite.

The newlyweds wereamong sevenmembersof aweddingparty detained bythe police,includingofficersfromtheUK BorderAgency(UKBA).Both individualswere detained on suspicionof conspiracy to assist unlaw-fulentryintothe UK.ThreeotherPakistanimen andtwootherSlovakwomenwerede-

tainedfor questioning,theUKBAstated,as reportedbytheDailyMail.

Wesuspectthatthesole

purpose of thismarriagewouldhavebeenforthegroomto avoidimmigrationcontrolsandstayinthe UK, acting De-tective InspectorPete Galla-gherof theUKBA immigrationcrimeteamsaid,as quotedbytheDaily Mail.

The UK Border Agency iscracking down on sham mar-riages all over the country andaims to identify the organiserswho profit from these illegalactivities and destroy theircriminal operations, saidJeremy Oppenheim, the UKBA

regionaldirectorin Leeds.Wework closelywith re-

gistrarsand vicars to identifymarriagesthat maynot begenuine andwe willnot hesit-

ateto take thestrongestpos-sibleactionagainstthosein-volved inarranging shammarriages,Oppenheim said.

Parliament passes new gun law

ANAMENDMENT totheFirearmsand AmmunitionActwas passedby Slovakiasparliamenton March29, fol-lowinga heateddebate thatlastedfor severalmonths.The approved amendment isa compromiseversion thatsoftenedthe original propos-al submittedby Interior Min-ister DanielLipic.But itwillstillintroduce morestrin-gentrules asof May1, 2011,

the TASRnewswire reported.Theamendedlaw will re-quirepeoplewhoown fire-armsto undertakean exam-inationby a clinicalpsycho-logist. Psychological testsonce every10 yearswillthenberequiredfor anyonewhowants tocarrya firearm, in-cluding sportsshooters,se-curitystaffandpolice of-ficerswho haveciviliangunpermits.In autumnthisyearallmembersof thearmedforceswho must carrya gunprofessionally willbe added.

Oneof themostsignific-ant changes from Lipic's

original proposal is thatpo-lice will notbe permitted toenter citizenshomesto in-spectweapons.The com-promiselegislation willalsoallowSlovakretailersto sellairsoftand paintballguns viathe internet.

Theamendment came inresponse tothe August2010shooting spreein Bratislava'sDevnska NovVes district inwhichresidentubomr

Harmankilledseven peopleandinjured15 othersbeforefatally shooting himself.

Lipicsaidhe wouldhavelikedto seea more stringentlawbut considers thepassedversionacceptable,statingthat heis confidentthattheamendmentwill reduce thenumberof mentally unstablepersonswhocan acquire andcarryguns. Formerinteriorminister RobertKalik(Smer)toldTASRthathe isdrafting another amend-ment tothe lawthathe willsubmitto a forthcomingpar-liamentarysession.

NGOs criticise school segregationTEACHERS dayin Slovakiawasmarked onMarch28 bythepresentationof a newpublication entitledOdpovede na otzky(de)segregcie rmskychiakovvo vzdelvacomsystmena Slovensku (An-swers tothe Questionsof(De)Segregation of RomaPu-pilsin the EducationSystemin Slovakia).

The publication is thejointworkof 15authorsfromnineNGOsandwaspublishedby theSlovakbranchoftheOpenSociety Foundation(OSF)which pulledtogether

the informal initiative.Segregationin Slovakschools hasgrownintoaninstitutionalrule grownfroma habit, theOSFwroteina press release.

The reportcharges thatneitherthe EducationMin-istrynor anyother statein-stitutionis doinganythingto preventsegregation ofRomachildrenin schoolsandthatno oneis monitor-ing its occurrence.

TheOSFalsosaid thereisno cleardefinitionof segreg-ationin thelaw,whichiswhyits publicationproposesa wayto legally definese-gregation.

The authors describe as-pectsof thecurrenteduca-tionsystem whichrepresentsegregationandask that the

statebegin monitoringandevaluatingsuch practices ina comprehensive manner.

Compiledby Spectatorstaff

frompress reports

Linking public contractsto business owners

AFTER the ruling coalitionsattempts to make public pro-curement processes moretransparent, the non-gov-ernmental sector has alsocome up with a tool thatshould reveal the linksbetween the companies thatwin state orders and the actu-al people behind them withjusta few mouse-clicks.

The newly introducedwebsite www.znasichdani.sk(z naich dan is Slovak forfrom our taxes) contains aregister of people who areknown to be behind the com-panies benefiting from stateorders.

The search engine works

with the names of people,and after searching for a par-ticular person, it lists the

companies the name is con-nected to and the state ordersthey have won, plus theamount they have receivedfrompublicfunds.

The website is a result ofan initiative by the Fair-PlayAlliance, a political transpar-ency watchdog, in coopera-tion with the Visual BusinessRegister, an online tool thatallows users to see relation-sh ip s a nd d et ai ls f romSlovakias Business Register incontext. The Visual BusinessRegister provided technologyto link people who own com-panies and cooperated in de-veloping the projectconcept.

We believe this service

willhelp journalistsand NGOsto control power, and thanksto its simplicity it may also

raise interest among thewider public, Zuzana Wienkof the Fair-Play Alliance said.There are specific people andtheir business culture behindevery company. We oftenhear speculation about theirabove-standard relations withpoliticians. This service turnsspeculation and fairytales in-to hardfacts.

Fair-Play Alliance citedthe example of businessmanJuraj irok, two of whosecompanies, Chemolak andVhostav, received 170 mil-lion in state orders between2005 and 2011, according todataon Znasichdani.sk.

The data used for the ser-

vice are drawn fromDatanest.sk, a web project byFair-Play Alliance which

gathersinformation abouttheflow of public finances, for in-stance from the Bulletin ofPublic Procurement. ThenZnasichdani.sk combinesthese data with the databaseof the Business Register.

For the moment only datafor the years 2005-2011 areavailable. The website doesnot include informationaboutgoods and services that wereprocured by state institutionsif the orders did n ot gothrough the Bulletin of PublicProcurement. These, accord-ing to the Fair-Play Alliance,constituted about one quarterof all procurement activity in2009, and were worth around

2.25billion.


POLL: Alarm bells ring for the KDHContinuedfrompg1

The parties of the ruling coalitionwould more or less keep their standing,with the exception of the ChristianDemocratic Movement (KDH), whichsaw its preferences drop by almost fourpercentage points to a mere 6.3 percentin March. The Slovak Democratic andChristian Union (SDK) would get thevotes of 16.5 percent of those polled in

March, slightly up in comparison withthe February results. Support for Most-Hd also rose, from 6.0 percent in Febru-ary to 7.9 percent in March. The remain-ing coalition party, Freedom and Solidar-ity (SaS) saw a drop of two percentagepointsto 7.1percent inthe poll.

Smerharvestsfruitsofcoalition setback

Voter preferences for Smer, led byformer prime minister Robert Fico, havebeen rising since the June 2010 generalelection which saw it swept from power.In March Smer reached a level thatwould theoretically secure the party atermin governmentwithoutthe need forpolitical partners. However, sociologistMartin Slosiarik of the Focus polling

agency does not expect increases inSmer'spreferencesto continue.Smers preferences are almost satur-

ated now, Slosiarik said, adding that theparty is likely soon to reach a point whereno further growth will be possible.However, he admitted that the trendcould continue for short period, up toabout 45-46 percent, since Smer mightwin some more support among the unde-cided,or thosewho normally donot vote.

Part of Smers potential amongvoters is constituted not by diehardvoters but rather by people who are notsure they will actually turn out at elec-tions if they were really to take place,Slosiarik told The Slovak Spectator,adding that these might only be sym-pathisers of Smer or simply opponents ofthe ruling coalition, and their positive

response to Smer in the poll is a form ofresistance against the measures the rul-ing coalition is implementing. So it isnotcertainthatSmer wouldbe able tode-fend this strong position [indicated bytherecent poll]in theactual election.

Generally speaking, the results of thepoll areindicativeof a setbackfor therul-ing coalition rather than of success ofSmer. Slosiarik said that Smer is doingwell by using the complicated situationthat the ruling coalition finds itself in,partly due to the unpopular measures itneeds to take which will result in in-creased living expenses for voters. An-other point used by Smer that seems tobe working with voters, is the risingprices of food products and motor fuels,

for which Robert Fico and his Smer col-leagues blamethe ruling coalition.

Pollringsalarmbellsfor KDH

The only parliamentary party thatmight have been left sorely disappointedby the results of the recent Focus pollwere the Christian Democratic Move-ment, whose preferences droppedsharply after a rather stable period dur-ing which they hovered around 10 per-cent,to a mere6.3percent inMarch2011.

Slosiarik noted that this is a very sig-nificant drop, butit shouldnotbe used tomake fast judgements about the partysposition on the Slovak political scene,since for the moment it is an outlier thatneeds to be confirmed or corrected by fu-ture polls. According to Slosiarik, if the

margin of error (generally accepted to be2 percentage points) had an effect on theKDH result, the situation for the partymight notbe that alarming.

At the same time, however, theparty has been going through a difficult

periodwhich mighthave hadan impacton its public image: party leader JnFige has been struggling with reportsabout his personal affairs and the KDHrecently lost a prominent member,former Bratislava mayor Andrejurkovsk, over suspicions of miscon-duct in public procurement and othercases.

KDHdeputy chairman PavolAbrhanadmitted that the drop in KDH prefer-ences in the March 2011 poll goes bey-

ondstatistical discrepancy.We need to look at the past period,to see what caused the drop, Abrhantold the Sme daily. We have probablyfailed to communicatesome issues.

Slosiarik suggested that the KDHmight have scored worst among the co-alition parties because it is in a consid-erably harder situation due to the factthat it has the highest proportion ofvoters who are no longer economicallyactive and who are therefore very sens-itive to increases in prices and livingexpenses in general.

This might be causing a certainhesitation in their behaviour, Slosiariksaid, adding that they might temporar-ily lean away from the KDH, but not ne-cessarily move their support to anotherpolitical party.

I think that the KDH might havesuppressed the social dimension of itspolitics and this is how their votersshow the party that it needs to be moreintensively engaged with social issues,Slosiarik said.

2 NEWSApril 4 10, 2011

SmerleaderRobertFico Photo:SITA


3/12

A question of faith

DO YOU believe in God? Thisquestion is seen as a private,intimatematterin manycoun-tries. In Slovakia,a variation ofit is one of the questions onthis years national census.And although the answer to itdoes not have a direct impacton the states support for thereligious communities activein Slovakia, their representat-

ives say information about thenumber of adherentshas an in-formative and moral signific-ancefor them.

The Population and Hous-ing Census, whose actual pointof measurement is midnightbetween May 20 and May 21,2011, will take place at the endof May. It is the countrys mostextensive statistical inquiryand is expected to provide newdata about the number ofpeople living in Slovakia, aswell as information regardingthe populations demograph-ic, educational, social andeconomic structure. This yearcensuses are taking place allaround the European Union,

making the union-wide datathat emerge from them moresuitable for internationalcomparisons.

Religious affiliation, un-like in some other countries ofthe EU, is among the 52 ques-tions the inhabitants of Slov-akia will be asked to report inthe census. There are 19 op-tions listed on the censusform, including 18 officiallyregisteredreligionsplus no re-ligion.Thereis then a finalop-tion: other, where respond-ents can state their religion ifitis notamong thoselisted.

To be officially registered,a religious group must haveat least 20,000 adherents. Is-

lam, for instance, with fewerthan 20,000 adherents inSlovakia, is not currently of-ficially registered.

Nodirect impactonfinancing

The number of believers,however, does not have adirect impact on the rela-tionship between the stateand religious groups, andtherefore only has an in-formative character, notedMichaela Moravkov, thehead of theInstituteof State-Church Relations, a researchbody established by the Cul-tureMinistry.

Relations between thestate and the churches [i.e.religious groups] do notchange according to falls orrises in the number of believ-ers in individual churches,

Moravkov told The SlovakSpectator, adding, however,that a model which woulduse the census data for thepurposes of financing reli-gious communities has beenconsideredin thepast.

The model that the stateuses to provide financialsupport to religious groupsactive in Slovakia right nowis based on the numbers ofclerics, which Moravkovsays is not unique in theEuropean context.

Of the 18 officially re-gistered religious groups, 13receive financialsupport fromthe state. In 2010, the CultureMinistry distributed almost

37.5 million for this purpose,almost one third of whichwent to the Roman CatholicChurch, which currentlycounts more than two thirdsof thepopulation.

Moraldimension

Despite that, the censusand its results remain relev-ant for religious groups inSlovakia.

It allows them to com-pare their own data againstthe data from the census,Moravkov said,adding thatthisis especiallytrue forthosereligious groups that do notkeep their own records. An-

other point is the moral as-pect of the confession ques-tion in the census: when a be-liever publicly avows his orher religion, the communitysees itas animportantsignal.

Admitting [belonging] tothe church in different ways,including the census, is acertain signal, expression,and self-identification, Ed-ita kodov, the press officerof the General Bishopric Of-fice of the EvangelicalChurch of the Augsburg Con-fession, Slovakias secondbiggest religion, told TheSlovak Spectator.

Inthisspecificcensusweare looking at the number of

people who admit they belongto the church, who feel part ofit, Jozef Kovik, the spokes-person of the Conference ofBishops of Slovakia (KBS),which represents Slovakias

Catholic bishops, also said,adding that the number re-ported differs from the num-ber that the church itselfmonitors, for instancethrough active participationin theliturgy.

It is the duty of clerics tolead believers towards show-ing their faith in Christ andshowing their belonging tothe church, and thereforethey will be asked by thechurch to confess their faithin the census, said LadislavBil, the chancellor of the Of-fice of the Metropolitan Coun-cil of the Orthodox Church inSlovakia, adding that thechurch is not supposed to

campaign, but rather educateclerics as well as laypersonsand see how that influencetranslatesinto theirlife.

According to Bil, dataabout the number of Slovakias inhabitants whoadmit belonging to the Ortho-dox Church has an informat-ive rather than a decisive sig-nificancefor thechurch.

The decisive issue is al-ways the education of believ-ers towards faith in God andthe church, Bil told TheSlovakSpectator. Accordingtohim, the census also helps theOrthodox Church, which isone of the smaller churches inSlovakia, to see the structure

of their believers on the map,so that they can then betterdirect their activities and ad-just them to local conditions particularly in western andcentral Slovakia, where theOrthodox Church has thecharacterof a diaspora.

From the spiritual view-point we see that the officialcensus does not monitor theexact number of believerssince,mainly inthe cities, thenumber of believers [physic-ally present] in the churchesis much smaller than the stat-isticsshow,Bil said.

Campaigning forbelievers

The Orthodox Church,which according to the 2001census is the fourth biggestchurch in Slovakia in termsof adherents, does not expectits number of believers to

change significantly com-paredto themore than50,000that came out of the 2001census.

Roman Catholicism is the

most widespread religion inSlovakia, with over 3.7 mil-lion adherents, according tothe official number from the2001 census. Kovik admitsthat the number of believersmight not remain the sameas the result in the previouscensus in 2001 (when it in-creased by over half millionfromthe 3.18million in 1991).

The overall compositionand picture of society haschanged essentially in thepast 10 years, Kovik toldThe Slovak Spectator. Weourselves are curious how itwill show in the numbers ofmembersof churches.

The Roman Catholic

Church has already launchedan information campaignthrough various media, in-cluding flyers inserted in theCatholic press, billboards,and the internet sites ofCatholic organisations. As inthe 2001 census campaign,Catholic bishops agreed towrite a pastoral letter, whichis to be read on Sunday, April24 in all Roman Catholic andGreek Catholic churches in-stead of thesermon.

Its important thatpeople, if they are really todecide freely, also receive re-sponsible information, andnot only that filtered by thecommercial media, Kovik

said.The Evangelical i.e.Protestant Christian Church, Slovakias secondbiggest religious group, withover 370,000 believers (ac-cording to the 2001 census),is also making efforts to in-form believers about thecensus question via its com-munity magazine and the of-ficial websiteof thechurch.

There was mention of thetopic in the Christmas pas-toral letter and it will also bementioned in the pastoralletter prepared for Easter, butthe Evangelical Church is notpreparing a special pastoralletter about the census, ac-

cording to kodov.By no means, however,do we regard these activitiesas a campaign, she said.Simply, the church alsoneeds to give statementsabout what is happening insociety.

Apart from the religiousgroups traditionally presentin Slovakia, there are severalother communities trying towin peoples hearts in thecensus: for instance the Jedi(a community which aroseout of the Star Wars movies)are running a campaign onFacebook after the success ofthis religion in the UK andNew Zealand censuses. In the

2001 UK census more than390,000 people stated thattheir religion as Jedi or JediKnight, making them thefourth largest religiouscommunityin Britain.

BYMICHAELA

TERENZANI

Spectator staff

Yourreligionwillbe acensus question. Photo:Sme-Peterkovi

QUORUM: Slotahurls usual insults

Continuedfrompg1

Bugrsaidhe wasawarethatsubmittinga draft per-

taining to minoritiesalwaysinvites incrediblespeculation, notingironic-ally that therearemanypeople in Slovakiawho thinkthatthey understandfoot-ball andtheproblemsof na-tional minorities.

OnMarch 31,as TheSlovak Spectatorwent toprint,therewere still10deputieswaitingto speakintheparliamentarydebateontheamendment. However,therulingcoalitionwas de-terminedto push thelawchange through parliament.

Thedraft amendmentwasalteredfrom its originalformbeforeit reachedpar-

liament. Originally, Chmelhadproposedto lower thequorumto 10percentof thelocalpopulation,but therul-ingcoalitioncompromisedon 15percent.

A 15-percentthresholdisexpectedto introducebilin-gualism into more than 70additional municipalities,withthe Romaand Rutheni-an minoritiesaffected morethanthe Hungarian.

Thenumberof Roma-speakingvillageswill growfrom 57to 86,while thereareexpectedto be 113Rutheni-an-speaking municipalitiesinstead of thecurrent68.Whilecurrentlyone village

in central Slovakia,Krahule,is German-speaking, underthenewrules therewould beonemore, Kuneov.Twomunicipalitieswithin Brat-islava, Jarovce andunovo,would be designatedCroa-tian-speaking.

Accordingto thepro-posedlaw, however,any ofSlovakiasnine officiallyap-proved minority languagescanbe used inofficialoralcommunication anywhereinSlovakiaas long asthe re-spectiveofficialand allper-sonsconcerned in theoffi-cialprocedure agree. Theminority languagesrecog-nisedin Slovakiaare: Hun-

garian, Czech, Romani,Ruthenian,Ukrainian, Ger-man,Polish,Croatian,Yid-dishand Bulgarian.

Another highlightof theamendmentis thatit intro-

duces fines forthose officialbodiesthatfailto observe it,sothatit mirrors thecondi-tionswhicharevalid forus-

ingSlovak in officialcom-municationaccording to theStateLanguage Act.

Achancefor Slota

Predictably, Slota,ad-dressingparliament foronlythesecond timesince lastyears Junegeneral election,used thedebateas anoppor-tunityto insult Slovakiasethnic Hungarians, callingthemmurderersfrom cent-ralAsia whoimposedtheirlanguageon theSlovakpopulation.

Therulingcoalitionparties aresittingon theshovel of theHungarian

partyMost-Hdand gettakenin bytheireveryde-mand,whichstep bystepstripsus of ourself-determ-ination andstatehoodand isattachingour southernter-ritory to Hungary,Slotasaid,as quotedby theSmedaily's website,Sme.sk.

Ondrej Dostl, a Most-Hddeputyand memberoftheCivic ConservativeParty(OKS) faction respondedbycallingSlota theshame oftheSlovak nation.

Though politiciansarepaidto defend nationalin-terests itdoesnot mean thattheyhaveto doiteven atpriceof provokingextrem-

ism, said MPPavolHruovsk,a deputy speakerof parliamentfrom theChristian DemocraticMovement(KDH) .

Nevertheless,formercultureministerand Smerdeputy Marek Maari con-tributedto thedebateby not-ingthat Hungarysprimeminister,Viktor Orbn, hadconfirmedhis intentiontogivevotingrights to resid-entsof othercountrieswhoobtainHungarian citizen-shipby meansof HungarysrecentlypassedDual Cit-izenship Act.

Bugrrespondedthatdeputiescannot always look

atwhatViktor Orbnis do-ingbecausethey live inSlovakiaand mustdo theirbest tomakesurethatminoritieswithinSlovakiagetproper consideration.

RudolfChmel Photo:TASR

Representativesof religions

prepare for the

national census

3April 4 10, 2011NEWS


4/12

Slovakia tops carproduction chart

SLOVAKIAis the worlds

numberonecar producerpercapita, accordingto a re-searchpaper by UniCreditBank.Slovakiareturnedtothetopof thechartafter ayearsabsence,followedcloselyby the CzechRepublicandSlovenia.These threecountries produce around 100carsper 1,000citizens, theSITAnewswirereported.

Inthe worldchartofgrosscar production, Slov-akiaplaced19th lastyear,with557,000passenger cars,accountingfor onepercentofoverall car productionworldwide.In 2009, thecoun-tryoccupied20th position.

Theregion remains at-

tractive forthe automotiveindustry dueto itslowla-bourcosts incomparisontowestern Europe, geograph-icalpositionanddensenet-workof suppliers.

Alsowithregardto the

announcedincrease in pro-duction capacitiesin there-gion,we expectthattheim-portanceof theregioninpassengercar production inEuropewill againgrowin thecomingfiveyears,UniCred-it Bankanalystsforecast, asquoted by SITA.Car produc-tion inthe EUjumped11 per-centyear-on-yearin 2010.

The expansion wasfuelledby rising demandoutsidethe EU.The shareofEuropeanoutput comingfrom newEU memberstatessituatedin thecent-ral-easternEuropean regionshranklastyearfor thefirsttimesince 2001.

Three firmsmake carsin Slovakia: PSA PeugeotCitroen inTrnava; KiaMo-tors Slovakiain ilina; andVolkswagen Slovakia inBratislava.

Honeywell investment takes shape

PREOV CityCouncilap-proved a draftintentiontosell land inthe ZborskIn-vestmentIndustrial ParktoUScompanyHoneywellTurboon March30.The draftdeclares thecitys intentiontosell5 hectaresof land toHoneywellat a priceof 30persquare metre, theTASR

newswire reported.I appreciate thatthedeputies,although theyhadcertain reservations, voted forthis material,Preovs MayorPavel Hagyaritold TASR. Itshows thatthe deputiesareresponsible andthat theywantto solve theproblemofunemployment, which inourregion ismost acute.

Onthesameday,thecab-inetapproved 19millionforHoneywellin investmentstimulifrom thestate.A total

of11.5 millionis tobe spentonthe purchaseof long-termtangibleand intangible as-sets, morethan7 millionincontributions fornew jobsandnearly600,000in theformof taxallowances. Basedona draftproposalfor stimuliprovision which thecabinetpassedMarch 30,the reques-

tedincentivesper employeewillreachnearly43,000,theSITA newswirereported.

Honeywell isplanning tobuilda plantto maketur-bochargers forcars andtrucks.Its estimated costs areforecastto be around38 mil-lionand theinvestmentshould create about 446jobs,withthe averagesalaryex-pected tobe around1,300.Morejobsare expectedto becreated indirectly becauseofthe Honeywellinvestment.

Construction lawchangeproposed

BOTHa small-scale revision

to theConstructionAct draf-tedby theTransport Min-istry andan amendmenttothePenal CodeproposedbytheJusticeMinistryintro-ducetoughersanctions foril-legalconstruction. If passed,thetwo legal changeswilltakeeffecton September1,2011, theSITA newswirere-ported.

The applicableConstruc-tionActfrom1976is tooth-less,oftencircumventedandlacksrealtools against illegalbuilding projects, TransportMinisterJn Figeargued, asquoted by SITA,addingthatthenew legislation aimstobolster disciplineand re-

sponsibility.The revision,which willbe submittedfor interde-partmental review, stipulatesmoredetailedand moreexactrulesfor state supervisionof

construction sitesand

amends measures allowingworksto beputon ice.Notonlytheowner but

alsothe respectiveconstruc-tioncompany andits super-visorwill be accountable forbuildingserectedwithoutaconstructionpermit. Energysupplystoppage isoneof thepotential preventivemeas-ures featuredin thedraft law.Theministryplans topenabrand newConstructionCodenextyear,SITA wrote.

The recentlypresentedPenalCodeamendment alsodealswiththeproblemof il-legal structures. TheJusticeMinistryproposesthat illeg-al constructionshouldbe-

come a crimewhichcouldbesanctionedwith up to fiveyearsin prison.


frompressreports

CODE: Unions threatenmore protest actions

Continuedfrompg1

While Labour MinisterJozef Mihl is expecting acompromiseoverthe code,theunions on March 31 werealready halfway through aweek of protests against someproposed changes to the codeand what they called anenormousincrease in prices.

The decline in the eco-nomicand socialstatus ofem-ployees continues at a [high]tempo, which is unbearablefor employeesand unions, butalso for the citizen s of Slovakia, Machyna told TheSlovakSpectator.

Machyna offered a list of

complaints to justify the uni-on protests: enormous in-creases in the price of basicfoodstuffs, measures whichare raising the tax and socialburden of employees, andchanges to the Labour Code toweaken the position of em-ployeesand unions.

The unions have 10 fun-damental objections, includ-ing repeated limited-timecontracts, increases to over-time work, the extension ofemployees probation periods,and the cancellation of simul-taneous notice periods andseverance payments, saidMachyna.

According to Machyna, a

minimal number of unioncomments on the draft havebeenaccepted.

We still stick to theopinion that it wasnt neces-sary to change the LabourCode at all, said Machyna,adding that the unions re-fuse to accept any comprom-ise over points that weakenthe legal and social status ofemployees.

The unions say they willcontinuewith strikes.

We are considering addi-tional protest actions of a dif-ferent nature; we do not ex-clude announcing a referen-dum or preparing a generalstrike, said Machyna. We

want to protect human dig-nityatanyprice.TheLabourMinistry,in its

official response to protestsheld in front of the ministryand the Government Office,said the organisers perhaps donot have enough informationon the economicdevelopmentof Slovakia over recent yearsand about the steps the cur-rent government is taking tosupportlow-income groups.

Otherwise they wouldnot protest today but threeyears ago, when prices inSlovakia were growing sub-stantially faster, said the re-lease. At that time, the uni-ons openly supported the gov-

ernment of Robert Fico and itspolicies of wasting and steal-ing. The result was that overthe past two years the in-debtedness of the countrygrewby2,000per citizen.

As for the increase inprices, the Finance Ministrysaid that world prices for foodandoilaremostlytoblame.

If union leaders are blam-ing the government for thepoor harvest worldwide andthe conflict in Libya, they areattributing to it much greater

power than it actually has,said Finance Ministry spokes-manMartinJaro,as quoted bySITA newswire. A noisy de-fence of the people would havebeenjustifiedat thetime whenthere was shameless and un-concealed waste and theft,since public finances are themoneyof allthe people.

Employersobject,butcontinuenegotiating

Martin Hok of the Na-tional Union of Employers(RZ) commented that theunions are fighting for theirprivileges but added that heprefers thenegotiating tableto

thestreet.We look at them [theunion protests] as a way for[the unions] to communic-ate their disagreement withthe proposal, he told TheSlovak Spectator. However,we still believe that one canachieve more across the ne-gotiating table.

The unions provocationof tensions in societyis politi-cising the issue and is aimedat preservingunion privilegesand fulfilling pre-electionagreements with Smer,Hok, who is secretary ofthe RZ, commented. I amasking why the unionists didnot protest when under the

p revious g overnme ntSlovakias indebtedness grewdramatically, cronyism andcorruption were spreading,and EU funds and public fin-ancesweremismanaged?

For Hok the problemwith the Confederation ofTrade Unions (KOZ) is that hesees it as effectively uninter-estedin solving theproblemof15-percent unemployment.KOZs declared interest in theprotection of employees, hesaid, obscures its real motive:

preserving union privileges,financial resources and thepowerof unionbosses.

Hok also criticised theunionsunwillingnessto pub-lish membership numbers,suggesting that in realitythey mightactuallyrepresentonly a few tens of thousandsof workers out of the morethan a two-million-strongnationalworkforce.

Branislav Masr, execut-ive director of Slovakias Fed-eration of Employers Unions(AZZZ), told The Slovak Spec-tator that he sees no room topreserve the existing LabourCode. The AZZZ submitted itscomments on the code on

March 28,when the process ofinterdepartmentalreview waswrapped up. In the next step,the Labour Ministry will pro-cess the comments and onlythen will the federation knowwhich of its own contribu-tions wereaccepted.

Masr sees progress increating more room for socialdialogue and collective bar-gaining within companies.

However, we also wel-come the cancellation ofsimultaneous severance payand layoff notice, the pro-longation of the trial periodand weekly working hours,even ifit isonly fora selectedgroup of employees, Masr

said, adding that the AZZZstill has many objections andhas submitted 60 funda-mental comments.

For example, we dis-agree with the new defini-

tion of dependent work andthe principle of merit whenit comes to the notice periodfor all cases of layoff notice,headded.

According to Masr, it isnecessary to change the codesothat thepotential tocreatenewjobsincreases.

According to Hok, thedraft proposed by ministersdoes not remove barriers tojob creation, but contrives toretain the existing LabourCodes extraordinary com-plexity. It does not equaliseemployment councils andunions, and does not addressthe problem of how repres-entative the unions really

are,headded.In terms of what he seesas positives, Hok pointedto the cancellation of obliga-tory severance payments andthe possibility of combiningseverance payments and no-tice periods. He also wel-comed the widened oppor-tunity to use limited-termemployment as well as thepermanent installation ofFlexikonto, which is a long-termworked-hoursaccount.

This is intended to man-age employees working timeflexibly duringswingsin pro-duction. It allows employeesto stay at home on full pay,with the unworked hours re-

corded in individual ac-counts. Later, over a period ofmonths or years, the employ-ee is expected to work thehoursintheformofovertime.

The RZ still has objec-tions in the areas of noticeperiods and provisions regu-lating mass layoffs as well asminimumwagedemands.

Theproposednew code

The government says thenew code will be more fam-ily-friendly, giving both em-ployers and employees theoption to work flexible hoursbasedontheirownneeds.

The government is also

proposing a shorter proba-tionary period for employeesin lower positions while des-ignating longer periods forpositionswithhigherpay.

The proposal provides anemployer with the option ofnegotiating a flexible com-binationofseverancepayandlayoff notice withan employ-ee, while the minimum no-tice period would depend ontheir number of years of em-ployment with the firm ororganisation.

According to the LabourMinistry, the laws currentform is unfair because it doesnot take into considerationthe different status of em-

ployees based on their salarylevels or positions in a firm.The ministry said the currentlawlacks flexibilityin regardsto employees changing jobsorseekinghigherearnings.

KOVOtradeunionmembersmarchin Bratislava. Photo:Sme

4 BUSINESS / NEWSApril 4 10, 2011


5/12


6/12

Travelling Bratislava - Koiceduringthe IceHockeyWorld Championship

Slovakiaspassenger railoperator,ZSSK, has launchedanewproductfor the2011IIHFWorld Championship:theIceHockey2011pass ticket.It isvalidforup to19 days foralltrains in Slovakia duringthe championshipbetweenApril28and May16. Thepriceof a first-classpass ticketis 99; a second-classpassticket costs89.www.slovakrail.sk

Slovak airline Danube Wingshas addedspecialflights

betweenBratislava andKoice during thechampionship.Effectivebetween April29 andMay9, therewillbe threeflights in eachdirectionon weekdays.www.danubewings.eu


Railway companies in Slovakia

elezninSpolonos CargoSlovakia (ZSSKCargo) thestate-ownedrailwaycargo companywww.zscargo.sk

elezniceSlovenskej Republiky(SR) thestate-ownedrailway infrastructure operatorwww.zsr.sk

elezninSpolonos Slovensko(ZSSK) thestate-ownedrail passenger transport companywww.slovakrail.sk

RegioJet a Czech privaterailpassengertransportcompany, whichplans to provide services in Slovakiawww.regiojet.cz

WagonServiceTravel a privatefirmofferingchartertrainservicesthroughoutEuropewww.wagonservice.sk

Organisations involved in Slovakia'shighway e-toll system

e-myto thewebsiteof theSlovake-toll collectionsystemwww.emyto.sk

NationalHighwayCompany builds, maintains andoperateshighwaysin Slovakiawww.ndsas.sk

SkyToll builtand operates Slovakiaselectronictollcollectionsystem.SkyToll was establishedby companiesof the Ibertax-SanTollconsortium, thewinner of a tenderfor developingan e-toll systemin Slovakia.SanTollisownedby Sanef,a French-basedcorporation thatoperatestoll-road networksin Europe.www.skytoll.sk

Institutionsandorganisations in

transport and logistics in Slovakia

Ministryof Transport, Constructionand RegionalDevelopment, www.telecom.gov.skMinister:JnFige

Association ofRoadTransportOperatorsof theSlovakRepublic (ESMAD), www.cesmad.sk

SlovakUnion ofMotor Carriers (UNAS)www.uniadopravcov.sk

Association ofLogisticsandFreightForwardingof theSlovakRepublic,www.zls.sk

TransportResearch Institute(VD)www.vud.sk

Revamping the railways

STATE-OWNED railway com-pany ZSSK Cargo has started

implementing mass layoffs.The companys general direct-or, Pavol urink, confirmedon March 30 that about 150workers will lose their jobs inearly April, to be followed by200 more in early June, 700 inearly July and another 700 bythe end of 2011. AltogetherZSSKCargo willeliminate1,800positions from its total labourforceof about9,000.

The layoffs among Cargoemployees are part of an ex-tensive revitalisation plan forSlovakias three railway com-panies adopted by the cabinetof Iveta Radiov on March 16.In addition to the sacking ofthousands of employees, the

plan will also reduce railwaypassenger routes and pave theway for sale of a majority stakein ZSSKCargo.

"It isn't about layoffs butabout rescue," said TransportMinister JnFigeonMarch16,as quoted by the TASR news-wire. The current situation isno longer sustainable. Theoverall indebtedness of thethree companies has climbedto 1 billion.

ubomrPalk, director ofthe ilina-based Transport Re-search Institute (VD), viewsthe problems in the railwaysectoras long-term,going backto before 1993, when Slovakiawas a federal republic withinCzechoslovakia.

One of these problems isthat on one hand we want therailway companies to operate,and I think that this is the cor-rect approach, under a cleareconomic environment,but onthe other hand it is very diffi-

cult to push through anychanges which would affectthis environment in a moresignificant way because therailway sector was always im-portant from the viewpoint ofemployment, Palk told TheSlovak Spectator. He addedthat political involvement,from either the right or theleft, has complicated the situ-ationeven more.

He believes the

governments revitalisationprogramme is moving in therightdirection.

I think it has happenedsometimes to name the prob-lems in the railway sector butthen not to start solutions,Palksaid.Nowat leastthereisan effortto bringorderin therailway companies economicoperations and I believe this isa correctdirection.

Palk sees an opportunityfor railway transport to bemore central to Slovakia. Cur-

rently, railways account foronly 6.2 percent of total pas-senger transport in Slovakia,while roughly 20 percent ofcargo is transported by rail. Hesaid there is an opportunity toincrease these figures tosomewhere around 10 percentin passenger transport and upto 30-35 percent in cargo trans-port. He added that an import-ant step forward for passengertransport is better harmonisa-

tion ofrailand bustransportsothat routes and scheduledtimesdonotoverlap.

This might bring savingsorat least betterqualitytopub-lic transport, which is alsocovered from public finances,Palksaid.

The overall revitalisationprogramme for Slovakiasthree railway companies pro-poses to lay off around 5,000employees within three yearsand projects that the compan-ieswouldat least start to break

evenwithinthat timeframe.The programme alsoseeks to secure settlement ofreceivables between the rail-wayfirmsandthestateandtooptimise the setup of therailway sector. While Cargoisto lay off one fifth of its staff,the railway infrastructureoperator, eleznice Slov-enskej Republiky (SR), is ex-pected to declare 2,700 em-ployees redundant in twophases by the end of 2012, ac-counting for about 16 percentofits current workforce.

Slovakias passenger rail-way company, elezninSpolonos Slovensko (ZSSK),will lay off 621 employees in

five stages by the end of 2013,about 12 percent of its work-force. The actual number ofpeople laid off at ZSSK may belower, as the company an-nounceda smallerreduction intrain connections than thoseannounced in the original re-vitalisation programme. Thenew, reduced train scheduleswillstartonMay1.

SeeRAILpg8

BY JANALIPTKOVSpectator staff

Slovak railcompaniesare facingmajorchanges. Photo:Sme

Demand for logistics space grows

THE STANDSTILL in construction of newwarehouses and logistics centres in Slov-akia in 2009 because of the economiccrisis extended into 2010 as well. A clearmarket trend has been for logistics andwarehouse-space operators to focus onrenting their available space in existingfacilities and to construct new facilitiesonly for specific clients on a build-to-suitbasis. But industry experts say thatSlovakias low vacancy rate and the ex-

pected inflow of new foreign investmentmay spur the construction of new logist-ics centres, particularly in areas outsidewesternSlovakia.

Construction was halted especiallybecause of lower interest by end-users

and more difficult financing, PeterJnoi, the head of the industrial de-

partment at CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), aglobal provider of corporate and institu-tionalservicesin the realestate industry,told The Slovak Spectator. Only projectswhich had already started were com-pleted. This has led to historically-lowvacancy rates. Compared with neigh-bouring countries in which the boom inthe segment of industrial and logisticsrealestate arriveda bitlaterthanin Slov-akia, for example in the Czech Republicand Poland, Slovakia has not ended insuch a bad situation in terms of existingprojects beingvacant.

MartinBal, from thedepartmentofindustrial and retail warehousing atCushman & Wakefield Property ServicesSlovakia told The Slovak Spectator thatduring the last quarter of 2010 the va-cancy rate at modern logistics parks in

Slovakia was about 5 percent. Over thelast few months additional space wasrented and Bal estimates that the cur-rentvacancyrateis around4 percent.

Martin Polk, a market officer for theCzech Republic and Slovakia for ProLo-

gis, which is the logistics market leaderin Slovakia with about 38 percent market

share, said that the overall demand forlogistics and warehouse facilities washealthy in Slovakia in 2010 but addedthat the lack of available space resultedin less overall leasing activity last yearthan in2009.

Developers avoided speculative de-velopments,choosing to focus on leasingtheir existing portfolios and looking forbuild-to-suit opportunities, Polk toldThe Slovak Spectator,adding thatfor thatreason rental levels remained stable.The market in Slovakia is closer to theCzech market than the Hungarian mar-ketdue mainlyto Slovakiaseconomybe-ing stronger than its southernneighbour's. Demand decreased due tothe lack of existing options and pooravailability; on the other hand, both thePrague and Ostrava markets can offer

immediate space. Therefore, for regionalinternational distribution, companiesarelooking more foroptions in theCzechRepublicthan in Slovakia.

SeeSPACEpg 8

BYJANALIPTKOVSpectatorstaff

6

LEGISLATION

Next issue:BUSINESS FOCUS

TRANSPORT

April410,2011

Build-to-suit projects

are now thedominantmodel

Government

plan will

lead to5,000 layoffs

Notall thewrinklesare ironedoutof thee-tollsystem

Slovak cabinetdiscussesbroad-gaugerail project


7/12

Bratislava Airport to be leased

SLOVAKIA plansto lease

Letisko M.R. tefnikaBratislava Airport toaconcessionaire for a periodof30 years,Transport Min-isterJn Fige said afteragovernment session onMarch16. The ministerstatedthatthe process choosing a suitable con-sultant withinternationalexperience and preparing atenderto seek theconces-sionaire shouldbe com-pletedby June 2012,theTASR newswire wrote.

Figeis expected tosubmit a comprehensiveplan tothe governmentbe-fore theendof April.

The Transport Ministry

originallysuggestedthattheairportshouldbe leasedfora maximum of30 yearsbutthe Finance Ministrysubsequentlyargued for aperiodof 40to 50years,say-inga shorter lease periodwouldreducean investor's

motivation toinvest inthe

airport's development.A recent analysisstatedthatBratislavaAirport'sun-avoidableinvestment needsareexpected toreach atleast350million. These invest-mentsinclude an overall re-constructionand extensionoftheexisting runway, increas-ingtheamountof spaceforplanes atthe terminals, andother necessary upgrades.

BratislavaAirport served74,600passengers in Febru-ary2011,down17 percentfromthe samemonthin2010.In thefirst twomonthsof2011thenumberof pas-sengerscheckingin droppedby15 percent from thesame

period lastyear.LetiskoM.R. tefnikaisfully-ownedby thestate:SlovakiasNational PropertyFundholds50.3 percentofthesharesand theTransportMinistryholds 49.7percent.


Not all wrinkles ironedout of e-toll system

SLOVAKIA launched its elec-tronic highwaytoll collectionsystem for vehicles over 3.5tonnes more than a year ago.While the impactsof the newsystem on truckers and roadcargo transport companieshave not been fully assessed,

it is clear that politics wereintermingledwith itslaunch,that the system was con-structed in a short period,and that its debut during thedeep economic downturnhave been factors in its ongo-ing criticism. Some problem-atic issues will likely remainunresolved until more in-formation from the pastyears operation points tospecific ways to improve thesystem. And a transportationexpert looking at the e-tollsystem from a broader pointof view says the opportunityto use it as a regulatory toolhasnot yetbeen fullytapped.

Slovakia has a function-

ing electronic toll collectionsystembutat thesametime Iam saying that it is notperfect, ubomr Palk, thedirector of the Transport Re-search Institute (VD) basedin ilina, told The SlovakSpectator. He said that thepolitical nature of the de-cision to introduce the sys-tem was problematic, andthat its launch within oneyear could have meant thatnot all aspects were com-pleted properly from thepoint of view of either thetechnologies employed or ofthe overall system concept.Forthatreason,he said,somechangesare warranted.

The current leadershipof the Ministry of Transport,Construction and RegionalDevelopment has tuned itsear towards complaints anddemands made by truckerswho have been very criticalof the system from its verybeginning. The ministry hasadopted a reduction in somefines related to e-toll viola-tions and has promised tomake other changes so thatit becomes simpler andmoreeffective.

The previous cabinet ap-proached the electronic tollsystem in a non-conceptualway that resulted in lowerrevenue from e-tolls and in-

creased costs for operation ofthe system, Transport Min-istry spokesperson MartinKrajovi told The SlovakSpectator. Forthe timebeingit is the task of the ministry

to, in particular, reduce costslinked to toll collection andoperation of the e-toll systemso that as large as possibleshare of revenue goes intoconstruction and mainten-anceof roads.

Krajovi stated that theTransport Ministry wouldreveal specific steps in thecoming weeks.

The ministry is inter-

ested in making the toll sys-tem more effective and op-timising its operation,Krajovi said. This is alsowhy it launched a commis-sion to review the effective-ness of the toll system that ismadeup of representativesofthe Transport Ministry,truckers (ESMAD andUNAS), the National High-way Company (NDS), the tollpolice and SkyToll, whichoperates the e-toll system inSlovakia. It was a suggestionfrom this commission, forexample, to reduce fines fortoll offences.

Truck driverson tollroadswho do not have an onboard

unit (OBU),usedto measure avehicles road use via satel-lite,or thosewhodrive ontollroads without paying the ap-plicable fee are fined 1,655 ifthey payon the spot or 2,655if theypay later.

Many truckers havecomplained that these finescan cause bankruptcy.Slovakias cabinet adopted areduction in the fines ofabout 60 percent in Marchthat will take effect on Au-gust 1, Krajovi said. Theministry is also preparing tocommission an independentauditof thetollsystem.

The ministry is alsopreparing other steps to

make operation of the sys-tem, which was poorly setup by the previous cabinetof Robert Fico, more effect-ive and optimal, Krajoviadded.

Truckersviews

The e-toll system meantan increase in truckers costsbecause rather than buying ahighway sticker which had aflat payment for highway us-age regardless of the kilo-metres driven, they now mustpay tolls based on the numberof kilometres covered onhighways, dual carriageways

and first-category roads.Currently, about 1,900kilometres of roadsin Slovakiaare tolled and the amountranges from 0.020 per kilo-metre to 0.209 per kilometredepending on the weight ofthe vehicle, its emissions cat-egory and other factors, ac-cording to the National High-way Company.

The opinions of manytruckers to the new systemhas been extremely negativeand they based their criti-cisms on what they called apoorly prepared and over-priced system as well as a fail-ure by the government to oth-erwise assist carriers which

hadalready been severelyhurtby the economic downturn.After the most difficult

crisis year of 2009, 2010 startedin the spirit of an overpriced,non-functional, badly-pre-pared and unfair toll system,Rudolf Ple, the vice-presid-ent of the Union of Motor Car-riers of Slovakia (UNAS), an or-ganisation launched by dissat-isfied truckers at the begin-ning of 2010, told The SlovakSpectator. While other coun-tries were looking for ways tohelp companies survive thecrisis, the Slovak cabinet star-ted to collect tolls whichbrought chaos at border cross-ingsand at contact points.

When looking back, PavolJanovi, the president of theAssociation of Road TransportOperatorsof the SlovakRepub-lic (ESMAD), took an evenlongerview intohistory.

In 2008 we experiencedthe pressure of high dieselprices in road transport,which was at least partlycompensated by the still-growing economy, Janovitold The Slovak Spectator.The following year, 2009,was particularly disastrousfor road cargo transport be-cause even though dieselprices decreased, the demand

for our services steeply de-creased too. This situationcontinued until the end of2010 and it was also signific-antly influenced by the in-crease in our costs after thelaunchof e-tollsin Slovakia.

Ple said truckers havemanaged to win some conces-sions from the governmentbut that these have not solvedthe basic problems of the sys-tem which he said are over-priced tolls and the scope oftheroadstolled.He statedthatmany trucking firms alreadysuffering from low demanddue to the crisis were re-strained from including theincreased toll costs into their

prices and were forced fromthemarket.A [typical] Slovak carrier

went down tothe bottomof itsreserves during the crisis,Plesaid.

Janovi of ESMAD saidhundreds of transport com-panies have left the marketand thousand of trucks aregone. He blamed not only thee-toll system but also the eco-nomicdecline.

UNAS also maintains thatthe e-toll system has not beenachieving any regulatoryfunction and Ple said for-eign carriers are particularlyavoiding payment of tolls. Headded that Slovakia, contrary

toAustriaor Germany,hasnotadopted any compensatory ac-tions such as a reduction ofvehicletaxes fortruckers.

SeeTOLLpg9

BY JANALIPTKOVSpectator staff

Slovak truckersare notsatisfiedwiththe electronichighway tollsystem. Photo:Sme - JnKrolk

7BUSINESS FOCUS

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Electronic tollsystem now past

one-yearmark


8/12

Flights to 25 destinations from capital

REGULAR flights to 25 des-tinationsin 13 countriesaswell asflightsto Koice willbe offered fromBratislava

Airport between March27andOctober 29,theSITAnewswire reported.Eightairline companies Ry-anair, Danube Wings, CzechAirlines,PolishAirlines,TravelService, El Al (Sund'Or International),Armavia andBelle Airwilloperate scheduledflightsfromBratislava Airport.

Scheduledflights to LasPalmas on theSpanishislandofGranCanariaand toYerevan,Armenia,are nowofferedby Ryanair andArmavia andare additionstolastsummersschedule.

BelleAir, an Italian-Al-banian low-cost airline

company,is scheduledtostartflightsto Tiranaat theendof March.El Als daugh-tercompany, SubdOrIn-ternational, andthe CzechTravel Service airline com-

panyare offeringregularconnectionsto TelAviv.

Koice International Air-portoffersregular flights to

three destinations: Bratis-lava,Pragueand Vienna.During theholidaysea-

sonSlovak airportsalso offercharterflightsto popularholiday destinations.

Afternearlytwo years,civilflightsshouldbe re-newedat Sliaairport, SITAwrote. CivilflightsfromSliahaltedinMay 2009,whenthereconstructionof a runwaywithNATO fundsstarted.

At present,preparationsarebeing madeto enable reg-ularuse of themilitaryairportforcivil operation. Thecondi-tionfor resumption of civiltransport at Sliaairport willbe a licence forprovision of

airnavigation servicesforcivilair transportation issuedby theTransport Ministry.

CompiledbySpectatorstaff

frompress reports

Cabinet discusses broad-gauge rail

THESLOVAKcabineton

March 16 discusseda reportreviewingsome of theres-ultsof a feasibilitystudyaboutextending a broad-gauge railway trackacrossSlovakiafrom Koice to Vi-ennavia Bratislava.A broad-gauge railway trackalreadyrunsfrom theSlovak-Ukrain-ian border to Koice.

Theproposalunderdis-cussion would extend thebroad-gaugerailway fromKoice by 430kilometres andaddtwo newrailwayter-minals onein Parndorf,Austria andonein NovZmky, Slovakia. Therailwaytrackwouldbe builtin paral-lelwith theexistingstand-

ard-gaugetrackthat crossessouthernSlovakia.The totalinvestmentin laying thetrackand buildingthe newterminalsis estimatedat6.36billion.

Theextensionof thebroad-gauge trackis beingdiscussedby fourcountries,Austria, Russia, UkraineandSlovakia,and is stronglysupportedby RussiaandUkraine.The position ofvarious railway expertsinAustria is relatively neutralbuttheVienna chapter oftheFederationof Austrian In-dustry is a significantpro-moterof theproject.

TheRussianpartners

are convincedthatthisproject offersSlovakia thepossibility to profit notonlyfromthe unique opportun-ityto join theEuropean-Asiantransport chain butalsobrings an added valueinthe form ofseveralsup-plementary activitiesdir-ectlyattached to thisproject,the reportstates.The reportfurther noted

thatRussianPrimeMinister

VladimirPutin hassaid ifSlovakia doesnot viewtheproject as useful hiscountryisreadyto routethe broad-gaugerailwaythroughHungary andthat PrimeMinisterViktor Orbnhasalready shown an interest.

Thefeasibility studypre-pared by Roland Berger,aGerman consultingfirm,stated thatextendingthebroad-gaugerailwaytrack by430kilometres is technicallyandlegallyfeasible andwould drawa significantamount of transportbusi-ness.However, questionsre-latingto thefinancingof theproject remain unanswered;

thefeasibility studysaid themostcredibleway to financetheextensionis throughpublic funds.

TheEuropean Commis-sion hasstated that itdoesnotsupportincluding theproposedbroad-gauge exten-sioninto thetrans-Europeantransport network (TEN-T).

Slovakiasposition ontheprojecthas beenincon-sistent.The cabinetofformer prime ministerRobert Ficoendorsed theprojectbut thepartiesof thecurrentgoverning coalitionwerecritical of thehigh costof theprojectwhentheywerein opposition.

As thegovernments as-sessmentof thefeasibilitystudy isnot yetcomplete,thereportdiscussedby thecabinetdid notproposeanyfurtherconcrete steps tobetakenby Slovakiaat thistime.

TheTransport Ministryistopreparea proposalby theendof 2011on Slovakiascourse of actionin 2012.

SPACE: Focus on build-to-suit projectsContinuedfrompg6

Investmentspurs logisticscentres

The inflow of foreign investments hasan effect on occupancy rates andthe build-ingofnewlogisticsfacilities.

Thistrendis visible,forexamplealongtheD1 highwayaroundTrnavaand Galantawhere the arrival of investors like PSAPeugeotCitroenandSamsungalsoinitiatedthe building of modern logistics centres,saidBal.

Jnoi agreed, adding that new majorforeign investments were accompanied bythe arrival of many subcontractors whichdrewinlogisticscompaniestohandlethosecompaniesoutsourcing.

Those companies often need to be loc-atedas close aspossible totheseprominentinvestors, said Jnoi, adding that in thepast such important investments centredespecially in western Slovakia with its

dominant automobile industry (Volkswa-genSlovakia inBratislava,KiaMotorsSlov-akianearilinaand PSAPeugeot CitroeninTrnava) as well as major electro-technicalcompanies (Foxconn, Samsung and AUOptronics). Jnoi said this was because ofthe better road infrastructure in westernSlovakia, such as the D1 highway joiningBratislava and ilina and the D2 highwaybetweenBratislavaandBrno.

Jnoi said Slovakia is of interest to lo-gistics companies because of its geograph-ical position and its developing road infra-structure, but added that the country hasnotyettappeditsfullpotential.

Slovakia, compared with neighbour-ing countries, is a small market and logist-ics companies often prefer centralisingtheirlogisticsoperationsinbiggereconom-ies, for example in the Czech Republic and

Poland, said Jnoi. In most cases it ispossible to serve the Slovak market fromthese countries without any big problems.We see further prospects in the develop-ment of road infrastructure but also ofrailway infrastructure which would help

Slovakia become part of importantEuropeanrail corridors.

Bal expects more development inother regions of the country, especiallyeasternSlovakia,that willcomplementthedeveloped logistics centres in western

Slovakia.Some development companies havealready announced their intention to buildlogistics premises in eastern Slovakia,Bal said. It will be important to get ten-antsfora sufficientlylargeamountof spacesothatconstructioncanstart.

CBRE has registered interest not onlyamong end-users, i.e. logistics firms, butalsodevelopersin buildingwarehousesandindustrialpremises in less-developed partsof Slovakia, Jnoi said. These include in-dustrial regions of northern Slovakia, forexample ilina and Martin and their vicin-ity,aswellaseasternSlovakia,especiallyinthe areas around Preov and Koice. Henoted that the recent activities of Point-Park Properties and its newly-built logist-ics parks in Koice and ilina are good ex-amplesofthistrend.

But we do not expect concentrationofparks [in the east or north] to such an ex-tent as in western Slovakia in the past,Jnoicommented.We assume thatthesewill be rather stand-alone, build-to-suitprojects.

Expectations for2011

Speculative construction of logist-

ics facilities was the dominant modelin Slovakia for some time but duringthe recent past the primary interestofowners of logistics facilities has beento lease their already available capa-city and experts say the most visibletrend in the market today is to startconstruction based only on the specif-icneedsofaclient.

However, there is an assumptionthat when premises are constructedfor a particular client, then the in-terest of other potential clients in agivenlocality canincreaseand forthatreason some developers are prone tostart construction on a speculativebasis as well so they can satisfy poten-tial demand as fastas possible, Jnoisaid.

Jnoisaid lease prices forlogistics

space decreased to historical lows inthe recent pastbut that prices may in-creasemoderatelybecause the currentpricesof land, constructionand finan-cing are in the end reflected in theleaseprice.

Polk of ProLogis views the optim-istic economic forecasts for centraland eastern Europe, including Slov-akia,as anencouraging signandhopesthat further improvements in themarketfor moderndistributionfacilit-ieswillcomein2011.

We expect a further increase indemand, generated mostly by com-paniesin the logistics sector as wellasby growing retailers and manufactur-ingcompanies,saidPolk.

It is worth noting that due to thedecreasing stock of available ware-

house space in Slovakia, rental rateswillremainstableor mayincreasethisyear. In 2011, we plan to focus on ex-tendingleaseagreementswithour ex-isting clients and targeting pre-let op-portunitiesandbuild-to-suitprojects.

RAIL: Seeking a partner for ZSSK CargoContinuedfrompg 6

ZSSK will completely ter-minate passenger service onfive routes that it evaluated asinefficient. Another 314 pas-senger routes will be reduced

in terms of scheduled times ortheir overall length, accordingto theSITA newswire.

The Transport Ministrywill also seek to find a strategicinvestment partner for ZSSKCargo and plans to hold an in-ternational tender by June 2012that will offer an ownershipstake of at least 66 percent inthe company. The FinanceMinistry had proposed to sellthe states entire 100-percentownership stake in Cargo.

Palk said railway cargotransport is a globalised busi-ness today and companieswhich want to succeed in thismarket must be linked withother strong players. In select-

ing a strategic partner for ZSSKCargo, Palk said that foreignpartners whowouldbringaddedvalue but not competition forthe Slovak company are themost interesting and said thesecould include Russian Railways,esk Drhy from the Czech Re-public, or German railways, butPalk noted that the latter twooptions could bring possibleproblemswith competition.

Former transport ministerubomr Vny has criticisedthe revitalisation plan, sayingthat it focuses only on redu-cing costs while not solvingthe issue of how to increaserevenue. Current officials in

the Transport Ministry insistthat cost reductions are neces-sary or the railway companiescould otherwise go belly-up.

We perceive this as thestance of the former ministerwho was not courageousenough to face up to the prob-lems of the railway companiesand was blindly following theorders of his boss, TransportMinistry spokesman MartinKrajovi told The SlovakSpectator. If we had not star-ted the revitalisation processin the railway companies,they might have gone bank-rupt. In a better-case scenariothe state would become in-debted in order to settle their

debts, which might withinsome years bring in, for ex-ample, higher taxes. There isno way to escape the railwaycompanies must be revitalisedat the cost of some unpopularmeasures; otherwise thiswould catch up with us sooneror later. We do not want toclose our eyes to the problemsin the railway companies asthe former cabinet did.

Krajovi stated that thethree railway companies havegenerated a combined debt ofabout 1 billion and that ac-counts for about 1.5 percent ofgross domestic product. He alsosaid that the railway compan-

ies are currently overstaffed.If we do not reduce therailway labour force, we wouldendanger another 27,000 work-ing positions, said Krajovi.This means that this [pro-gramme] is rather about salva-ging employment. In this re-spect I would like to point outthat most layoffs affect the too-extensive administration Thisstep [reducing the workforce] isnot pleasant for anybody but itis inevitable. We are preparing,in cooperation with the LabourMinistry, a national social pro-gramme with over 7 millionfor those whowill be laid off.

The railway companieshave said that they view the

governments revitalisationprogramme as a positive stepand said they would have wel-comed it even earlier.

ZSSK Cargo welcomes theapproved programme for re-vitalisation of the railwaysector, Martin Halanda,spokesperson for ZSSK Cargo,told The Slovak Spectator. Itwill enable us to adopt meas-ures revitalising the company

and prepare it for the entry of astrategic investor. The part ofthe programme related to ZSSKCargo is set up in a very realist-ic way and thus we do not ex-pect that we would fail toachieve its goals.

The new management atZSSK Cargo started remedialmeasures immediately afterthey assumed their positionsin the fall of 2010, Halandasaid, adding that these effortshave yielded cost savings ofover 30 million.

The revitalisation pro-gramme also proposes a meth-od to deal with settlement ofthe 166 million subsidy thatCargo received from the statein 2009. Halanda told The Slov-ak Spectator that the FinanceMinistry has postponed thestart of repayments for oneyear and added that thecompanys debt is expected tobe covered from proceeds from

the sale of the majority stake.ZSSK also views the Slovakcabinets revitalisation pro-gramme as a positive step, ac-cording to ZSSK spokespersonAlexanderBuzinkay, whoaddedit is a pity that it is arrivingwith a delay of two months be-cause our stances were alreadyclear and pre-negotiated inDecember [2010] and nothingabout them has changed.

8 BUSINESS FOCUSApril 4 10, 2011

FOCUSshorts

Logisticsparks havemushroomednear

Bratislava. Photo:Courtesyof ProLogis


9/12

TOLL: Lower revenueContinuedfrompg 7

Truckers continue to seekways to iron out wrinkles inthe system and Ple said the

arrival of Iveta Radiov's cab-inet has brought some actionin addressing their demands.

E-toll asa regulatorytool

Palk of the TransportResearch Institute thinks thee-toll system should be usedas a regulatory instrumentbut said that its opportunitieshave not yet been fullytapped. He believes the e-tollsystem can harmonise condi-tions for operation of railwayand road cargo transport, atleast partly, saying that inrailway transport, as opposedto road transport, all costs arethe responsibility of the oper-

ator and that charges high-way use does not fully reflectactual costs.

He also suggested that thescope of tolled roads shouldbe reviewed, i.e. whether cer-tain roads should be excluded

from the toll system whileother roads are included. He

added that in other countriesthat launched similar sys-tems, drivers also beganavoiding tolled roads whichthen brought heavier trafficand more damage to second-and third-category roads.

Palk added that he doesnot think the current toll

rates motivate truckers tobuy vehicles with less impacton the environment. He alsonoted that the e-toll systemcould be tuned to regulate theamount of traffic on roadsduring peak hours or to lessen

the amount of traffic on heav-ily-used roads.

All these are thingswhich are necessary in thefuture so that the system is

fairer and simpler, saidPalk. Moreover, interoper-ability of the e-toll system is agreat challenge as well so thata carrier transporting cargoacross Europe will have onlyone contract, one onboardunit and get only one invoice.This is the future.

Tollstatistics for2010

The e-toll revenues of theNational Highway Companylast year were 42.4 percentlower than projected: theyamounted to only 36.2 mil-lion instead of the forecast62.8 million.

Costs for operation of the

toll system rose by 14.5 mil-lion compared to the plan, to105.17 million. Tolls collec-ted were 7.9 percent, or12.08 million, lower thanprojected and totalled141.42 million.

CCLASS IF IEDS

F r e q u e n c y d i s c o u n t s : 3x - 10x 5% 11x - 19x 7,5% 20x and more 15%

N O T E :Prices do not include value added tax(VAT 19%)!

D E A D L I N E : Wednesday, 12:00,for publication that week; otherwise,the advert will be published thefollowing Friday.

F O R M O R E I N F O R M A T I O N :email:[email protected]: +421 2 59 233-311fax: +421 2 59 233-319or write:The Slovak Spectator, Lazaretsk 12811 08 Bratislava, Slovakia.

11 //4488 ppaaggee44 x 41 mm 2 5

1 / 1 2 p a g e91,5 x 87 mm 1 0 0

1 / 2 4 p a g e44 x 87 mm91,5 x 41 mm

5 0

A d v e r t i s in g r a t e s f o r b u s i n e s s c l a s s i fi e d s

or

2 . P r ic e s fo r bus ine s s c la s s i f ie d a ds (a c c or d ing to s iz e ) :

1 . P r i c e s o f c l a s s i f i e d a d s(according to no. of words)

Up to 20words - 10 Up to 50 words - 20 Up to 70 words - 30 Up to 100 words - 40 Up to 150 words - 60A d d i t i o n a l o p t i o n s Logo or picture insertion + 7 Bold or capital bold letters + 0 .3 /wor d Box + 3 Box with shading + 7

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Children's Sunday School provided.

Ever yo n e W e l co m e .I n fo r ma t io n a t 0 2 - 5 4 4 3 - 3 2 6 3Web S i te : www.br a t is la va in te r na t io na lchur ch .o r g

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April 4 10, 2011

FILE: Wide-ranging reform may comeContinuedfrompg1

Previously, a district tax office had toapproveeach requestfor an extension.

Up to March 28, Slovak district tax of-fices had received 28,161 notificationsabout extensions to submit tax returns,about 3 percent of the total number of re-

turns expected to be filed in 2011. GabrielaDianov, spokeswoman of the Tax Direct-orate, told The Slovak Spectator that thiswas4,300more taxpayersthanin 2010.

But the Sme daily reported that thenumber of latefilersmightbe muchbiggersince by March 29, two days before thedeadline, almost half of the expected taxreturns had not yet been filed. This yearthe Tax Directorate expects approximately1.128 million individual tax returns and11,694corporate returns,SITA reported.

In addition to their income tax doc-ument, taxpayers must also submit anannual statement to their health insurerby March 31 for calculation of futuremonthly payments.

Dianov said the Tax Directorate un-dertook several measures to maintainbetter accessibility to its tax portal at

www.drsr.sk,with thekey stepbeing thelaunch of theeDANE application.

eDANE secured full access to the ac-tual tax return documents and at thesametime fundamentallyeliminated theburden on the www.drsr.sk portal,Dianov said. If for any reason the taxportal was not accessible, the taxpayer

could still use the eDANE applicationwithout anylimitations.

Dianov suggested that access prob-lems tothemaintaxportal againthisyearbeginning on March 25 showed that de-velopingthe eDANE application wasjusti-fied. After installation of the application ataxpayer does not need to stay connectedto thewww.drsr.skportal,Dianovsaid.

By March 29, more than 81,813 tax-payers had downloaded the eDANE ap-plication, which was developed by theDITEC company.

Last years collapse of the tax portaland the governments subsequent de-cisionthattaxpayerscouldnotuse this asan acceptable reason for failure to submittax returns by the deadline of March 31prompted massive criticism. The TaxDirectorate said last April that the finan-

cial damage from the systems crashamounted to several thousand euros andblamed the supplier, Novitech Tax. Iteven went asfar assuingthefirm.

Novitech responded that the firm hadpreviously warned about the unsustain-able condition of the tax administrationsportal, as reported by Sme last spring.

Sme this year wrote that the TaxDirectorates new management hadwithdrawnthe lawsuit.

Dianov said the current remedialmeasures are only short-term solutionsto stabilise the electronic filing systemand implementing proper solutions islimited by contracts that were signed bythepreviousmanagement.

Slovakias Finance Ministry is push-ing forward its UNITAS programme un-der which income taxes, customs dutiesand insurance contributions would becentralised in a single institution. Theimplementation of UNITAS between2011 and 2013 should result in compre-hensive computerisationof tax adminis-tration, with Dianov adding that it willrepresent a fundamental conceptualchange in Slovakia.

Truckspaytolls onabout1,900kilometresof roads. Photo:Sme


10/12

Zhories tallest churchIN THIS picturesque postcarddating back to 1918, theChurch of the Virgin Marytowers over the municipalityof Vek Levre. Its builderserected it on a mound and, as

much of the Zhorie region isflat, the church can be seenfromfaraway.

This sacral constructiondidnot getits prominentloca-tion and huge dimensions bychance. Nor were the dates ofit construction, between 1729and 1733, chosen accidentally.Exactly half a century before,in 1683, Christian armies haddefeated the Ottomans at Vi-enna and thus freed this partofEuropeofamenacethathadlingered for almost a centuryand a half. To commemoratethe victory, Pope Innocent XIpronounced September 12 theholiday of the Name of theVirgin Mary and the new

church was consecrated withthis name too. In Zhorie, thenew church was regardedwithpride andsatisfactionas,by that time, memories of Ot-toman plunder were still verymuchalive.

The main initiator of theconstruction was the arch-bishop of Vienna, Cardinal

igmund Kolloni, who wasclosely attached to VekLevre byvirtue of theproper-ties he owned there. Gener-ally, Zhorie enjoyed strong

links with Vienna and manylocalsusedto gothereto tradeandwork.

ByBranislavChovan

HISTORYTALKS

WesternSLOVAKIA

Bratislaval CLASSICAL MUSIC: Dvapohady / Two Views With-in the cycle Musical Mosaic,the Slovak Philharmonicbrings a concert of works bytwo famous composers,Hungarian Gyrgy Kurtgand Ukrainian-Slovak Ev-

genyi Irai, performedby topmusicians: violinist MilanPaa, soprano Eva ukov,cimbalom player MichalPako, and Irai on piano.One of Kurtgs compositionis a Slovak premiere and oneof Irais works is a worldpremiere.

Starts: April 5, 19:00; Dvo-rana concert hall, Zochova 1.Admission: 5. Tel: 02/2047-5233; www.filharm.sk, www.ticketportal.sk.

Bratislaval BALLET: Balet Gala Thisgala evening brings ingeniousdancer-choreographer RudolfNureyevs workto Slovakia forthe first time, hosting starslike Vladimir Malachov,

Cdric Ygnace and NinaPolkov. The money raisedwillgotoacharitythattacklestheeffectsof drugabuse.

Starts: April 6, 19:00; newSND building, Pribinova 17.Admission: 25-45. Tel: 02/2047-2111;www.snd.sk.

Bratislaval RUNNING: Beh Devn-Brat-islava The 64th year of a fun-run open to all ages and fit-ness categories. The course is11,625 metres long and tradi-tionally attracts thousands ofrunners from several coun-tries.

Starts: April 10, 9:00; un-der Devn Castle. Admission:free for spectators, runnersmust register in advance.

More information: www.starz.sk.

Bratislaval EXHIBITION: Blondnky &Londnky / Blondes & Lon-doners An exhibition of ab-stract and figurative paint-ings by Czech artist Jakubpahel.

Open: Mon-Fri 13:00-18:00until April 20; Kressling Gal-lery, Ventrska 18. Admis-

sion: free. More information:

www.gallerykressling.sk.

Prievidzal LIVE MUSIC: RetroACT Ex-perience Bosorak Tour 2011 This new musical project bySlovak drummer Martin Va-lihora brings, apart from hisdrums, Oskar Rzsa on bass,and Eugen Vizvry on key-boardin a combinationof acidjazz,funkand soul.

Starts: April 9, 20:00; Pia-no Klub, Ulica energetikov 27.More info: www.prievidzamusic.sk.

Trnaval FOLKLORE: Lnica - Theworld-famous Slovak folkloreensemble gives a perform-ancein the localHouse ofCul-

ture.Starts: April 7, 19:00; DKTrnava, Trojin Square 10.Admission: 12. Tel: 033/5515-354; www.dktrnava.sk, www.ticketportal.sk.

CentralSLOVAKIA

LiptovskMikull EXHIBITION: Martin Benka(1888-1971) This phenomenalSlovak painter has become a

symbol for a whole period of

Slovak art. Two more exhibi-tions, of more recent Slovakartists, are also on show untilApril9.

Open: Tue-Sat 10:00-17:00until July 14; P.M. Liptovskgalria P.M. Boha, Tra-novskho 3. Admission: 0.50-3.50. Tel: 044/5522-758;www.galerialm.sk.

Fiakovol EXHIBITION/MUSEUM:udov umenie historickhoNovohradu / Folk Art of theHistorical Novohrad/NgrdRegion This exhibition com-bines artefacts from both theSlovakand Hungarianparts ofthis previously united region,makingit quiteunique.

Open: Mon-Sun

10:00-18:00 until May 24;Fiakovo Castle Museum. Ad-mission: 0.70-1.70. Tel: 047/4382-017; www.filakovo.sk;www.muzeum.sk.

EasternSLOVAKIA

LevoaCLASSICAL MUSIC: Levoskhudobn jar / Levoa SpringMusic Festival Within theSpring Festival, Koncert predva klavre / Concert for TwoPianos presents Viera Sal-javkov and MriaKamenick on piano, thevoice of Karolna Kopa-nikov, Peter Dubivsk onguitar and Peter Tomko onguitar, pianoand cajn.

Starts: April 8, 18:00; Kon-gresov sla, MKS, NmestieMajstra Pavla 54. Admission: 1. Te l: 053/4512 -522 ;mskslevoca.sk.

Koicel LIVE MUSIC: David KollerTour The famous Czech rockand pop singer and drummerbrings to a Slovak audiencehits like ern andl, Ohe,and others; he will be suppor-tedby Slovak bandTalkshow.

Starts: April8, 20:00; Jum-bo Centrum, Masarykova 2.Admission: 19. Tel: 02/5293-3321; www.ticketportal.sk.

ByZuzanaVilikovsk

EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE

THE PRESSBURGER Klezmer Band, this time featuring famousBritish clarinettist Merlin Shepherd, gives a concert at the ZaZrkadlom Club at Rovniankova 3 in Bratislava, at 20:00 on April9. The band plays klezmer, i.e. secular European-Jewish musicmeant for celebrations, weddings, etc. Tickets cost 8 and canbeboughtthroughwww.ticketportal.sk, orfor 10at thedoor.

Photo:Courtesyof KZP

SKI-TOURING is a form of backcountry skiing involving travers-ing winter landscapes on downhill skis after climbing up ratherthan using ski lifts; it enjoys considerablepopularity in Slovakia.OnApril 9,the 3rdSkialpMaratn SedlamiVysokchTatier (Ski-touring MarathonThroughthe Passes of theHigh Tatras) willberunin themunicipalityofVysokTatry from7:30. Disciplinesin-clude a marathon (with an ascent of 2,890 metres) and a half-marathon (with an ascent of 1,750 metres) for seniors (born in1972 and later) and veterans (born before 1971). Admission is freeforspectators.For moreinfopleasevisit www.jamesdk.sk.

Photo:TASR

10 CULTURE

I n c o o p e r a t i o n w i t h t h e S l o v a k H y d r o m e t e o r o l o g i c a l I n s t i t u t e

Weather updates and forecasts from across Slovakia

can now be found atwww.spectator.sk.A Slovaks name day (meniny) is as important as his or her birthday. It is traditional to present friends or co-workers with a small gift,

such as chocolates or flowers, and to wish them Vetko najlepie k meninm (Happy name day)

N A M E D A Y A P R I L 2 0 1 1

MondayIzidor

April 4

TuesdayMiroslava

April 5

WednesdayIrena

April 6

ThursdayZoltnLarisa

April 7

FridayAlbert

April 8

SaturdayMilena

April 9

SundayIgort

April 10

New business book in EnglishANOTHER book from the five-volume Enterprise and Entre-preneurship series by Slovakauthor tefan Kassay hasbeentranslated into English. The

monograph, entitled Econom-ics and Finances, tries to sumup practical economic know-how and provide a more gen-eral view for managers as wellas for economic theoreticians.This second volume focuseson the connection betweenmacro-economics and micro-economics and helps readersquickly orient themselves tomake management decisions,according to a review by Feli-cita Chromjakov. Kassay

combines theoretical studieswith practical knowledge, ashe is both a researcher (and amember of the EuropeanAcademyof Sciencesand Arts)

anda businessman, servingasa member of the supervisoryboard of food company I.D.C.Holding.

Macro-economic devel-opment can fundamentallyinfluence a companys busi-ness and effectiveness andthis volume also touches onthe growing role of economicglobalisation, the role of eco-logy, etc. A bigger part of thebook deals with corporate fin-ances and financing, and

looks at how to define stra-tegicgoalsandhowto achievethem. The volume also coversnew trends, new approachesto corporate economics, and

the financial crisis, accordingtoa review byKamilMikuli.Economics and Finances

is published by VEDA (thepublishing house of the Slov-ak Academy of Sciences) andgoes on sale in April. The firstvolume, entitled The Entre-preneurial Environment, hasalready

Slovak Spectator 1713

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