Vol. 16, No. 50 Monday, December 20, 2010 - Sunday, January 9, 2011

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THE YEARIN BUSINESS

THE YEARIN POLITICS

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NEWS

Pupils lag in readingSlovak students are laggingbehind their peers in read-ing and in scientific liter-acy, according to a recentlypublished OECD study.

pg 2

State language lawIt took half a year for thenew government to amendthe language law which hasdisrupted Slovakia's rela-tionship with its ethnic-Hungarian citizens.

pg 3

OPINION

Think before you blogPerhaps some politiciansare simply infatuated withtheir “blogger past”. Buthaving political powerbrings certain responsibilit-ies: it changes the distinc-tion between public andprivate utterances.

pg 5

FOCUS

The year in politicsMultiple elections, politic-al reshuffles, a nationalbelt-tightening pro-gramme, EU howls afterSlovakia chose to not parti-cipate in the Greek bailout:these are some of the high-lights that will make it intothe Slovak history booksfor 2010.

pg 6

The year in businessSlovakia, like other coun-tries throughout the world,had to deal with the im-pacts of the global financialand economic crisis during2010.

pg 7

CULTURE

New Year's Eve eventsEvents to welcome in 2011are likely to be more modestin many places because ofausterity programmes. Butthere will still be many pub-lic celebrations on offer.

pg 16

Orbán visitsSlovakia,

briefly

OPEN and focused on facts. That was howboth the Slovak and the Hungarian primeministers described the atmosphere dur-ing their brief meeting on December 14 inBratislava, at which Hungary’s ViktorOrbán promised to return for an officialvisit during the first half of 2011. It wouldbe the first official visit between the twocountries at the prime-ministerial levelsince Mikuláš Dzurinda visited Budapestin 2001. Despite the positive comments ofthe prime ministers, the recent meetingshowed that bilateral relations betweenthe two countries are still thorny.

See VISIT pg 2Meteorologists expect Christmas to bring some respite from the frigid weather in Slovakia but the deep freeze mayreturn soon afterwards. Ski resort operators are happy: snow is covering many slopes. Photo: SITA

BY MICHAELA TERENZANISpectator staff

Inflation predicted asausterity bites in 2011NEXT year promises to be a taxingone for the people of Slovakia, fol-lowing parliamentary approval of amajor austerity package drafted bythe government of Iveta Radičová.Its stated aim is to rebalance thecountry’s public finances, but opin-ions about how much of a toll it willimpose on ordinary taxpayers differsgreatly depending on who you talkto. Former finance minister JánPočiatek insists that 2011 will beburdensome one for the populationand that the package will squeeze anextra €300 a year from each family.His successor Ivan Mikloš, who is

one of the authors of the package,says the extra bill will be around€110, depending on the income ofthe family.

Market watchers suggest thatseveral factors – the growth of wages,inflation, and world energy prices –will affect how severely the squeezeon Slovaks’ purses actually is. Ana-

lysts have already predicted thatconsumer prices will climb next yeardue to the hike in the value added taxas well as this year’s weak harvest,which is pushing up food prices.

In a televised debate with Miklošon private broadcaster TV Markíza,Počiatek said some measures in-cluded in the austerity package aresimply being introduced at thewrong time. He also argued that thegovernment is hiking excise taxesand value added tax in an “incorrectform and at the incorrect time” .

See TAX pg 13

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff

All contracts to go online

THE INTERNET shouldprovide some interestingreading for advocates oftransparency, ethics watch-dogs and journalists fromJanuary 2011. All contracts inSlovakia that involve publicfunds will be published on-line: moreover, they will notbecome valid until they ap-pear on the internet.

Observers describe the re-vision to the Civil Code, ap-

proved by parliament onDecember 9, as a courageousand revolutionary piece of le-gislation which will give thepublic more control over thehandling of public funds andwill potentially prevent manydoubtful contracts involvingthe state.

Anti-corruption package

All institutions fallingunder the Freedom of In-formation Act – i.e. minis-tries; state offices and theirbudgetary organisations; pub-lic organisations; as well astown councils, village coun-

cils and regional govern-ments – will have to adopt thepractice of publishing theircontracts online.

The legislation is part ofthe anti-corruption packagethat the government of IvetaRadičová promised to thepublic shortly after takingover in July 2010.

“It is breakthrough legis-lation, for which no othergovernment has had thecourage,” Peter Wilfling, alawyer cooperating with theVia Iuris organisation, toldThe Slovak Spectator.

See NET pg 4

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff

Coalitionstill arguingover GP vote

THE CHRISTMAS break is unlikely to calmtensions within the ruling coalition thaterupted over its members’ failure to gettheir joint candidate, Jozef Čentéš, selec-ted as the next general prosecutor.

The powerful position is filled for a sev-en-year term. Instead, at least six coalitiondeputies used the secret ballot to vote withthe opposition Smer party to reconfirm in-cumbent Dobroslav Trnka in the post. Thiswas despite Prime Minister Iveta Radičovásaying that she would resign if Trnka won.

See ROW pg 3

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff

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Lajčák tapped for EU diplomatic job

FORMER foreign ministerMiroslav Lajčák has been ap-pointed the European Ex-ternal Action Service’s Man-aging Director for Russia, theEastern Partnership and theWestern Balkans by the headof EU diplomacy, Lady Cath-erine Ashton.

Lajčák will serve as oneof Ashton’s six assistants,the third highest position inthe European External Ac-tion Service. Lajčák’s previ-ous experience in the regionwas cited as the reason forhis selection to the post.

Before he becameSlovakia’s foreign minister

in 2009, he served as theHigh Representative for theUN and EU in Bosnia andHerzegovina. In 2001-2005he was the envoy of Slovakiato Yugoslavia, Macedoniaand Albania.

“It is a region to which Ihave devoted the biggest partof my professional career,”Lajčák said in response to hisappointment. “Although itwas my individual candid-acy, I felt the support of thehighest state actors, as wellas from the Slovak foreignservice. I consider it a hugeresponsibility, but a chal-lenge as well .”

State drops €15m Interblue claim

SLOVAKIA will not attemptto force Interblue Group topay the €15 million it says itis owed by the firm based onthe murky sale of thecountry’s excess carbon di-oxide emissions quotas in2008. Interblue was sup-posed to have paid themoney if Slovakia used theoriginal proceeds from thesale to fund green projects.

“We will not act from theviewpoint of commerciallaw since we don’t see thereany chance in having themoney paid,” Environment

Minister József Nagy said onDecember 15, as quoted bythe TASR newswire.

Nagy confirmed that hewas scheduled to meet a spe-cial prosecutor who has beenassigned to examine thecase, TASR wrote.

Minister Nagy said thatthe past sale of Slovakia’semissions quotas hasharmed the internationalimage of Slovakia, notingthat the Japanese ambas-sador has questioned himabout the issue with him,TASR reported.

Counter-terrorism meeting in BA

AN EXPERT meeting on im-plementing the UN GlobalCounter-Terrorism Strategyin Central Asia was held inthe Slovak capital onDecember 15-16. The meet-ing, the first in a series ofcounter-terrorism expertmeetings at a regionallevel, took place under theauspices of the Slovak For-eign Ministry.

The meeting is part of ajoint initiative of the UnitedNations Counter-TerrorismImplementation Task Forceand the European Union,working with the UnitedNations Regional Centre forPreventive Diplomacy forCentral Asia to assist centralAsian countries in strength-ening their efforts to fightterrorism, the UN Informa-tion Service in Vienna an-nounced in a news release.

The Special Representat-ive of the Secretary-Generaland the Head of the UnitedNations Regional Centre forPreventive Diplomacy forCentral Asia, Miroslav Jenča,said anti-terrorism effortsare high on the agenda of de-cision-makers in the regionin light of the multi-facetednature of the threat.

“There is a danger of in-tensifying activities of vari-ous extremist, terrorist, andcriminal groups and net-works operating in CentralAsia, fuelled by instability in

the wider region and porousborders,” Jenča said. “Pre-vention of terrorism inCentral Asia is central notonly to protecting the well-being of populations and en-suring national and regionalstability, it is also part of amore global approach to se-curity which recogniseslinkages between terrorism,criminality, money launder-ing, drug trafficking, humantrafficking, and lawlessness.

The expert discussionswhich started on December15 will seek to lay thegroundwork for increasedcoordination of efforts andinternational partnership toaddress a common evil.”

Among the issues to bediscussed are conflict pre-vention and mediation,trans-border securitythreats including terrorism,drug trafficking and organ-ised crime; addressing con-ditions conducive to thespread of terrorism thoughsocial development and so-cial inclusion, poverty re-duction and achieving theMillennium DevelopmentGoals; inter-ethnic andinter-religious tolerance anddialogue; and ensuring re-spect for human rights andthe rule of law for all, includ-ing good governance.

Compiled by Spectator staff

from press reports

Slovak pupils lag behindin reading and science

SLOVAK students are laggingbehind their peers in readingand in scientific literacy ac-cording to a recently pub-lished OECD study. The res-ults in reading literacy, themain focus of the currentstudy, have alarmed manyparents and educators and thecountry’s Education Ministryis promising to introducechanges that will lead to im-proved scores.

The Programme for Inter-national Student Assessment(PISA) is a tri-annual survey of15-year-old students conduc-ted in 30 countries of the Or-ganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD), as well as in 35 collab-orating countries, designed toassess “the extent to whichstudents near the end of com-pulsory education have ac-

quired the knowledge andskills essential in everydaylife”, the OECD states on itswebsite. The first study wasconducted in 2000.

Generally, pupils aretested in three domains: read-ing, mathematics and sci-entific literacy but in eachthree-year cycle one domain

is studied more carefully thanthe others. The 2009 PISAstudy focused on readingcomprehension.

Below-average reading

It was the reading com-prehension scores that rangalarm bells at Slovak schoolsand put the noses of bureau-crats at the Education Min-istry to the grindstone to de-velop strategies for improvingthe skills of those graduatingfrom Slovak primary schools.

The average scoreachieved by the Slovak stu-dents in the reading part ofthe test was 477 points, at theedge of the second and thirdlevels of the six used in thestudy to group students ac-cording to their performance.Level six is the best group ofstudents and the first level isthe lowest-performance level– the so-called ‘risk group’ – soSlovak students were clearlybelow the OECD average.

See PISA pg 14

The Education Ministry will revamp methods. Photo: Sme

VISIT: Dual citizenship still ranklesContinued from pg 1

Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán’sshort visit on December 14 was part of aseries of trips he is making prior toHungary assuming the presidency ofthe European Union on January 1. ButOrbán’s day in Slovakia was not restric-ted to European-level issues; problemsin bilateral relations between Slovakiaand Hungary were discussed, and cap-tured much more media attention.

Radičová and Orbán met for thefirst time as prime ministers shortlyafter Radičová assumed her post in July2010, when Slovakia was taking overthe presidency of the Visegrad Groupfrom Hungary. At their meeting lastweek in Bratislava, the two leadersagreed on issues concerning energy se-curity and regional cooperation butconceded that differing opinions re-main on issues that have been traumat-ic for relations between the countries –the controversy and disagreement overHungary’s dual citizenship law being atthe top of the list.

Radičová said after the meeting thatSlovakia and Hungary hold diametric-ally opposed opinions on the dual cit-izenship issue.

“Other issues, such as our futurepriorities, are not dividing us but ratheruniting us,” Radičová said, as quoted bythe TASR newswire.

One example is the accord reachedby the prime ministers that Slovakiaand Hungary will sign an agreement toexpedite construction of a joint north-south gas pipeline intended to connectthe Baltic and Adriatic seas that willcross both Slovakia and Hungary, anagreement which Orbán called “a fun-damental turning point on which thefate of central Europe will depend”. Theproject aims to reduce central Europeancountries' heavy dependence on gassupplied via pipelines rom Russia.

Ábel Ravasz, an analyst from thePublicus Institute, stated that the meet-ing of the two prime ministers broughtno surprises.

“I think the main change was in thetone of the meeting in comparison withthe two earlier meetings between formerprime ministers [Ferenc] Gyurcsány and[Robert] Fico,” Ravasz told The SlovakSpectator, explaining that in theGyurcsány-Fico relationship the Hun-garian side was the pragmatic, anti-na-tionalist one and the Slovak side was thepopulist, nationalist one, while cur-rently Orbán is a populist rightist politi-cian and Radičová is a pragmatic right-ist. However, he noted that there is a dif-ference between Radičová’s andGuyrcsány’s pragmatism in thatGuyrcsány was absolutely anti-national-ist but Radičová’s government is not ex-plicitly against nationalism.

“Orbán is very similar to the Ficogovernment in his policies, in that heconsiders national issues part of domest-ic politics,” Ravasz noted. “The issues ofHungarians living in Slovakia, or, moregenerally, Hungarians living in othercountries, are issues of domestic policyfor him. He’s trying to use these issues tocover up some of the economic policiesthat have met with resistance. This isvery similar to how Fico used the Hun-garian minority [in the past].”

Dual citizenship in focus

It was in the brief period beforeSlovakia’s June election when Fico wasOrbán’s counterpart that one of themost controversial current issuesbetween the two counties arose, whenthe freshly-appointed Orbán govern-ment amended the Hungarian legisla-tion on citizenship, enabling ethnicHungarians living in other countries,including Slovakia, to be quite easilygranted Hungarian citizenship.

The Fico government responded bypassing an amendment to Slovakia’s Cit-izenship Act specifying that if any Slovakcitizen voluntarily took steps to obtaincitizenship of another country he or shewould automatically lose their Slovak cit-izenship. Observers warned that thiscould lead to Slovak citizens beingstripped of their citizenship at the be-ginning of 2011, when the Hungarian lawtakes effect.

When the Radičová governmentcame to power it was thought that itwould begin to sort out the citizenshipissues but no concrete steps have beentaken so far. However, Radičová notedafter the meeting with Orbán that bilat-eral commissions have already startedworking on resolving the issue.

The situation might get even morecomplicated if Hungary grants its new‘dual-citizens’ the right to vote in Hun-gary. But Slovak media reported thatOrbán said no such step will be taken be-fore the Hungarian Constitution isamended, which is expected to happenin spring next year.

Ravasz does not believe that the issueof dual citizenship will be resolvedthrough bilateral meetings, since Hun-garians chose to pursue this policy uni-laterally, without giving a thought to thereservations of the countries involved.

“I don’t see how the meeting betweenthe prime ministers can influence thisissue. I think this law is here to stay forthe moment and it will influence [bilat-eral] relations in the forthcoming years,”Ravasz said.

The Slovak media laid much emphas-is on the fact that Orbán did not meetwith the ruling coalition’s Most-Hídparty, a mixed Slovak-Hungarian party,but rather had a luncheon meeting withthe non-parliamentary Hungarian Coali-tion Party (SMK) in Vienna, rather thanBratislava, that lasted about an hourlonger than his meeting with Radičová.

BY MICHAELATERENZANISpectator staff

2 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011 NEWS

Language Act takes a‘less bad’ form

IT TOOK half a year for thenew centre-right governmentto amend the State LanguageAct, an issue which has dis-rupted the state’s relationshipwith Slovakia’s ethnic-Hun-garian population and withthe government of Hungaryas well. Despite removingseveral provisions that wereobjectionable to minorities,the amendment retained thatpart of the law which causedthe loudest outcry amongethnic Hungarians: penaltiesfor using a language otherthan the official state lan-guage – i.e. Slovak – in publiccommunications. Some coali-tion politicians admit that thelaw remains problematic.

The previous government,led by Smer’s Robert Fico incoalition with the nationalistSlovak National Party (SNS),passed an amendment to theState Language Act in June2009 which caused an out-burst of loud criticism fromHungary as well as moremuted critical remarks fromvarious international organ-isations. That law, whichtightened the monitoring ofthe correct use of Slovak in of-ficial communications as wellas specifying when Slovak hadto be used, took effect onSeptember 1, 2009 and washarshly criticised for introdu-cing fines of up to €5,000 forviolations.

The centre-right parties ofthe governing coalition, thenin opposition, joined in thecriticism. But after the par-liamentary election, repres-entatives of minorities weredisappointed by the slowmovement of the coalitionand it did not seem that modi-fication of the State LanguageAct and elimination of thepenalties would be pursued orpassed by parliament.

Limited sanctions remain

The Culture Ministry, ledby Daniel Krajcer of the Free-dom and Solidarity party(SaS), in the end proposed anamendment to the law thatwas passed by parliament onDecember 9. Despite receivingthe support of all coalitionMPs, the coalition’s Most-Hídparty voiced its concern thatsome provisions it finds objec-tionable remain in the law.

Ondrej Dostál of the CivicConservative Party (OKS),who is a member of the Most-Híd parliamentary caucus andwho led civic initiatives direc-ted against the law when itcame into effect in September2009, said that after theamendment was passed, thelaw would be “less bad” than

before, but admitted that itremains problematic.

“Many provisions thatlimit the free flow of inform-ation and interfere in theprivate sphere more than isnecessary were left in [theState Language Act],” he toldThe Slovak Spectator. On apositive note, he said thatseveral restrictive provi-sions, mainly those directedagainst minority languagesand the public usage thereof,have been removed from thelaw. The scope for awardingsanctions for language mis-use has been narrowed signi-ficantly too.

The new version of thelaw takes effect on January 1,2011 and no longer requirestransport, telecommunica-tions and postal workers tomaster and use Slovak be-cause their activities havebeen reclassified as privatebusiness and the provisions ofthe law will only apply to pub-lic bodies. The new legislationalso eliminates the require-ment that minority-languageschools keep student recordsin two languages and allowscultural activities organisedby or for members of minorit-ies, such as theatre perform-ances, to be voiced solely inthe minority language. In ad-dition, parliament eliminatedthe requirement that text onmemorials, sculptures andplaques needed the approvalof the Culture Ministry.

“Some nonsense restric-tions will be removed,” Kra-jcer said, as quoted by the Smedaily.

The law, however, retainsthe possibility to assess fineseven though the Council ofEurope’s Venice Commissionhad recommended that theybe completely stricken.

The amendment permitsthe use of fines but restrictstheir application only to pub-lic administration and situ-ations where the life, health,safety or property of citizensis at issue. The amendmentlowered the range of finesfrom €1,000-€5,000 to€50-€2,500.

Most-Híd not totally happy

The ruling coalition’sMost-Híd party, whichprimarily represents ethnicHungarians, made it clearthat even though its MPsvoted with the coalition topass the amendment they didnot entirely agree with itslimited changes.

“Although our aim was toeliminate the Language Act orthe sanctions [it introduced],we need to realise that at themoment there is no chancefor that,” the party’s chair-person Béla Bugár said, asquoted by the TASR news-wire. “The current govern-ment is composed of fourparties, so it’s clear that inmost cases compromise solu-tions are put in place.”

Bugár said he found it sig-nificant that citizens cannotbe punished for using theirmother tongue and in thatsense the recent amendmentremoved the fear which theprevious law introduced,TASR reported.

Dostál, who made an ad-ditional proposal during thelegislative procedure in par-liament, seeking the com-plete removal of sanctionsand fines for language usefrom the text of the law, saidhe was disappointed by thefact that even the current rul-ing coalition is not able to letgo of the nationalism whichruled the country during theprevious, Fico-led govern-ment. He noted that the sanc-tions have above all a symbol-ic significance.

“It’s sad that the currentruling parties criticised there-introduction of sanctionslast year while they were stillin opposition, but now do notdare to cancel them,” Dostálsaid. “I believe that willchange in the future.”

Dostál believes the lawneeds further changes beyondthe removal of sanctions. Heand his parliamentary caucushave several times mentionedin the future that cancellingthe law as such would be thebest systemic solution, and

would allow it to be replacedby a much briefer and moreliberal one.

A much stronger level ofdissatisfaction was apparentin the statements of opposi-tion politicians. The author ofthe 2009 changes to the lan-guage law, former cultureminister Marek Maďarič whois currently an MP for theSmer party, said that theamendment passed by thegoverning coalition is wrongfrom political and factualpoints of view.

“From the political view-point it’s an unjustified re-treat from Budapest,” Maďaričsaid, as quoted by Sme. “Therightist government left theSlovaks in southern Slovakiacompletely in the lurch.”

The opposition also statedthat continuation of the pen-alties was necessary for thelaw to be enforceable.

Czech fairytales in Slovak

One of the most-discussedproposals that MPs wanted toincorporate into the recentlypassed amendment was theremoval of the obligation todub Czech fairytales, cinemaand TV movies for childrenunder the age of 12 into Slov-ak.

The proposal was au-thored by Ondrej Dostál andreceived the support of theconstitutional affairs com-mittee, but in the end did notmake it through the finalplenary vote in the parlia-ment.

Traditionally, Slovaks andCzechs have been able to un-derstand each other’s lan-guage thanks to the relativecloseness of the languages aswell as their former cohabita-tion in one state.

“In Slovakia, even smallchildren understand Czech,”Dostál claims. “I find it absurdthat Czech fairytales for chil-dren under 12 have to bedubbed into Slovak. It notonly contradicts the right tofreely disseminate informa-tion, but it also contradictscommon sense.”

BY MICHAELATERENZANISpectator staff

Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer looks on as MPs vote on his amendment. Photo: TASR

ROW: Bugár's lamentContinued from pg 1

Their attempt failed, byone vote, but the moveprompted a round of claimand counter-claim withinthe coalition at what seemedto be an internal plot to un-seat the prime minister. Co-alition leaders are now try-ing to modify the rules tomake voting public and toreduce the powers of the topprosecutor.

Shortly after the vote,Slovak Democratic and Chris-tian Union (SDKÚ) deputyZoltán Horváth suggestedthat the blame rested withMost-Híd party and specific-ally its deputy Elemér Jakab,who according to Horváthtampered with his ballot. Inresponse, Most-Híd chair-man Béla Bugár called on hisruling coalition partners tostop accusing his party orrisk Most-Híd’s withdrawalfrom the coalition.

Although the ruling co-alition had agreed that theSDKÚ, the Christian Demo-cratic Movement (KDH),Most-Híd and Freedom andSolidarity (SaS) would resumetheir efforts to get Čentéš se-lected next year, once theparties change the votingrules, Bugár on December 13called for a vote to occur asquickly as possible.

“I feel ashamed of what ishappening around the elec-tion of the general prosec-utor; I apologise to thepublic,” Bugár said, addingthat Horváth must have beenfrustrated after Most-Híd re-fused to support his bid formayor of Galanta in theNovember local elections.

Bugár also said that itwas unacceptable to be ac-cused without proof and saidhe was expecting an apologyfrom Horváth, the TASRnewswire reported.

In comments to the me-dia on December 13, Radičovárefused to characterise thesituation within the rulingcoalition as a crisis.

“No crisis, in the truesense of the word, is takingplace; only problems thatwe’re capable of handlingourselves,” said Radičová.

Meanwhile, the rulingcoalition council has agreedto change some of the powersof the general prosecutor andcharged a working groupwith preparing changes tothe operation of the GeneralProsecutor’s Office.

Radičová said thesechanges are crucial for in-creasing the trustworthinessof the office. She also saidthat the government wouldask constitutional lawyers toassess the possibility of se-lecting the general prosec-utor via a public vote.

The ruling coalition alsowants to weaken the powersof overseeing prosecutors sothat they can no longer haltcriminal prosecutions or can-cel charges. Selection proced-ures would be transparentand prosecutors would be ex-pected to publish their de-

cisions, the Sme daily wrote.Meanwhile media repor-

ted on December 14 that Smerboss Robert Fico was appar-ently interested in making adeal on the selection of thegeneral prosecutor. In returnfor giving his party’s supportto Čentéš, Fico sought to se-cure for Smer the post of“deputy general prosecutorfor criminal law,” Bugár said,according to TASR.

Fico met Speaker of Par-liament Richard Sulík onDecember 10 and, accordingto Fico’s account: “We talkedabout rules of procedure andthe need for having the gen-eral prosecutor’s election car-ried out in December. I alsomaintained that it might beappropriate for them to stopnominating party-affiliatedcandidates but to try to find acandidate who could also en-joy the support of theopposition.”

The selection of the topprosecutor has proved one ofthe most difficult tests forthe ruling coalition. AfterTrnka, the incumbent, wasunexpectedly nominated inNovember by a lone SDKÚdeputy, Stanislav Janiš,Radičová expressed strongopposition to his re-selectionand said she would resignwere this to happen.

In the first round ofsecret voting held in earlyNovember, involving 147MPs, Trnka received 70 ‘yes’votes and 60 ‘no’ votes, with17 deputies abstaining;Mária Mišíková, backed byKDH, SaS and Most-Híd, hadthe support of 49 MPs andwas opposed by 84, with 14abstaining; while JánHrivnák, nominated by theSDKÚ, was supported by 28MPs, with 98 voting againsthim and 21 abstaining.SDKÚ MPs then caused therun-off between Mišíkováand Trnka to end inconclus-ively by registering for theballot but not casting anyvotes, ensuring that neithercandidate received a majorityamong the MPs present.

In a secret ballot onDecember 2 at least six MPsfrom the ruling coalitionparties voted anonymouslyfor Trnka despite partyleaders all agreeing to backČentéš. Trnka failed by onevote to be re-selected, butthe six coalition MPs’ dis-loyalty prompted recrimin-ations.

On December 7 the rul-ing coalition parties deliber-ately executed anotherfailed vote in order to gaintime to change the votingrules to make MPs’ votespublic. A day before theDecember 7 vote, the leadersof the four parties agreedthat their MPs would takeballots but not cast them,ensuring that Trnka wouldnot receive the support of amajority of the MPs present.

Trnka told the mediathat he would challenge theDecember 2 vote beforeSlovakia’s ConstitutionalCourt.

3December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011NEWS

Sulík floats 'plan B' return to crowns

THE LEADER of the rulingcoalition’s Freedom andSolidarity (SaS) party,Richard Sulík, has sparkedheated debate among Slovakeconomists and politiciansafter writing in an op-edpiece for the HospodárskeNoviny financial daily thatSlovakia should stop blindlytrusting eurozone leadersand prepare a ‘plan B’ for re-introduction of thecountry’s previous cur-rency, the Slovak crown.

“We are a country toosmall to significantly influ-ence the actions of the EU;so at least we have to protectthe wealth that the peopleliving in Slovakia havecreated,” Sulík wrote,launching a wave of specu-lation about the futurestrength and stability of theeurozone.

In reaction, Prime Minis-ter Iveta Radičová stated thatsuch speculation weakensthe EU’s stabilisation mech-anism and is quite risky, theSITA newswire wrote.Radičová discounted the ideathat her cabinet would con-sider a plan B to return to theSlovak crown.

“The government has notthought about [instituting] anew crown for even asecond,” she said, as quotedby SITA. “I find such ideasvery dangerous.”

The prime minister addi-tionally noted that eventhough Slovakia has been inthe eurozone for only a shorttime the common currencyhas brought more positivethings to Slovakia than neg-ative ones, though she con-ceded that the eurozone isfacing some difficult issues.

“The eurozone is facingnew challenges such as re-specting the Stability andGrowth Pact, as well as itsenforceability,” Radičovásaid.

Finance Minister IvanMikloš said returning to theSlovak crown was theoretic-ally possible – but he dis-counted the possibility.

"It is theoretically pos-sible. We have alreadyswitched from theCzechoslovak crown to theSlovak crown. But neitherthe costs nor the impactswould be negligible oreasy,” Mikloš said, asquoted by SITA.

S&P confirms Slovakia’s ratings

STANDARD & Poor’s (S&P)Rating Service affirmed itsA+ long-term and A-1 short-term sovereign credit ratingsfor Slovakia on December 15,saying the country’s outlookis stable. S&P also gave Slov-akia an AAA assessment ontransfer and convertibility,the SITA newswire reported.

Slovakia’s ratings reflectthe view that the country’sfuture economic growth issolid and that thegovernment’s debt burden,though rising, is moderate,according to S&P, addinghowever that thesestrengths are partially off-set by the cyclical nature ofthe Slovak economy and ahigh level of structural un-employment.

“The main risk we see toSlovakia's sovereign credit-worthiness stems from thedeterioration in thecountry's public financessince 2008,” said S&P creditanalyst Kai Stukenbrok, asquoted by SITA.

Following a governmentfiscal deficit of nearly 8 per-cent of GDP in 2009, the rat-ing agency expects a similardeficit in 2010. Public ex-penditures, particularly onsocial transfers, have re-mained high and tax reven-ues remain weak despite re-covery in the economy, S&Pwrote, while noting thateven though thegovernment’s debt burdenrecently increased sharply, itis still lower than many ofSlovakia’s peers.

Slovakia’s coalition gov-ernment has pledged to re-verse the fiscal decline andbring the deficit below 3 per-cent of GDP by 2013 through acombination of expenditurecuts and revenue-enhancingmeasures, S&P noted, writ-ing that its best case scenariois that the government willbe able to narrow the deficitto 6 percent of GDP in 2011and to 4 percent of GDP by2013. The rating agency saidif the government achievesits fiscal targets it would fur-ther support the country’ssovereign creditworthiness.

S&P noted that there arerisks, including weaker thanexpected economic perform-ance and public and politicalopposition to the proposedausterity measures. Assum-ing that GDP growth and realinterest rates remain at cur-rent levels, S&P believes thattotal government debt willremain below 50 percent ofGDP through to at least 2013.

“If the government isable to implement furtherreforms of the social secur-ity system and labour mar-ket, it could promote sus-tained, strong, and balancedeconomic growth, whichcould in turn help close thewealth gap between Slov-akia and other countries inthe eurozone, and con-sequently lead us to raise theratings,” Stukenbrok said, asquoted by SITA.

Compiled by Spectator staff

from press reports

Third PPP highwayproject scrapped

THE RULING coalition partieshave completely halted theuse of public-private partner-ship (PPP) projects to con-struct highways in Slovakia.On December 13, TransportMinister Ján Figeľ respondedto pressure from other coali-tion partners who see thismethod of highway construc-tion as too expensive by can-celling the third PPP projectthat had been negotiated bythe previous government tobuild and operate parts of theD1 cross-country highway.

Žilinská Diaľnica, a con-sortium led by the Germancompany Hochtief, was theconcessionaire to design,build and operate about 30km of D1 highway betweenHričovské Podhradie andDubná Skala near the city ofŽilina under the third PPPpackage. Of the three PPPagreements, the third pack-age was the most technicallydemanding as it included analmost 7.5-kilometre tunnelbetween Višňové and DubnáSkala. Even though the PPPwas cancelled, the govern-ment said that constructionof this stretch of highwayshould start in 2011, begin-ning with the Višňové tun-nel.

Instead of PPP projectsand money from private in-vestors, the government ofIveta Radičová plans to con-

struct the missing sections ofthe highways using state re-sources and EU funds. Figeľstated that the EU is thecheapest source of funds forbuilding highways but thatin future new PPP projectsfor highway constructionwill also be announced.

The head of the Freedomand Solidarity (SaS) partyRichard Sulík claimed thatcost of constructing thehighways sections covered bythe third PPP package couldbe reduced by more than €3billion, according to the SITAnewswire. Sulík said there isspace to cut the costs from€6.8 billion to €3.7 million.

The decision to scrap thethird package was made evenafter the Žilinská Diaľnicaconsortium made an offer toreduce its price by about 20percent.

First PPP packagescrapped, too

In early September Figeľcancelled the first PPP packagewhich had been prepared forthe construction of fivestretches of the D1 covering 75kilometres between Martin andPrešov. Even though a tenderhad resulted in the selection ofa consortium to execute theproject, the PPP was termin-

ated after Figeľ decided not toextend the deadline for closingthe project’s financing. His de-cision prompted cries of despairfrom leaders of the previousgovernment who had advoc-ated PPPs as the best methodfor advancing Slovakia’s high-way construction as well asfrom the consortium of firmsthat had won the concession.

The project that Figeľ ter-minated had been in the workssince early 2009. It was to havebeen completed by a consorti-um involving the Slovak con-struction firms Doprastav andVáhostav-SK.

See PPP pg 13

PPP projects for road construction are out of favour. Photo: TASR

NET: Law will save money, says lawyerContinued from pg 1

“I expect it to prevent the adoptionof many doubtful – and, for the state,disadvantageous – contracts; it will re-duce corruption and cronyism inawarding state orders; and it will save agreat deal of money which could thenbe used for other useful purposes,” Wil-fling added.

The lawyer says that the change willmake it possible for citizens to controlhow politicians manage public propertyand will make it easier for voters to callthem to account.

Yet, unlike the original proposal thatthe cabinet approved in late August, thefinal law did not contain a provisionwhich would have allowed public insti-tutions to withdraw from a contractwithin 10 days of it being published.

The chairman of the parliamentaryconstitutional committee, RadoslavProcházka of the Christian DemocraticMovement (KDH), proposed that theprovision be dropped. He argued thatthe move would favour equalitybetween contracting parties, the SITAnewswire reported.

“It is a fact that the possibility towithdraw from a contract without indic-ating the reason could have created somelegal uncertainty,” Wilfling said, adding

that after observing how the law func-tions in practice the government can dosome further fine-tuning.

Contracts produced by ministries,central state administration bodies, pub-lic institutions and their budgetary or-ganisations will be published in theCentral Register of Contracts, which is apublic list of mandatorily published con-tracts administered by the GovernmentOffice. Other institutions will publishcontracts on their websites or, if they donot have one, then in the CommercialBulletin published by the Ministry ofJustice, SITA wrote.

Public institutions must publish or-ders for goods and services within 10working days of signing a contract;they will also be obliged to publish in-voices for goods and services no laterthan 30 days after they are paid, accord-ing to SITA.

According to Wilfling, it is importantthat contracts are published in an or-derly and transparent way so that it iseasy to find contracts which are of in-terest to citizens or journalists.

“We will see how the law functionsin practice,” Wilfling said. “Its effective-ness will depend on how much interestthe media and the public show in thepublished contracts and how they holdpoliticians to account.”

Until now the public has been ableto request information only about whatit already knew existed, Gabriel Šípošof Transparency International Slov-ensko told the Sme daily in an inter-view. He said the act of publishing con-tracts is very important for society. Healso explained that public procurementis the area that has been affected mostby corruption and that state ordershave often been won by people withthe best contacts.

However, opposition MP JanaLaššáková, who represents the Smerparty, called the revision “non-standard”, suggesting that she has notseen similar legislative measures inthe surrounding countries, accordingto Sme.

For Wilfling such arguments carrylittle weight.

“One has to ask whether Slovakia,considering the conditions that existhere, needs such a law,” Wilfling said. “Iam personally convinced that the largescale of corruption and cronyism inawarding state orders and concludingstate contracts, and published cases ofscandalous and seemingly disadvant-ageous contracts as a result of which thestate has lost huge amounts of money,are strong enough arguments for thelegislation.”

BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁSpectator staff

4 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011 BUSINESS / NEWS

Kapor

THE CARP (kapor) is not onlySlovakia’s favourite Christmasmeal. It also serves to describesomeone extremely lazy, orboring. 2010 has definitely notbeen a carp year for Slovakia.In the past 12 months, thecountry has witnessed at leastthree major events that will godown in history:

1. The national team’spremiere at the football WorldCup. “Repre” had never beforemade it even to the EuropeanChampionship. Its presence inSouth Africa and spectaculardefeat of Italy, the rulingchampions, will be re-membered by generations tocome.

2. The parliamentaryelections. A year ago, fewwould have guessed that

Robert Fico, despite winningelections, would not be able toform a new coalition andwould lose the premiership.The failure of VladimírMečiar’s HZDS marks the endof an entire era. And the newgovernment brings hope ofbetter governance and in-creased transparency in public

life. In any case, the change ofmood in society is dramatic.

3. The murder of ErnestValko. The elite attorney hadcontroversial clients, was in-volved in controversial cases,and the motives of the crimemay never be known. But thefact is that the killing ofsomeone as prominent as theformer head of theCzechoslovak ConstitutionalCourt is something unpreced-ented and many will remem-ber where they were whenthey found out that Valko hadbeen shot. The killing was re-miniscent of the way businessand politics are done in coun-tries further to the east. Is thiswhere we could be heading?

All three events illustratean important point – howmuch Slovakia can achievewith some effort and a bit ofluck. And how much can stillgo wrong. 2011 will be no yearto be a kapor.

Letter from the publisherDear readers,

Every year, when the editorial team of TheSlovak Spectator starts working on the very lastissue of the year, compiling a review of the mostimportant political and economic happenings,we all look back and think about all the chal-lenges we have faced and what it took to make itthrough 2010 while preserving all our productsand guarding the spirit of our publishing house.

For The Slovak Spectator, 2010 was also theyear of our 15th anniversary, showing thatthere is now a strong tradition behind us. Weswitched to a new full-colour format and somenew features have been added this year to ourannual publications. With the help of the dip-lomatic community, we also launched theproject Bringing the World to the Classroomwhich encourages discussions in English onchallenging topics at Slovak high schools.

We also have an ambitious plan for 2011.Under the motto “Be in touch with news you

trust” we will offer our registered users somenew online and offline services, such as news-letters, discussions, and pdf files of the currentissue of The Slovak Spectator. We have createdthese products based on feedback and requestsfor new features from our readers received viaour website, spectator.sk.

I would like to thank all our readers,friends, supporters and advertisers who havehelped us to continue our mission to bring bal-anced reporting about Slovakia and its place inthe wider regional context. With the supportwe receive from you, we look forward to 2011with confidence and the hope that we will beable to serve your information needs and,thanks to new projects, move closer to ourreaders. The next issue of The Slovak Spectatorwill be available on January 10, 2011.

We wish all our readers a peaceful winterholiday season and a successful 2011.

Ján Pallo

Just a political railway stationIT PROBABLY would be easierto define the type of personwho does not fall for the en-ticements of politics thanthose who do get attracted tothe political domain that issimultaneously fickle andstubborn, cruel and kind,greedy and munificent.

In 2010, on the backs ofnovice parties as well as vet-eran organisations, all kindsof people rushed into politics:nerdy theoreticians with apassion for citing textbooksolutions; eager business-men with euro calculatorsimplanted in their brains;adventurers who after con-quering women and moun-tains lacked only politicsfrom their trophy collection;and even some dreamers andactivists with instincts to dothe right thing.

Then there are the clue-less ones who for most of thetime they linger in politicslive in a delusionary worldguided by a logic that mostpeople are simply unable todecode. But these politi-cians’ contributions to use-ful public discourse equalszero if we do not count theirwords that fall into the polit-ical folklore category, utter-ances designed to entertainor outrage.

One of these “politicians”is Vincent Lukáč, an MP forthe Slovak National Party(SNS), who recently said thathe would stand behind SNSboss Ján Slota until the day hedies since Slota is “a god” forhim and that VladimírMečiar, whose Movement fora Democratic Slovakia (HZDS)couldn't even make it intoparliament, is “Mr.Politician”. In the global pic-ture, Lukáč and his personalopinions do not make muchof a difference, apart fromdeepening the disillusion-ment of international observ-ers about the quality of Slovakpoliticians.

But there are officialswhose statements arewatched more carefully whohave now been in politics

long enough to understandthat the dividing linebetween a “private opinion”and a “public statement” be-comes much narrower themoment they assume publicoffice. And this applies evenmore so to someone who hasclimbed into one of the threemost significant public posi-tions in Slovakia.

Speaker of ParliamentRichard Sulík, chairman ofthe Freedom and Solidarity(SaS) party, in an op-edpiece for the HospodárskeNoviny financial dailywrote that Slovakia shouldstop blindly believing theleaders of the eurozone andstart working on a “plan B”for bringing back the Slovakcrown, the country’s cur-rency before 2009.

“We are too small of acountry to significantly in-fluence the actions of the EU;so at least we have to protectthe wealth that the peopleliving in Slovakia havecreated,” Sulík wrote,launching a wave of specula-tion about the strength andstability of the euro.

Prime Minister IvetaRadičová was quick to dis-

miss the idea that her cabinetwould consider a “plan B” –emphasing that her govern-ment had not thought “for asingle second” about bring-ing back the crown. She ad-ded that Sulík’s statementswere more than risky.

At a press conference,Sulík explained that he hasbeen writing columns for thedaily for some time, oftenconfrontationally, and thatthese have always been hispersonal opinions. Neverthe-less, Sulík opened the doorsto wild speculation and ofcourse poured fuel on thepolitical fires of past primeminister Robert Fico, whoimmediately charged thatthe speaker was endangeringthe euro’s stability.

Perhaps some politiciansare simply infatuated withtheir “blogger past” whentheir fans rejoiced over pro-vocative and brave talk abouteverything to do with theeconomy and politics. Un-doubtedly, such blogs andarticles can be refreshing inmany ways, inspiring cit-izens, journalists, and evenelected officials to exploreideas that they would nothave otherwise considered.

But having power inpolitical life brings with itcertain responsibilities: itchanges the distinctionbetween public and privateutterances and adds, not al-ways justly, weight to thewords used by those servingin public positions. Whatevera public official says or doeshas a much larger impactthan even the most intelli-gent words crafted by a blog-ger or a Facebook friend.

And unless our top polit-ical leaders begin to under-stand this difference, theywill further devalue politicaldiscourse, turning Slovakia’spolitical space into nothingmore than a huge politicalrailway station wherepoliticians just passthrough, leaving nothing ofsubstance other than dis-carded plastic bottles.

BY LUKÁŠ FILASpecial to the Spectator

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

SLOVAK WORDOF THE WEEK

EDITORIAL

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff

5December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011OPINION

“I’ve been in politics for 20 years but I have never seen anything like this.”

Most-Híd leader Béla Bugár laments the distrustful atmosphere within thecoalition and the chaos over its failure to select the next general prosecutor.

The Slovak Spectator is an independent newspaper published every Monday by The Rock, s.r.o.SSubscriptions: Inquiries should be made to The Slovak Spectator’s business office at (+421-2) 59 233 300. Printing: Petit Press a.s. Distribution: Interpress Slovakia s.r.o., Mediaprint-kapa s.r.o., Slovenská po‰ta a.s. Mail Distribution: ABOPRESS. EV 544/08. © 2010 The Rock, s.r.o. All rights reserved. Any reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited by law. The authors of articles published in this issue, represented by the publisher, reserve the right to give their approval for reproducing and public transmission of articles marked ©The Slovak Spectator, as well as for the public circulation of reproductions of these articles,in compliance with the 33rd article and 1st paragraph of the Copyright Law. Media monitoring is provided by Newton, IT, SMA and Slovakia Online with the approval of the publisher. Advertising material contained herein is the responsibility of the advertiser and is not a written or implied sponsorship, endorsement or investigation of suchcommercial enterprises or ventures by The Slovak Spectator or The Rock s.r.o. ISSN 1335-9843.Address: The Rock, s.r.o., Lazaretská 12, 811 08 Bratislava. IâO: 313 86 237.

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A round-up of the year in politics

PARLIAMENTARY and muni-cipal elections, massive polit-ical reshuffles, huge flooding,a national belt-tighteningprogramme to rebalance thecountry’s finances, Europe-wide attention after Slovakiarefused to participate in thebailout for Greece, and a tug-of-a-war over public posts areonly a few of the entries thatwill certainly make it into theSlovak history books underthe year 2010.

The centre-right parties,which took the driver’s seat inSlovakia for the next fouryears shortly after the Junegeneral election, declared thatthey envision a different routefor Slovakia than that takenduring the previous four un-der the helm of former primeminister Robert Fico and hiscoalition partners.

Since the parliamentaryelection, the new governmenthas been engrossed in the divi-sion of power and what it hasdefined as the gargantuan taskof cleaning up after the Ficogovernment and mending thedamage caused by the globaleconomic downturn.

The government of IvetaRadičová has declared a cru-sade against corruption andcronyism, an intention toopen up the country’s judi-ciary to more light, as well asa commitment to trimmingpublic spending.

The new government hadto deal with the aftermath oftwo waves of flooding that hitmany regions of the countryin the spring and early sum-mer. They caused more prop-erty damage than any eventin the last 20 years.

This year the country wasalso shaken by an act of viol-ence the like of which it had

never witnessed before: aquiet suburb of Bratislavaturned into the scene of ashooting massacre on August30 after a 48-year-old residentof Devínska Nová Ves, de-scribed by his neighbours astaciturn and solitary, shotdead seven people, includingsix members of a part-Romafamily, before killing himself.The Slovak government de-clared a national day ofmourning on September 2.

In another tragic event,prominent Slovak attorneyErnest Valko was found shotdead on November 8 in hisfamily house in Limbach,near Bratislava. The death ofValko, who served as deputyspeaker of the lower house ofthe Czechoslovak federal par-liament in 1990-1991, and in1992 was chosen as the top of-ficial of the CzechoslovakConstitutional Court, shockedSlovak society. As of the end ofthe year, the circumstancessurrounding his death re-mained unclear.

The ruling coalition, sinceits creation in June, has ex-perienced several shakeups,

with the most recent turmoilbeing caused by the fourparties’ inability to have theirjoint candidate selected, via asecret vote, for the powerfulrole of general prosecutor.Radičová said that she wouldresign as prime minister if theincumbent, Dobroslav Trnka,were to be re-selected. Thefragile 79-seat majority thatthe ruling coalition holds inthe 150-member parliamentpromises a turbulent term forboth the ruling coalition andthe opposition too.

Elections bring change

Slovakia saw its leftistprime minister Robert Ficoleave office and move into op-position after a general elec-tion held on June 12, 2010. HisSmer party’s partner in gov-ernment, the nationalistSlovak National Party (SNS),suffered the same fate. Thecoalition of four centre-rightparties which emerged as theeventual winner from theelection was expected notonly to tackle Slovakia’s bal-looning public-finance defi-

cit, but also to address high-profile problems facing thejudiciary, non-transparentbehaviour by those in powerand increasingly tense rela-tions with neighbouringHungary.

Although Smer won thelargest share of the vote (34.78percent) and hence more seats(62) than any other party, fourcentre-right parties collect-ively won eight seats morethan Smer and SNS together.Prior to the election, all thecentre-right parties hadpromised not to cooperatewith Fico’s party.

The Slovak Democraticand Christian Union (SDKÚ)collected 15.4 percent of thevote and received 28 seats inthe next parliament; it wasfollowed by the greenhornFreedom and Solidarity (SaS)party, with 12.14 percent and22 seats. The Christian Demo-cratic Movement (KDH)picked up 8.52 percent of thevotes and 15 seats, followed bythe new Most-Híd party with8.12 percent of the votes and14 seats.

The election turnout was58.83 percent, slightly higherthan in 2006, when 55 percentof eligible Slovaks cast theirvotes.

“Good morning Slovakia;it does seem that change iswithin reach,” said SDKÚelection leader Iveta Radičováthe morning after the elec-tions. Her prediction wasborne out when she later be-came prime minister.

For the first time in its 12years on the Slovak politicalscene, the Hungarian Coali-tion Party (SMK) failed tomake it into parliament, afterwinning only 4.33 percent ofthe vote. The following dayleader Pál Csáky and the en-tire SMK party leadershipresigned.

Former prime ministerVladimír Mečiar, whoseMovement for a DemocraticSlovakia (HZDS) was part ofthe former ruling coalitionalong with Smer and the SNS,was also ejected from parlia-ment after almost two dec-ades in politics. The HZDS

won only 4.32 percent of thevote.

“The HZDS has not lost; itis Slovakia’s loss,” the head ofthe HZDS national councilMarián Klenko announced.

The post-election divisionof power saw the rise of somenew names, as well as thecontinuing presence of morefamiliar ones: Iveta Radičováwas appointed prime minis-ter, while her predecessor andopponent Robert Fico ex-changed his top executivepost for a top parliamentarypost, becoming one of the fourdeputy speakers of parlia-ment.

SDKÚ chairperson andformer prime ministerMikuláš Dzurinda, whostepped down as his party’selection leader to be replacedby Radičová, was appointed

foreign minister. KDH leaderJán Figeľ became head of anew ‘superministry’, as it wasdubbed by the media: a much-expanded Transport Ministry,which inherited some of theagenda of the defunct Con-struction Ministry. As such, itnow coordinates the drawingof European funds for regionaldevelopment. SaS chairpersonRichard Sulík got the post ofspeaker of parliament, whileMost-Híd leader Béla Bugárbecame one of the otherdeputy speakers.

Municipal elections

The parliamentary elec-tions were far from the onlytime that voters were asked toturn up at polling stations in2010. Shortly before the end ofthe year, on November 27,municipal elections tookplace across Slovakia. Smeragain emerged as the singlemost popular party, but ob-servers say it did not register aknock-down victory.

“I see the 2010 municipalelections as a defeat,” MikulášDzurinda, chair of the SlovakDemocratic and Christian

Union (SDKÚ), said, addingthat leftist parties were muchmore successful than thecentre-right parties in therace. His statement cameafter centre-right candidateMagdaléna Vášáryová failed tosecure the mayoralty of Brat-islava, previously a strong-hold of the right. The winnerwas Milan Ftáčnik, who ran asan independent candidatewith Smer’s endorsement.

The results of the mayoralraces in Slovakia’s eight re-gional capitals indeedprovided Smer with reason tocelebrate, especially sinceSlovakia’s two largest cities,Košice and Bratislava, went tocandidates backed by RobertFico’s party.

News in review continues on pg 8

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ &MICHAELA TERENZANI

Spectator staff

The parliamentary elections took place as some parts of the country were just recovering from widespread flooding. Photo: TASR

To the victors, the spoils: the four coalition leaders celebrate after their success. Photo: TASR

Vladimír Mečiar got the boot on election night. Photo: TASR

6 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011

MEDIA AND PR

Next issue:

THE YEAR IN POLITICS

A round-up of the year in business

SLOVAKIA, like other coun-tries throughout the world,had to deal with the impactsof the global financial andeconomic crisis throughout2010. While the country’sgross domestic product grewover the course of 2010, in con-trast to the 4.7-percent con-traction recorded in 2009,Slovakia’s relatively small andopen economy, which exportsa large portion of its produc-tion, suffered from lower eco-nomic activity in its maintrading partners. After theJune 12 parliamentary elec-tion the baton of governmentwas passed from the populistand nationalist coalitionheaded by previous primeminister Robert Fico to acentre-right coalition of fourparties led by Prime MinisterIveta Radičová. The new gov-ernment, which has called it-self a government of coopera-tion and responsibility, hasstarted down a path of auster-ity measures to avoid the pos-sibility that the country willface a situation similar to thatof Greece or Ireland.

January

Toll collection facedprotests from truckers – OnJanuary 1 Slovakia’s NationalHighway Company startedoperation of a new electronictoll collection system requir-ing trucks and buses heavierthan 3.5 tonnes to pay tollselectronically on about 2,000kilometres of highways, dualcarriageways and certain sec-tions of first-category roads.

The toll system was built andis operated by SkyToll, whosebid for the 13-year contract,worth €850 million, was se-lected after all other bidderswere excluded on variousgrounds. Truckers immedi-ately began protests againstimperfections in the system,and even by the end of 2010some truckers claimed thatnot all the bugs had beenironed out. The tender drewflak from EU officials in Brus-sels: Slovakia must respondbefore January 1, 2011, to ECobjections or face possiblecourt action and sanctions.The EC believes rules on equal

treatment and non-discrim-ination were violated in thetender process. The state hadexpected to collect about €165million in highway tolls fromthe new system in 2010 butincome was only €130.4 mil-lion in the first 11 months.

New NBS governor ap-pointed – President IvanGašparovič formally appoin-

ted Jozef Makúch to the postof governor of the NationalBank of Slovakia (NBS) onJanuary 12. Makúch replacedIvan Šramko. Makúch hadbeen appointed a member ofthe NBS board in 2005 andtook up his post in 2006. Hehad served as NBS executivedirector for security andpremises since 2007.

Interblue morphed intoa Swiss firm – InterblueGroup, the mysterious US-based firm which regularlymade headlines in Slovakiabecause of its questionabledeal in purchasing Slovakia’squotas to emit 15 million

tonnes of carbon dioxide at aprice well below what neigh-bouring countries received,ceased to exist in late Decem-ber 2009. The legal rights andobligations of the US firm –originally registered to a lock-up garage in Snohomish, asmall town in WashingtonState; the company hence be-came known in Slovakia as a‘garage firm’ – were trans-ferred to a new companybased in Switzerland. Eventhough the EnvironmentMinistry did not acknowledgethe legality of the transfer, itnow seems certain that Slov-akia lost as much as €66 mil-lion on the sale to InterblueGroup and the country hasthus far failed to collect an ad-ditional €15 million that itsays Interblue owes Slovakiafor having used the originalproceeds for ‘green’ projects.

Two ministries closed –On January 19 the Fico cabinetofficially approved the closureof the Ministries of Environ-ment and of Construction andRegional Development asstandalone bodies and thetransfer of their powers toother ministries. After theRadičová government tookpower in July, the responsibil-ities of various ministrieswere juggled again. The Min-

istry of Environment was re-established and responsibilityfor overseeing the construc-tion sector that had beentransferred to the EconomyMinistry was deposited in theMinistry of Transport, Postsand Telecommunications.

Regulator capped mobilephone charges – LadislavMikuš, the chairman of theSlovak TelecommunicationsOffice, the country’s regulat-ory authority, established themaximum prices that mobileoperators can charge eachother for call terminations.Orange Slovensko and T-Mo-bile Slovensko were ordered tocharge no more than €0.0635per minute to all telecommu-nications operators, includingfixed line operators, betweenFebruary 2010 and the end ofJanuary 2011. The cap for mo-bile operator Telephónica O2Slovakia was set at €0.0768per minute.

February

Entrepreneurs of theyear recognised – MichalŠtencl, the founder andchairman of the board of dir-ectors of Sygic, was awardedthe 2009 Entrepreneur of theYear title on February 18. JurajHudý, founder of XRAY, wasnamed the 2009 InnovativeEntrepreneur of the Year. Theaward for the 2009 Start-UpEntrepreneur of the Yearwent to Tatiana Kyseľováfrom pelicantravel.com.

Brussels questioned loanfor Cargo Slovakia – TheEuropean Commission beganan in-depth investigation intowhether a €166 million stateloan for the Slovak freightrailway company Cargo Slov-akia (ZSSK Cargo) violated EUrules on state aid. The EC be-lieved the loan – which theSlovak rail freight companyplanned to use to financecosts linked to the company’soperations – might constituteimproper state aid incompat-ible with the internal marketand EU legislation, givingCargo Slovakia an unjustifiedadvantage over its competit-ors.

State gained €19 millionin car scrapping – Slovakia'sstate treasury ‘earned’€19.068 million from the tworounds of its old-car scrappingscheme which provided astate subsidy upon disposal ofan old car and subsequentpurchase of a new car. Valueadded taxes paid on new carsbrought the government€68.900 million while thesubsidies paid by the state forpurchase of the cars cost€49.832 million. The govern-ment originally planned tosupport the purchase of

44,200 new cars with €55.294million but the subsidy wasclaimed for only 39,270 cars.The most successful car brandin the scheme was Renault,followed by Škoda and KiaMotors. The best selling mod-el was the Renault Thalia,with the Škoda Fabia 2 placingsecond, and the Kia cee’dcoming in third.

Slovak gets a top nuclearposition – At the regular gen-eral conference of the WorldAssociation of Nuclear Oper-ators (WANO) in Delhi in earlyFebruary, Ignác Pňaček waselected the chairman of theWANO Moscow centre, thefirst time that a Slovak be-came the chairman of one ofWANO’s organisational units.Pňaček is a member of theboard of directors of SlovenskéElektrárne and the director ofthe production division of thepower producer, a member ofthe Enel Group.

March

Publisher of Pravdadaily changed – The Pravdadaily changed ownership asthe Florena company boughtthe daily from the BritishDaily Mail & General Trust.Florena is associated withSlovakia’s J&T group.

Tourism law adopted –Parliament adopted a law onMarch 3 to support tourismthat becomes effective at thestart of 2011. This isSlovakia’s first comprehens-ive law supporting the de-velopment of tourism and in-troduces a system underwhich the state will co-fin-ance the revenues of touristorganisations from member-ship contributions paid bymunicipalities, regions andentrepreneurs in tourism ata 1:1 ratio.

The year in businesscontinues on pg 11

BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁSpectator staff

Anger over the new electronic toll system brought hundreds oftruckers into the streets to protest. Photo: Sme - Pavol Funtál

Robert Fico's fifth environment minister, Jozef Medveď, failed toresolve the debacle involving Interblue Group. Photo: ČTK

Slovakia's car-scrapping bonus was very popular. Photo: SITA

The prices of certain mobile services were capped. Photo: Sme

7December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011

THE YEAR IN BUSINESS

Trouble in the courtsContinued from pg 6

Voters in Košice dis-patched the incumbent may-or, František Knapík, repla-cing him with Smer candid-ate and former health minis-ter Richard Raši, who wasalso backed by coalition partyMost-Híd. Fico bragged on TVnews channel TA3 that Smerwould fill 960 posts for vil-lage mayors and 74 urbanmayoralties.

According to the officialelection results, Smer won 599mayoral races altogether, 200more than in 2006, but thistotal included only candidateswho ran exclusively under thebanner of Smer and who werenot part of any coalition.

Observers warned againstdrawing hasty conclusionsfrom the results, saying thatSmer’s victory looked biggerthan it actually was, mainlydue to the majority votingsystem used for the municip-al elections but also becauseof the good marketing andstrategy that the party usedin the election campaign.They noted that Smer ran anenormous number of candid-ates and did not hesitate todrop candidates if polls in-dicated they had a lowchance of success, switchinginstead to back independentsin order to increase the finalnumber of winning candid-ates in Smer’s column.

Another failed referendum

Slovakia’s seventh refer-endum took place onSeptember 18 and, as withmost of its forerunners,failed to attract enoughvoters for the result to be de-clared valid. At least 50 per-cent of eligible voters have toturn out for a referendum inSlovakia to be binding.

Voters were asked to con-sider six questions in the ref-erendum. The first three con-cerned whether parliamentshould cancel the mandatorymonthly payments that sup-port Slovakia’s public-servicemedia, whether to limit im-munity from prosecution for

members of parliament, andwhether to reduce the num-ber of seats in parliamentfrom 150 to 100 beginningfrom the next election term.The other three issues dealtwith restricting governmentoffices from purchasing carsworth more than €40,000,permitting internet voting infuture elections, and exclud-ing persons elected to publicoffice from the right to replygranted under Slovakia’samended Press Code.

While the oppositioncomplained that the referen-dum was a waste of money,Richard Sulík, whose SaSparty initiated the petitionwhich prompted the refer-endum, argued that the res-ults “are binding forpoliticians” even though thereferendum itself was notvalid. In fact, more than amillion citizens expressedtheir opinions in the poll onSeptember 18, but that stillconstituted only around 23percent of eligible voters.

The referendum was an-nounced in July, after thepresident’s office evaluated400,000 signatures collectedon petition sheets and ruledthat 369,000 were valid.350,000 or more valid signa-tures are required to mandatea referendum in Slovakia. Thepetition sheets were de-livered to the president onJune 9 by SaS.

SaS started its petition ini-tiative shortly after the partywas founded. Observersagreed that the initiative waspart of the new party’sstrategy to make itself morevisible. SaS attempted to havethe referendum held alongwith the parliamentary elec-tion, but did not succeed. Thereferendum was thus criti-cised as unjustified, as manyof the issues had meanwhilebeen incorporated into thenew government’s pro-gramme statement.

The judicial systemunder a cloud

An early February rulingby the Bratislava DistrictCourt upholding a wage dis-crimination complaint andawarding a judge €90,000 indamages evoked serious con-cerns about the ethics of somemembers of Slovakia’s judi-ciary as well as the potentialdrain on the state’s coffers.

The judges who filed thelawsuits argued that highersalaries paid to judges sittingon Slovakia’s former SpecialCourt, established by a previ-ous government to fight high-level corruption and organisedcrime, were discriminatorytowards less well-paid judgesat other courts. The discrim-ination verdict was in facthanded down by a judge whohad earlier lodged a similarcomplaint on behalf of herself.

The justice minister untilthe June general election, Vi-era Petríková, had also lodgeda similar lawsuit three yearsago when serving as a judge.

Lucia Žitňanská, the SDKÚnominee who replacedPetríková following the Junegeneral election, has, accord-ing to observers, injected abreath of fresh air into the de-partment. It had earlier been asubject of concern by theformer opposition, and the in-ternational as well as thebusiness community. An an-nual survey among 114 majorGerman, Austrian and Frenchinvestors pointed to whatthey called the ineffective-ness in the justice system,which they said often preven-ted companies from enforcinglegal claims within an appro-priate period of time.

Throughout the year, dip-lomats have been publiclymonitoring disciplinary pro-ceedings against judges crit-ical of the Supreme Court’spresident, Štefan Harabin. Forexample, representatives ofthe embassies of the UnitedStates, Great Britain, Canada,Norway, and Austria attendeda hearing against SupremeCourt Justice Jozef Kanderaon March 17. The disciplinarypanel found Kandera guilty ofprotracted oversight of crim-inal cases and cut his salary by15 percent for one month.

The initiative For an OpenJudiciary, which emerged inresponse to what its founderscalled political intervention,lack of transparency and themisuse of disciplinary pro-ceedings, continued its activ-ities throughout 2010.

On October 19, parliamentpassed a revision to the Judi-cial Council Act which willmake sittings of the JudicialCouncil public and will obligeits members to provide argu-ments for their decisions,which mainly concern per-sonnel issues. The revisionalso bans chairs and deputy

chairs of courts from beingmembers of the council.

Other changes that shouldmake the operation of the Ju-dicial Council more transpar-ent include the obligation torecord the proceedings of thecouncil and then publishthem on the internet.

The government of IvetaRadičová announced shortlyafter taking power that it in-tended to introduce changesto the judiciary in order toprevent unrestricted move-ment between judicial andexecutive positions. Thepolicy was in fact a responseto the growing chorus of dis-content about the way the ju-diciary is currently managed.

Tensions between the rul-ing coalition and Harabinhave been heightened by theSupreme Court president’scontinuing refusal to allowFinance Ministry auditors tocheck the court's accounts,following an initial attempt inAugust 2010. Finance MinisterIvan Mikloš hit the court witha €33,000 fine, and Mikloš andHarabin have since sued eachother’s offices. Žitňanská inNovember weighed in by fil-ing a proposal with the SlovakConstitutional Court tolaunch a disciplinary proceed-

ing against Harabin. The Su-preme Court responded by su-ing her too.

Roma minority still an issue

Increased tension in rela-tions between the majoritypopulation and the Romaminority also characterised2010. With parliamentaryelections in sight, the firsthalf of the year witnessedmany expressions of anti-Roma sentiment on the na-tional as well as the locallevel. People’s Party-Our Slov-akia (ĽSNS), whose roots lay inthe outlawed extreme-rightSlovenská Pospolitosť (SlovakTogetherness) organisation,held demonstrations acrosseastern Slovakia to protestagainst what it described asthe unacceptable behaviour oflocal Roma communities. Insome cases, hundreds ofpeople joined these demon-strations.

The presence of the na-tionalist Slovak NationalParty (SNS) in the governmentdid not help to ease the ten-sion, as the intolerant andsometimes racist statements

of its representatives contin-ued to appear in the media.One of the party’s electioncampaign billboards featureda bare-chested Roma man –whose photograph was digit-ally altered to give him prom-inent tattoos and a thick goldchain – along with the slogan:“So that we do not feed thosewho do not want to work”.

Several reports on thestate of human rights in Slov-akia pointed to the unresolvedissues of discriminationagainst Roma, among themthe US Department of State’s

Human Rights Report andAmnesty International’s re-port The State of the World’sHuman Rights. They pointedto the huge numbers of Romachildren who are being deniedthe right to education by be-ing placed in special schoolsor classes for children withmental disabilities despite nothaving any mental disability,and the unresolved povertyand unemployment in Romasettlements. Blatant ex-amples of segregation werelisted in housing practices,and in the construction ofwalls to separate Roma-inhab-ited neighbourhoods fromplaces where the majoritypopulation live.

A wall built to separate aRoma settlement from thevillage of Ostrovany in east-ern Slovakia in 2009 is onesuch example, and was laterfollowed by others. InMichalovce in eastern Slov-akia, an extra 25 metres wasadded to an existing half-kilometre-long wall in Au-gust 2010. Local people in thesuburb of Východ collected€3,000 to finance construc-tion of the wall extension,which prevents residents ofthe neighbouring Angy Mlynsettlement, where approx-imately 1,800 Roma live,from making a short-cutthrough their propertieswhen they want to walk tothe centre of the town, theSme daily reported.

Such problems, however,are not confined to thecountry’s east. In the far westof Slovakia, the village ofPlavecký Štvrtok has beentrying to get a nearby Romasettlement bulldozed. Thelocal authorities argue thatmost of the houses in the set-tlement are illegal, and someof them have also been builton land above an under-ground gas pipeline, a restric-ted area where no buildingsare legally permitted. Whilehuman-rights watchdogscontinued to publicise theinhumanity of such solu-tions, the government’s onlyresponse to the concerns ofthe village citizens appearedto be an offer to fund low-standard housing for Romaliving in the settlement.

The year in news continues on pg 9

Bratislava's new mayor Milan Ftáčnik (left). Photo: SITA

Poor education of Roma pupils was criticised. Photo: SmeRichard Sulík Photo: ČTK

Štefan Harabin Photo: TASR

8 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011 FOCUS

A year of nationalist rhetoricContinued from pg 8

But the citizens ofPlavecký Štvrtok found asympathetic ear among offi-cials of the SNS, known for itshard-line attitude on Roma is-sues. They stated that theysupported the village’s de-molition plans. Shortly beforeparliamentary elections wereheld, the vice-chairman of theSNS youth organisation, law-yer Martin Píry, offered hisservices to the mayor and onApril 8 his offer was accepted.

The most recent devel-opment has shown that thesettlement is protected fromdemolition for now, as theprosecutor has protestedagainst it.

The unresolved problemsof the Roma minority, whichin turn affect the whole of so-ciety, resulted in a recent sur-vey – the International SocialSurvey Programme (ISSP)2009-2010, conducted by thesociology department of theSlovak Academy of Sciences –finding that conflicts betweenthe majority population andthe Roma minority are per-ceived as the most bitter bySlovakia’s citizens.

Nationalist relics remain

A statue of Svätopluk, aninth-century regional lead-er, was erected in the maincourtyard of Bratislava Castlelate in the term of the RobertFico-led government andproudly unveiled just beforethe general election. It was

criticised by historians andartists for its historical inac-curacy and for mythologisinghistory. It remains in place,but is one of several national-ist-inspired relics from theprevious government whichthe Radičová governmenthas not been able to sweepaway entirely.

The law on state symbolshad a similar genesis. The pro-gramme statement of the gov-ernment says nothing aboutamending this law, which theFico government changed, os-tensibly to promote patriot-ism. That step attractedmassive criticism from stu-dents, minority representat-ives, human rights activistsand the general public.

It requires the nationalanthem to be played by publicbroadcasters Slovak Televi-sion and Slovak Radio everyevening at around midnight,as well as by schools at thestart and at the end of theschool year, plus before thefirst and last sessions of thestate parliament, governmentmeetings, and local and re-gional parliaments. Statesymbols – the preamble to theconstitution, the national flagand Slovakia’s coat of arms –are to be displayed in an ap-propriate place in schools. The

law took effect on September 1and has not yet beenamended, despite an attemptby some coalition MPs to pro-pose changes to it.

The State Language Act,which introduced fines for us-ing languages other thanSlovak in official communica-tion, was another law expec-ted to be scrapped by the newgovernment almost immedi-ately after it came into office.Nothing happened, however,and it took nearly half a yearfor the new government todraft an amendment, whichhas since won parliament’sapproval. Culture MinisterDaniel Krajcer, whose de-partment authored theamendment, said that “all the

nonsense” has been removedfrom the law. However, finesfor language misuse, althoughlimited to public offices only,remain in the law.

Coalition party Most-Hídcriticised the amendment asimperfect, but admitted thatin a coalition of four parties acompromise is the most fre-quent solution, and thereforesupported the law in parlia-ment. Originally, Most-Hídwanted to have the lawscrapped or at least com-pletely stripped of fines.

Slovakia’s Press Code, lastamended in 2008 under theFico government, is anothermuch-criticised measurewhich has endured. The cur-rent government included arevamp of the controversiallaw in its official programmeand Culture Minister DanielKrajcer and his team havealready submitted a draft re-vision to the code which,among other things, willtrim the scope of public offi-cials to use the right to replycurrently defined by the law.If it is passed, as expected,public officials will no longerbe able to insist on a printedreply to stories about themproviding these pertain tothe performance of theirpublic function. However,public officials will still en-joy a right to reply as privateindividuals; Krajcer saysthat this is in line with theSlovak constitution. News-paper publishers say thatKrajcer’s revision brings im-provements, but does notincorporate all the recom-mendations that they havedemanded.

Limiting MPs’ privilegeswas one of the main aims Iv-eta Radičová set out whenshe authored the constitu-tional law that is required tocurb the immunity of MPsfrom criminal prosecution.Radičová had originallyhoped that the change wouldinitiate what she called “anew kind of relations”

between citizens and MPs,but passing a constitutionallaw requires a qualified ma-jority of 90 seats and so theruling coalition, having only

79, had to rely on oppositiondeputies for support. They,however, chose to let thedraft law sink in a final voteon October 26, after lengthydebate in parliament. Theopposition argued that its re-fusal to restrict MPs’ im-munity to statements madein parliament stemmed onlyfrom the fear that the rulingcoalition might criminalisedeputies from Smer or theSlovak National Party (SNS)who were in government forthe preceding four years.

Radičová said that hergovernment would continueworking towards ending theimmunity of MPs from non-criminal misdemeanours,which means that deputiescould end up being fined foroffences such as traffic viola-tions, just like anyone else.

Party financing casesoutstanding

In mid January, Smer bossRobert Fico dug up a long-dormant case concerning thepast financing of the SDKÚand seasoned it with informa-tion about what he calledmoney laundering, fictitiousfirms and tax-haven bank ac-counts. Fico asserted that theSDKÚ channelled moneythrough foreign accounts su-pervised by its officials. AfterFico’s statements, SDKÚ lead-er Dzurinda publicly admittedthat his party was unable toanswer all the questions thatjournalists were asking aboutthe party’s financing between2000 and 2004.

Observers suggested thatFico was trying to overshad-ow some of the still-smokingpolitical scandals generatedby his ruling coalition com-prising Smer, SNS and theHZDS.

Fico opened up the SDKÚfinancing case on January 22,after a four-and-a-half-yearlacuna. The case involved aso-far unexplained transac-tion which helped the party

to clear its then-Sk22 million(approximately €730,000, atcurrent exchange rates) debtand at the same time allowed

it to sell its Medená Streetproperty for Sk27 million (ap-proximately €896,000, at cur-rent exchange rates). Fico ini-tially suggested that theunidentified owners of Swissbank accounts and shell firmsin tax havens were involvedin the deal. Then, on January27, Fico claimed that theSDKÚ is controlled by shellcompanies based in London,with CEOs operating in taxhavens and holding accountsin Swiss banks.

After Fico published thefirst information, Dzurindasaid that his party had alreadypaid the price twice for un-answered questions pertain-ing to his party’s financingbetween 2000 and 2004: oncein 2002, and again in 2006, inthe parliamentary elections.Since then, the party’s finan-cing has been completelytransparent, he said.

Nevertheless, the ruckusaround the financing resultedin Dzurinda stepping down asthe election leader of theparty, creating room for IvetaRadičová to climb to the top ofthe SDKÚ candidate list.

Then, shortly before the2010 parliamentary election,the Sme daily received andpublished an audio recordingfeaturing a voice resemblingthat of Fico.

The conversation on therecording implied that Smermight have accepted cam-paign contributions fromsponsors that were not prop-erly recorded in the party’sfinancial accounts. On the daythat Sme posted the recordingon its website, Fico said thathe would sue Sme’s editor-in-chief, claiming that thenewspaper was running an“anti-campaign”.

Interior Minister DanielLipšic, who in May 2010 wasan MP for the ChristianDemocratic Movement (KDH),confirmed that he also had acopy of the same recordingand had given it to the Gener-al Prosecutor’s Office, askingthat it be added to a criminalcomplaint that KDH had pre-viously filed against Smer al-leging lawbreaking related tothe party’s financing.

Fico called the recordingnonsense and a fake, statingthat he can produce manysuch recordings.

Mikuláš Dzurinda Photo: TASR

Roma families living in a shanty town near Plavecký Štvrtok faced eviction. Photo: Sme

Robert Fico Photo: TASR

The controversial statue of 'King' Svätopluk. Photo: Sme

9December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011FOCUS

SP90464/2

10 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011 ADVERTISEMENT

New openings in BratislavaContinued from pg 7

Tighter regulations onsolar power plants – OnMarch 3, parliament adopted arevision to the Energy Act tomore stringently regulateconstruction of new solarpower plants in Slovakia. Ef-fective May 1, the Ministry ofEconomy began requiring allinvestors to acquire a certific-ate that their plan to build asolar power plant complieswith the government’s long-term energy policy. Previ-ously, only investors whowanted to build solar powerplants with installed capacityexceeding 1 MW had to getsuch certification. Investorswho want to build solar powerplants on buildings with an in-stalled capacity of up to 100kilowatts are exempt.

Ministry suspended AirSlovakia's licence – Air carrierAir Slovakia had its licence toprovide air transport servicessuspended by the TransportMinistry on March 4. Later inthe year the company filed forbankruptcy.

Construction minister isdismissed – President IvanGašparovič dismissed IgorŠtefanov as the head of theConstruction and RegionalDevelopment Ministry onMarch 11 at the request ofPrime Minister Fico because of

inappropriate use of publicfunds under the so-called bul-letin-board tender contract.Fico asked Education MinisterJán Mikolaj to temporarily su-pervise the ministry until theJune parliamentary election.Controversies surrounding thetender had not been resolvedbefore the end of 2010.

April

Seagle Air filed for bank-ruptcy – Air carrier Seagle Airadmitted it was in default and

filed for bankruptcy at theBanská Bystrica DistrictCourt in early April. Follow-ing the demise of SkyEurope(in 2009) and Air Slovakia,Seagle Air became the thirdair carrier to disappear fromSlovak skies.

New complex opened inBratislava – Eurovea, a mod-ern multi-functional com-plex consisting of a shoppinggallery, a five-star SheratonHotel, a multiplex, officesand apartments located onthe north bank of the DanubeRiver, was gradually openedthrough the spring. Bally-more Group, the developer ofthe complex, received one ofthe most prestigious archi-

tecture awards, a CE.ZA.AR,for the promenade it builtflanking the river.

May

Investment incentivesapproved – On May 12 theSlovak government approvedinvestment incentives of €16million for five companies:Pasívhaus Modul Systeme,Monocrystalex, Sapa Profily,Stawi, and SKH Plastic. Theseinvestments were expectedto create 468 new jobs.

Amendment on corpor-ate crime passed – If a crimeis committed by a legal entityit can be sanctioned under anamendment to the PenalCode prepared by the JusticeMinistry and signed into lawby President Ivan Gašparovičin mid May. The new law in-troduces legal sanctions forindirect criminal responsib-ility by corporate entitiesand became effective onSeptember 1, 2010.

Highway over PovažskáBystrica opened – PrimeMinister Fico ceremoniallyopened a 10-kilometre high-way section on May 30 thatincludes an elevated sectionover Považská Bystrica. Asmuch as 70 percent of thetraffic on the first-categoryroad through PovažskáBystrica, in Trenčín Region,was diverted to the newlyopened Sverepec-Vrtižer sec-tion of the D1 motorway. Theconstruction work on thesection was launched in 2008and the overall cost was €379million.

June

New wine categorisa-tion – Wine makers fromsouth-eastern Slovakia wereagain able to use the nameTokaj for wines they produceas of June 1 based on a revi-sion to the Act on Viniculturein which Slovakia began us-ing the European method oflabelling wines, meaning itno longer divided its winesinto table wines and vintagewines. The new categorisa-tion emphasises geograph-ical labelling, with Slovakvineyard regions divided in-to six areas: Tokaj,Malokarpatská, Južno-slovenská, Nitrianska,Východoslovenská andStredoslovenská.

Tax freedom day – Taxfreedom day, the symbolicday that marks the last daythat taxpayers must work tocover their income tax andother mandatory obligationsto the state was calculated tobe on June 7, 2010 – four dayslater than in 2009.

Centre-right partiesfound electoral success –Four centre-right parties – theSlovak Democratic and Chris-tian Union, the Christian

Democratic Movement, Most-Hid and Freedom and Solidar-ity won enough seats in par-liament in the June 12 generalelection to form a new gov-ernment after the Smer party,which took the most seats inthe election, failed to find apartner or partners to achievea majority. The change at thedriver’s wheel brought achange in the country’s direc-tion, with a number of peoplefrom previous centre-rightgovernments led by MikulášDzurinda returning to stateoffices.

Another modern com-plex opened in the capital –River Park, another newcomplex only a few kilo-metres from Eurovea, gradu-ally opened over the summerafter the five-star KempinskiHotel River Park debuted inJune. In addition to thehotel, the development con-sists of shops, restaurants,offices and residential units.

Foxconn bought Sony’sNitra plant – The European

Commission approved thepurchase of 90 percent ofSony's LCD TV assemblyfactory in Nitra by Taiwaneseelectronic goods producerFoxconn in late June. Pro-duction continued in thefactory and the number ofpeople employed was expec-ted to increase as the dealshould ease Foxconn's entry

into the European marketand help it to expand its LCDTV OEM business. The pur-chase price was not revealed.

New millionaires inSlovakia – In spite of theeconomic crisis, the numberof Slovak millionaires in-creased in 2009. According tothe 14th World Wealth Re-port 2010, published by theCapgemini and MerrillLynch companies, 2,770Slovaks now hold wealth ex-ceeding $1 million. But thenumber of Slovak million-aires did not change signific-antly in 2009, increasingonly by 0.9 percent and lag-ging behind the globalgrowth of millionaires, re-ported to be 17.1 percent.

New passenger termin-al opened – Milan R.Štefánik Airport in Bratis-lava opened its new terminalwith an annual capacity of3.5 million passengers inearly June. Reconstructionof the existing terminal,which had been in use for

forty years and fails to meetcurrent passenger servicerequirements, commencedand should be completed byFebruary 2012. The airport'sannual capacity will in-crease to five million pas-sengers. Construction costsfor the new terminal and re-construction of the old facil-ity are about €96 million.

July

Fixed and mobile operat-ors merged – Slovak Telekom,the country’s major fixed-lineoperator, merged with T-Mo-bile Slovensko on July 1. SlovakTelekom became the legal suc-cessor of the two companies,both of which were majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom.

Slovakia joined the EFSF –Finance Minister Ivan Miklošsigned the framework agree-ment for the European Finan-cial Stabilisation Facility (EFSF)on July 15 and Slovakia becamethe last country to join theplan. Since Slovakia was justchanging government afterthe June parliamentary elec-tion the incoming and the out-going governments played atug of war for several weeksover the issue. Outgoing primeminister Fico had quicklytossed the ball to incomingPrime Minister Iveta Radičová,saying that approval of theEuropean programme was thenew government’s responsibil-

ity. She had insisted thatSlovakia’s formal yes or no,which was supposed to comebefore July 1, was fully withinthe power of Fico’s govern-ment, which had earlier inkedthe deal. Radičová was offi-cially appointed prime minis-ter on July 8.

August

Priorities presented bynew government – On August3 Prime Minister Radičovápresented six priorities to bepursued by her government toimprove life in Slovakia:healthy and sustainable eco-nomic performance; zero tol-erance of corruption and secur-ing access to justice; enoughwork opportunities to reducesocial risks; a motivating busi-ness environment and activecivil society; development ofeducated people and an innov-ative society; and assuring ac-cess to quality medical care.Parliament adopted thecabinet’s four-year programmeon August 10.

The year in businesscontinues on pg 12

The failure of three Slovak airlines, SkyEurope, Air Slovakia andSeagle Air, emptied airports in Slovakia. Photo: Sme

Minister Igor Štefanov was sacked over a scandal. Photo: TASR

Tokaj wine is one of Slovakia's treasures. Photo: TASR

Bratislava's Milan R. Štefánik Airport opened a new modern terminal in June. Photo: TASR

11December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011FOCUS

PPP highway construction haltedContinued from pg 11

Chemical companyNCHZ put on sale – An inter-national public tender for pur-chase of the bankrupt chem-ical company NováckeChemické Závody (NCHZ) wasofficially announced in Au-gust. Subsequently, onNovember 24, the creditors’committee turned down onlybidder, M-Energo, which hadoffered €2 million. The onlyknown opponent of the salewas the government's privat-isation agency, the NationalProperty Fund (FNM), whichapparently was concernedthat its €22 million claimwould not be satisfied if thecompany was sold. NCHZ wasfined €19.6 million, as part of atotal fine of €61.12 million im-posed by the European Com-mission on nine companies,for violating the EC’s ban oncartels and restrictive busi-ness practices. NCHZ said thefine caused its bankruptcy.

Slovakia rejected Greekloan – The recommendationby the Radičová governmentto reject any share of the costsof the €110-billion rescue loanfor Greece was approved bySlovakia’s parliament. On Au-gust 11, parliament rejectedadditional codicils to the ori-ginal agreement signed by thepast government that werenecessary if Slovakia was tocontribute any cash to theGreek loan. The EuropeanCommission quickly respon-ded that Slovakia, by refusingto participate in the loan toGreece, violated the EU’s prin-ciple of solidarity.

Embraco and LVD S3 re-ceived state incentives – Inlate August the Slovak cabinetgreen-lighted two investmentincentives for a total of €9.9million. Embraco Slovakia re-ceived €6.5 million for its in-vestment in a factory locatedin Spišská Nová Ves and theremainder went to LVD S3 forconstruction of a €6.9 millionfactory for the production ofmetal forming machinery inTornaľa.

September

VAT increased – OnSeptember 3 the cabinet ap-proved a 1 percentage-pointhike in Slovakia’s value addedtax to 20 percent beginning in2011 as part of thegovernment’s austerity pack-age. VAT will remain at thatlevel until the public financedeficit falls under 3 percent ofGDP. The proposal was sub-sequently passed by parlia-ment and is one of severalmeasures designed to save thestate €1.7 billion through acombination of tax increasesand expenditure cuts.

First PPP package iskilled – Transport MinisterJán Figeľ decided not to pro-long the deadline for financialclosure of the first PPP pack-age for the construction of fivesections of the D1 highwaybetween Martin and Prešov.

Figeľ explained thatSlovenské Diaľnice, the con-cessionaire, which was tobuild and operate the 75-kilo-metre highway section for 30years, was unable to ensurethe project’s financial closureby August 30 and the deadlinehad been postponed severaltimes by his predecessorwithout success.

Mochovce reached mile-stone – The Mochovce nucle-ar power plant, owned bySlovenské Elektrárne (SE), thecountry’s primary powerproducer, completed in-

stalling the pressure vesselfor a third nuclear reactor onSeptember 7. SE plans to putthe third unit of Mochovceinto operation at the end of2012; a fourth unit will comeonline in 2013. After comple-tion of Mochovce units threeand four Slovakia will havesix nuclear reactors generat-ing power, all owned by SE:the four in Mochovce, knownas EMO, and two in JaslovskéBohunice known as V2.

October

Customers shunnedmandated banking product –Banks in Slovakia were ob-liged to offer customers a‘basic banking product’ be-ginning in October but theidea failed to attract many

customers, with the bankssaying that the mandatedpackage was unnecessary andpoorly designed. The bankspriced the package higherthan similar services theyoffered and promoted, claim-ing that the higher fees wererequired because of the kindsof services that had to be in-cluded in the package. Theprevious government had in-structed the banks to offer this‘basic banking product’ –defined as an identical pack-age of services across all banks– with the aim of helping cus-

tomers to better understandbanking fees and to gain easieraccess to services connectedto their current account.

Renewable energy planadopted – On October 6, thecabinet adopted the NationalAction Plan for Renewable En-ergy Sources, stipulating thecountry’s objectives as an EUmember state to increase theshare of energy used in trans-port, generation of electricity,heating and cooling produc-tion that is generated from re-newable sources by 2020.Slovakia committed to in-crease the proportion of re-newable energy from 6.7 per-cent of final gross consump-tion in 2005 to 14 percent in2020. The plan states that theprimary focus should be onexploitation of biomass.

Deficit put at 7.9 percentof GDP – Slovakia closed 2009with a general governmentdeficit of 7.9 percent of GDPand Eurostat reported that thecountry's total public debtreached 35.4 percent of GDP.The Finance Ministry com-mented that Slovakia wasamong the less responsible EUstates because only seven of 26countries that provided datato Eurostate reported a largerbudget deficit for 2009 thanSlovakia. However, in terms ofoverall public debt as a per-centage of GDP, Slovakia's re-mained among the lowest inthe EU in 2009.

November

New environment min-ister appointed – The Min-istry of Environment restar-ted its operation as a stan-dalone ministry on November1 and President Gašparovič onNovember 2 appointed JózsefNagy as the new head of thecountry’s resurrected Envir-onment Ministry.

Stake in Dexia BankaSlovensko is sold – TheFranco-Belgian Dexia bankannounced on November 11that it had reached agreementwith Penta, a Slovak-based in-vestment group, to sell an88.71-percent stake in its sub-sidiary Dexia Banka Slov-ensko. The deal meets the re-quirement of the EuropeanCommission which hadordered the bank, in exchangefor a €6.4-billion emergencyaid package that it receivedfrom Belgium, France andLuxembourg, to sell its Slovaksubsidiary by October 31, 2012.

Broad-gauge railway re-jected – Prime MinisterRadičová told media in lateNovember that a broad-gaugerailway would probably notbe built across Slovakia. Theidea was a favourite of theprevious prime minister,whose aim was to extend thebroad-gauge railway fromRussia through Slovakia intoAustria. The current broad-gauge railway reaches Košice

where U.S. Steel Košice uses itfor transportation of raw ma-terials from Russia. The gov-ernment said it would make afinal decision on the nearly-€5-billion project after re-viewing the results of a feas-ibility study. Released onDecember 14, this studyfound in favour of the plan.

December

GDP growth reviseddown – The National Bank ofSlovakia in early Decemberslightly revised its estimate ofGDP growth in Slovakia for2010, lowering it by 0.1 per-centage points to 4.2 percent.The NBS kept its estimate ofGDP growth at 3 percent for2011 and projected GDPgrowth for 2012 to reach 4 per-cent. Slovakia’s economy, asmeasured by GDP, contractedby 4.7 percent over the courseof 2009. GDP grew 3.8 percentin the third quarter of 2010year-on-year, according to theSlovak Statistics Office, fol-lowing year-on-year GDPgrowth of 4.7 and 4.2 percent

during the first and secondquarters of the year.

State budget approved –On December 9, the SlovakParliament adopted the statebudget for 2011. The budgetprojects a government deficitof €3.81 billion for 2011, or 4.9percent of gross domesticproduct, with revenues of€13.148 billion and expendit-ures of €16.958 billion.

Third PPP project can-celled – The ruling coalitionparties agreed on December 13to scrap the third public-private partnership (PPP)project for construction of theD1 highway section between

Hričovské Podhradie andDubná Skala near Žilina. Thecoalition said the highway canbe built more cheaply usingstate and EU funds but othersviewed the cancellation of thefirst and third PPP packages aspolitical decisions. ŽilinskáDiaľnica, a consortium led byGerman company Hochtief,was to build about 30 km of thehighway under the package.Of the three PPPs, the thirdwas the most technically de-manding as it included a7.5-kilometre tunnel betweenVišňové and Dubná Skala. Thegovernment said constructionof these stretches will start in2011, beginning with theVišňové tunnel.

High-speed rail travellaunched – On December 13, ahigh-speed 160-km/hour trainservice was launched on re-constructed railway tracksbetween Bratislava and NovéMesto nad Váhom. Two Inter-City trains will travel at thisspeed for now. The recon-struction of this 100-km sec-tion of track took 10 years andcost about €490 million. The

higher speed cuts the traveltime by 8-9 minutes. Im-provement of the railwaytracks will continue eastward.

Photovoltaic sourcessnubbed – On December 15parliament adopted a revisionto the law on support for re-newable energy that will limitsupport for photovoltaicpower stations to only thosemounted on roofs and extern-al walls up to an installed ca-pacity of 100 kilowatts. Therevision also established aminimum period for return oninvestment of 12 years.

With SITA and TASR files

Legislation covering construction of photovoltaic power sta-tions changed several times in 2010. Photo: SITA

Trains can now run at 160 km/h on some routes. Photo: TASR

The new pressure vessel at Mochovce 3. Photo: Courtesy of SE

The new government decided PPP highway construction projects are too expensive. Photo: TASR

12 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011 FOCUS

TAX: Business prefers spending cutsContinued from pg 2

Mikloš pointed to the re-cord of the former governmentof Robert Fico – in whichPočiatek was finance minister– arguing that the populationis having to pay the price of thepublic funds it wasted.

Mikloš expects the averagefamily will see its costs climb-ing by approximately €9.30per month. He suggested thatinflation might account for€310 or €400 for the year, butquickly added that this wouldnot be solely a consequence ofthe package, but ratherchanges in world energy pricesand food prices.

Vladimír Baláž of the SlovakAcademy of Science (SAV) toldthe Sme daily that one shouldnot look at the situation interms of each family becoming€400 ‘poorer’ next year. He sug-gested that much will dependon the development of wages aswell as inflation. Baláž said heexpects that the effects of infla-tion and of the austerity pack-age could be compensated bygrowth in wages.

The package and responses

As part of the austeritypackage, VAT will climb from19 to 20 percent. A lower VATrate of 10 percent for books,medicines and some health-care products will remain in2011, though a reduced 6-per-cent VAT rate for farm-gatesales of agricultural productsintroduced by the last gov-ernment has been abolishedand such sales will be taxed atthe full 20-percent rate.

The government approveda hike in the excise tax leviedon tobacco and other goods.The increase applied to to-bacco products is scheduled tooccur in two phases. The firstincrease will take effect onFebruary 1, 2011 while thesecond rise is scheduled forMarch 1, 2013.

The government also can-celled excise tax exemptionsfor coal and natural gas used bycentral heating companies forthe generation of heat forhouseholds because this was atodds with a European directiveon taxing energy products and

electricity. Simultaneously,the cabinet cancelled the taxexemption on compressednatural gas (CNG) used as a mo-tor fuel. Surplus emissionsquotas that some companiesreceived under the previousgovernment will be subject to anewly-introduced 80-percenttax in 2011 and 2012. The price ofannual highway stickers willincrease from €36.50 to €50,while tax bonuses for savers inthe third pillar of the pensionsystem will be cancelled.

The Confederation of TradeUnions (KOZ) has been criticalof the package and demandedthat the state not make cuts atthe expense of employees andthe most vulnerable groups insociety. The unions opposedthe hike in value added tax(VAT) from 19 to 20 percent andproposed that the governmentinstead create differentiatedVAT rates instead with, for ex-ample, lower rates for foodproducts and a higher rate forluxury products.

Unions say the state shouldbe more aggressive about curb-ing its own administrative ex-penses and changing someemployment rules, KOZspokesman Otto Ewiak toldThe Slovak Spectator in anearlier interview.

Miriam Špániková of theFederation of the Employer As-sociations of Slovakia (AZZZ)told The Slovak Spectator thatas a consequence of the auster-ity package, employers will seetheir costs climbing.

“The increased costs willlimit the space for investmentand the creation of new jobs,”Špániková said.

But employers have wel-comed some aspects of thepackage. Špániková commen-ded the efforts to cut publicadministration spending.

However, she expects thatincreasing the payroll tax bur-den and hiking excise taxes onenergy will have a negativeimpact on the business envir-onment in Slovakia.

In fact, AZZZ said it wouldhave preferred VAT to rise to 21percent without additionalmeasures. The Slovak Tradeand Industry Chamber (SOPK)also advocated the option of21-percent VAT.

SOPK chairman PeterMihók told The Slovak Spectat-or that he fully backed thissolution since it would be a wayof avoiding what he called“non-transparent measures”.

Mihók also said that themost important objective wasthe stabilisation of the publicfinances and reduction ofpublic debt, but that, in hisopinion, this should beachieved more by savings inthe public sector than by in-creasing the burden on cit-izens and businesses.

Another employers’ organ-isation, the National Union ofEmployers (RÚZ), expressed asimilar opinion.

“The austerity package willnaturally have a negative im-pact on employers since theywill see the tax and payroll taxburden increasing,” MartinHošťák, secretary of the RÚZ,told The Slovak Spectator. “Onthe other hand we are aware ofthe need for consolidation ofthe public finances, whichmust happen in the sphere ofpublic spending.”

The RÚZ says that it willtake one or two years to be ableto assess both the positive andthe negative impact of the aus-terity package.

The organisation says itprefers fundamental savingson the spending side, alongwith the sale of redundantstate-owned property andshares that the state is unableto administer effectively.

“Reviewing the operationof dozens of state-fed organ-isations can also be taken intoconsideration,” Hošťák said.

According to Mihók, unsys-tematic and non-transparentmeasures are in fact theproducts of political comprom-ise. He added that the greatestdamage to the business envir-onment is currently beingcaused by the low enforceabil-ity of the law, something whichhas not yet been addressed.

Inflation to accelerate

Even though inflation re-mained constant in Novem-ber, analysts predict that con-sumer prices will climb nextyear. The Slovak Statistics Of-fice announced on December

13 that inflation measured bynational methodology was 1.0percent in November, thesame as in October.

“Consumer prices are beingpushed up exclusively by foodprices,” UniCredit Bank ana-lyst Ľubomír Koršňák wrote inhis commentary on theNovember inflation rate.“Their contribution to theyear-on-year price increaseclimbed to 0.9 percentagepoint in November. As it wasexpected their year-on-yeargrowth accelerated in Novem-ber again, from October’s 4.2percent to 5.1 percent.”

The rise in food prices stillfalls short of the record-break-ing levels seen in the summerof 2008. For now, weak har-vests have had a minor effecton meat prices, but accordingto Koršňák meat prices re-spond to rises in the prices ofagricultural commodities onlyafter a certain delay.

“On the other hand, weakdomestic consumer demandprevents merchants from in-creasing the prices of goodsand services,” said Koršňák.

Koršňák expects prices offoodstuffs to continue to rise inDecember and further into2011, at which point an in-crease in regulated energyprices and government meas-ures, for example the VAT in-crease, will also contribute toinflation.

ING Bank analyst EduardHagara also expects inflationto accelerate in the comingmonths.

“The weaker harvest isgradually being reflected inthe rise of foodstuff prices,”Hagara wrote in a memo. “TheCzech statistics office pub-lishes data about the develop-ment of food prices on a bi-weekly basis and the latestdata indicates that food pricesin the Czech Republic will in-crease by about 2 percent inDecember. We expect a similardevelopment in Slovakia, too.”

Hagara expects that,adding the effect of the auster-ity package, the inflation ratemight exceed 3.5 percent inJanuary.

Jana Liptáková contrib-uted to this report.

PPP: What next?Continued from pg 4

Figeľ argued that thedeadline for financial closureon the project had alreadybeen extended six times andthat it was finally time forthe deal, signed last April, toexpire. His predecessor atthe transport ministry,Ľubomír Vážny, from theSmer party, had extendedthe deadline because theconsortium had difficultiesin arranging complete finan-cing for the project.

The government ofRobert Fico had originallylaunched the three PPPpackages, but when it left of-fice only the second PPPpackage had reached the fi-nal phase in which an actualagreement had been signedwith the consortium – in thiscase Granvia – and construc-tion had started. Under thisPPP, Granvia is building 52kilometres of the R1 dual car-riageway between Nitra andBanská Bystrica. The consor-tium is to receive €127.4 mil-lion per year for mainten-ance and operation of thehighway section for 30 years.

Vážny stated that hecannot understand the reas-ons for scrapping the thirdpackage and regards state-ments about inexhaustibleEU funding sources as merefiction that confuses thepublic without providingrelevant facts.

Vážny said there is about€410 million available fromthe EU for highway con-

struction, includingSlovakia’s share of co-finan-cing. Even if the TransportMinistry gets an additional€400 million as part of a re-allocation of EU funds fromother ministries, Vážnystated that the €810 millioncannot cover the costs ofconstructing the 105 kilo-metres of highway that wereto be built via the first andthird PPP projects at a cost ofover €3.4 billion.

Coalition promisesprogress

The ruling coalitionpromised that constructionof sections of the highwaysand dual-carriage ways willcontinue, particularly thoseparts that are yet to be com-pleted on the backbone D1highway that will connectBratislava in the west andKošice in the east. Figeľ saidhe sees completion of the D1by the end of 2016 as theearliest realistic date.

“We want to continuedynamically,” Figeľ said onDecember 14, as cited by theSITA newswire, adding that itwas necessary to ‘open’ thefirst PPP package which hadbeen blocked by financingdifficulties. “It was not onlyabout the price, but also otherconditions which affected as-sessment of risks and bene-fits. Tenders are ongoing andinterest in constructing twostretches of highway close toLevoča, as well as supervisingthe project, is very high.”

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Highways will be built using EU funds, Figeľ says. Photo: SITA

13December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011BUSINESS

PISA: Not bad at mathsContinued from pg 2

“The positive thing is thatthe proportion of Slovak pu-pils who placed in the lowest-performance category, the so-called ‘risk group’, decreasedin comparison with previousyears,” Romana Kanovská,the head of the National Insti-tute of Certified Measure-ments of Education (NUCEM),told The Slovak Spectator.While 24.9 percent of Slovakpupils were placed in the riskgroup in the 2003 survey, and27.8 percent in 2006, PISA2009 revealed that the num-ber had dropped to 22.3 per-cent, Kanovská noted.

The reading comprehen-sion results placed Slovakstudents in the shared rank-ing of 25-29 out of the 34 OECDcountries and in the shared32-37 ranking among all 65 ofthe surveyed countries.

Slovakia has little to beproud of within the VisegradGroup since it placed lowestamong the four countrieseven though the Czech Re-public was only slightly bet-ter with an average of 478points, one point higher thanSlovakia. Though both thesetwo countries fell below theOECD average, Hungarianstudents achieved a betterranking at a shared place of13-22, still below the OECDaverage, while Polish stu-dents performed the bestamong the V4 with a sharedranking of 8-17 derived froman average of 500 points,above the OECD average.

The PISA 2009 results re-vealed that pupils who spendat least 30 minutes a day read-ing for fun, out of their own in-terest, are better at readingtests compared to those whodon’t read for fun at all. Accord-ing to Kanovská, the differencebetween the former and thelatter is as many as 41 points.

“However, the truth inmost countries is that in-creased time spent reading forfun – one to two hours a day, orover two hours a day – doesn’timprove performance anymore,” she explained.

The PISA 2009 evaluationalso demonstrated that per-formance in reading is closelyconnected with pupils’ use ofmeta-cognitive strategies: un-derstand and remember in-formation, and summarise in-formation.

“Pupils who are aware ofthese strategies and can usethem when working with thetext, achieve higher perform-ance than those who do notmaster them,” Kanovská said.

The pupils who said theyread online materials are muchmore skilled readers that thosewho said they do not read on-line. In Slovakia, the differencebetween the two groups was 47points, Kanovská noted.

According to the PISA 2009profile analysis, generallyspeaking, those pupils whofrequently read all kinds oftexts are the most skilledreaders.

Teaching methods criticised

The performance of Slovakpupils in PISA 2009 testing re-flects the level and state of theeducation system in Slovakia,Kanovská said, adding thatsystemic steps need to betaken in order to tackle thecurrent, unsatisfactory situ-ation.

The Education Ministryconceded that the results ofthe study are not very positivefor Slovakia.

“That is why NUCEM wasassigned the task of analysingthe results of the PISA studyand comparing them with theprevious evaluations,” theEducation Ministry’s pressdepartment told The Slovak

Spectator when asked iftimely solutions will be foundto change the poor results.

The ministry added thatNUCEM, along with the de-partments of regional educa-tion, have been requested toprepare and present propos-als to reform the educationsystem “with an aim toachieve results comparablewith the results of othercountries that were moresuccessful in the internation-al survey”.

Education Minister EugenJurzyca, a nominee of theSlovak Democratic and Chris-tian Union party (SDKÚ), toldjournalists that the ministryis working to alter the meth-ods used at Slovak schools toteach reading but warnedthat such changes will re-quire time. He specificallycriticised the primary meth-od currently used that re-quires children to read textsaloud in class. The ministersaid that when reading aloudchildren do not understand orremember what they have ac-tually read.

“It’s not just an economictragedy, but also a humanone,” Jurzyca said, as quotedby the TASR newswire, not-ing that problems with read-ing can complicate not onlyone’s working life but alsoone’s private life.

Jurzyca partially blamedthe poor results on missingtextbooks, stating that someSlovak students have not hadthe appropriate textbook forthree consecutive schoolyears, TASR wrote.

Maths satisfactory

Slovak students did notfare much better in scientificliteracy than in reading, witha score of 490 points placingthem in level three, below theOECD average of 501 points.

An area which gives someoptimism to Slovak teachersand education experts ismathematics. Slovak studentsplaced at the OECD averagewith a score of 497 points. Thisrepresented a positive changecompared to 2006 when Slov-akia fell short of the OECD av-erage. In the PISA 2009 rank-ing for mathematics, Slovakstudents occupied the shared13-22 ranking among the 34OECD countries and theshared 32-37 ranking amongall 65 participating countries.

Mathematics was theonly area where studentsfrom Slovakia ranked bestamong the Visegrad Groupcountries, with studentsfrom Poland, the Czech Re-public and Hungary lagging afew spots lower but stillaround the OECD average.

What is PISA?

The PISA programmetests students on their abilityto use the knowledge theygain at school in real lifesituations rather than howwell they master a specificschool curriculum. Factorsthat might influence theirtest performance and theirpotential for lifelong learningare also explored in a ques-tionnaire in which they areasked about their approachesto learning and their socialbackgrounds. The organisa-tional structures of the stu-dents’ schools are also con-sidered based on a question-naire completed by schoolprincipals, the OECD wroteabout its study methods.

In addition to the back-ground questionnaire, stu-dents in each tested countrycomplete paper-and-penciltests with both multiplechoice and open-ended an-swers in each of the academ-ic areas.

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Parliament makesEnglish compulsory

ENGLISH will become acompulsory part of Slovakstudents’ curriculum in thenext school year, as anamendment requiring it waspassed by parliament onDecember 14. Although nosignificant objections aboutthe good intentions of thelaw have been voiced,schools are warning that im-plementation might proveproblematic because theylack qualified teachers.

The amendment to theSchool Act, as passed by par-liament, introduced severalother changes. In addition tomaking English compulsory,the legislation scraps mid-term certificates for studentsbeginning in January 2011and introduces an obligationfor school holidays to bescheduled and publishedthree years in advance. Therequirement that the Educa-tion Ministry must publishinformation on school holi-days three years in advanceis expected to help transportoperators and businesses en-gaged in tourism. The legis-lation also requires new edi-tions of existing textbooksand entirely new textbooksto be published in Braille.

The law leaves the actualdecision about the gradelevel at which English will becompulsory to the EducationMinistry. Education Minister

Eugen Jurzyca has alreadyannounced that it will mostlikely begin in the thirdgrade of primary school (age9) and that the law will be ef-fective for the school yearbeginning in September2011, the Sme daily reported.

The goal is for secondaryschool graduates to fluentlyspeak English, reaching theB2 level of the CommonEuropean Framework of Ref-erence for foreign languages.The amendment does not,however, require that stu-dents graduate in English.The Education Ministry hasstated that knowledge ofEnglish will improve job ap-plicants’ competitiveness athome and abroad, the SITAnewswire wrote.

The Sme daily reportedthat at the first levels ofprimary school (the first fouryears) there are not enoughqualified teachers of foreignlanguages at the moment.Only a teacher with a sec-ondary-school-leaving examin English is considered qual-ified to teach young studentsin their first years of lan-guage studies. An estimated57 percent of teachers cur-rently teaching English donot have a university-levelEnglish qualification.

Compiled by Spectator staff

from press reports

14 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011 NEWS

Reading in English can prove a challenge. Photo: Sme

WesternSLOVAKIA

Bratislaval CLASSICAL MUSIC:Vianočný koncert –Slovenského komorného or-chestra Bohdana Warchala /Christmas Concert – The Slov-ak Chamber Orchestra of Bo-hdan Warchal, joined by theCathedral Choir of St Martinand conducted by EwaldDanel, performs the most tra-ditional local piece of Christ-mas music – the Czech Christ-mas Mass by Jan Jakub Ryba –and extracts from the oratorioMessiah by G. F. Händel.

Starts: December 26, 15:00;St. Martin’s Cathedral. Admis-sion: €4. Tel: 02/ 2047-5233;www.filharm.sk.

Bratislaval CHRISTMAS FOLKLORE:Slovenské Vianoce v Bratislave– Within the Slovak Christmasin Bratislava series are manyfolklore ensembles, as well astheatre groups and musicians,performing during the Adventperiod.

Starts: December 20-22,16:00-20:00; Main Square.Admission: free. More info:www.bkis.sk.

Bratislaval CHRISTMAS MARKET:Vianočný trh tradičnýchremesiel / The Christmas Mar-ket of Traditional Crafts is or-ganised by the Bratislava Mu-seum and shows the mastery

of glassmaker P. Fiala, metalcraftsman M. Haroník, J. Tóthwho works with leather, M.Kubacková and her woodenproducts, and S. Otruba, asheep bell-producer fromZázrivá.

Open: Daily from 10:00 to18:00 until December 23;courtyard of the ApponyiPalace in Main Square. Admis-sion: free. More info:www.bratislava.sk.

Bratislaval ICE SKATING: Riverpark -Rozprávkové vianočnémestečko / The RiverparkFairytale Christmas Villagewill enchant both childrenand adults. It includes an arti-ficial ice rink open to all.

Open: daily 10:00-21:00.Admission: free. More info:www.riverpark.sk.

Bratislaval CHRISTMAS PARTY:Vianočné soirée and Vianočnápárty – Two Christmas partiesby artistic schools show theskills of the students. The firstis the Elementary ArtisticSchool of J. Kowalski at 18:00;the second is a performance bystudents of the Hip-Hop Fak-ulta at 20:00.

Starts: December 21, 18:00and 20:00; DK Zrkadlový háj.Admission: €5 and €3, respect-ively. Tel: 02/6383-6764;www.kzp.sk.

Bratislaval SILVESTER CLUBBING: TheSilvester (i.e. New Year‘s Eve)programme in the Nu SpiritBar brings DJs Rafo & Pure(house, breakbeat, various);while the Nu Spirit Silvester inthe Nu Spirit Club offersFunkiez (live), DJs Koki(funkadelic brothers) &C.O.D.E. (disco, funk) .

Starts: December 31, 21:00;NSB, Medená 16; NSC,Šafárikovo námestie 7. Admis-sion: €10 (NS Bar), €17-€25 (NSClub). Tel: 0905/865-566;0917/304-801;www.nuspirit.sk.

Bratislaval CLASSICAL MUSIC:Novoročný program – Svetoperetných a muzikálovýchmelódií / New Year’s Pro-gramme – The World of Oper-etta and Musical Melodies –Combines the Slovak Phil-harmonic with the SlovakPhilharmonic Choir led byJozef Chabroň and two so-loists, tenor Otokar Klein andsoprano Eva Hornyaková, per-forming popular melodies byJohann Strauss, Franz Lehar,Emmerich Kálmán and Le-onard Bernstein.

Starts: January 1, 16:00 and20:00; SND historical building,Hviezdoslavovo Square. Ad-mission: €20-€40. Tel: 02/5293-3323; www.ticketportal.sk.

Bratislaval EXHIBITION: ComunistarDesigners – The Slovak DesignCentre introduces three de-signers under the brandComunistar Designers – Ro-man Ficek, Peter Jakubík andMarián Laššák. This is the firstseparate presentation by thisgrouping, formed in 2007, andoutlines their work designingfurniture, interior accessoriesand utility items.

Open: Tue-Sun 13:00-18:00until January 16; Satelit,Dobrovičova 3. Admission:free. Tel: 02/5292-0184;www.sdc.sk.

Skalical CHRISTMAS CONCERT:Vianočný koncert preSkaličanov / Christmas Con-cert for Skalica Residents –Traditional music performedby Skalicaners for Skalicanersis organised by the local Ro-man Catholic parish of St Mi-chael.

Starts: December 25, 19:00,St Martin’s Church. Admis-sion: free. More info:www.skalica.fara.sk.

Nitral EXHIBITION: Helen Brown -There’s Something to This (ButI Don’t Know What It Is) – Anew, comprehensive collec-tion of works by this youngBritish artist is made up ofitems that are mutually re-lated, which inform and con-fuse at the same time. It is alsocombined with a multi-layered sound installationcomposed of several Englishdialogues.

Open: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00until January 16; Nitrianskagaléria, Župné námestie 3.Admission: €0.50-€0.70. Tel:037/6579-641(-3);www.nitrianskagaleria.sk.

Trnaval EXHIBITION: DATA Body –This exhibition by Trnava nat-ive Andrej Haršány showsvarious installations andforms depicting the humanbody.

Open: Tue-Fri 10:00-17:00,Sat-Sun 13:00-18:00 fromDecember 17 to January 9; klUb3. Kopplova vila of the Ján Kon-iarek Gallery, Zelený kríček 3.Admission: €0.60-€1.30. Tel:033/5511-659; www.gjk.sk.

CentralSLOVAKIA

Modrý Kameňl CHRISTMAS HAPPENING:Vianoce na hrade 2010 /Christmas at the Castle is anevent meant especially forchildren. Actors from thecastle theatre will perform theBible story in a live nativityscene and the Medieval MuralPainting in the Gemer exhibi-tion will be opened.

Starts: December 21, 17:00;Modrý Kameň castle nearVeľký Krtíš. Admission:€0.50-€1. Tel: 047/4870-218;www.muzeum.sk.

LiptovskýMikulášl EXHIBITION: Posun v čase /Shift in Time – This exhibitionof the works of handicappedchildren, in the foyer of theP.M. Bohúň Liptov Gallery, iscombined with a sales exhibi-tion of contemporary Slovakart and artistic crafts in theSmall Hall.

Open: Tue-Sat 10:00-17:00until February 5; Tranovského3. Admission: €0.50-€3.50. Tel:044/5522-758; www.galerialm.sk.

Martinl EXHIBITION: Pocta Bjoern-sonovi / Tribute to Bjoernson –This exhibition, celebratingthe 100th anniversary of thedeath of Norwegian writer,

and politician BjoernsternBjoernson, organised with thehelp of Norwegian Embassy inBratislava, has moved to theSlovak National Literary Mu-seum of the Slovak NationalLibrary.

Open: Mon-Sat 9:00-16:00until January 26; J. C. Hron-ského Square 1. Admission:€0.50-€1. Tel: 043/4134-152;www.snk.sk.

EasternSLOVAKIA

Popradl ICE-SKATING: Vianoce naľade / Christmas on Ice – As aChristmas gift, skating atPoprad’s ice rink is free for oneday.

Starts: December 25, 10:00,14:00 and 17:00; Štefánikova 6.Admission: free. Tel: 052/7722-141; www.hkpoprad.sk.

Košicel STEPHEN’S JAZZ: Štefánska -Jazzabel koncert – The tradi-

tion of celebrating St Ste-phen’s day will be reflected ina non-traditional but enter-taining jazz concert.

Starts: December 26,20:00; Piano Café, Hlavná 92.Admission: €2. Tel:055/3810-697;www.piano-cafe.sk.

Košicel THEATRE: Predaná nevesta/ The Bartered Bride – Thefamous Czech opera byBedřich Smetana is a popularfixture in the run-up to NewYear, together with a Jánošíkdance performance onDecember 28 and the classicalRussian ballet Luskáčik / TheNutcracker by P. I.Tchaikovsky on December 30.

Starts: December 29,19:00; State Theatre, Hlavná58. Admission: €1.70-€2.40.Tel: 055/2452-269;www.sdke.sk.

By Zuzana Vilikovská

EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE

YURI Dojc, the prominent Slovak-born Canadian photographer, re-turns to Slovakia with an extensive exhibition entitled Tempta-tion. The exhibits presented in the Bratislava City Gallery consist ofseven parts. The first is Nudes, including studies which have earnedDojc worldwide acclaim. In other series Dojc presents City Scapes,Books, Rwanda, American Dreams and Surrealism. The exhibition ofover 60 images is at the Mirbach Palace, Františkánske námestie 11,and will last until the end of January. On February 1, the gallery willhold, in cooperation with the SOGA auction house, a charity auctionof 20 images by Dojc. The gallery is open daily except for Mondaysfrom 11:00 until 18:00. However, it is closed on December 24 and 25and January 1. Entry is €3.50. For more information, please visitwww.gmb.sk. An article about Dojc will appear in the next issue ofThe Slovak Spectator. Photo: Courtesy of Yuri Dojc

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 Slovakiacan now be found at www.spectator.sk.

A Slovak’s 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 Všetko najlepšie k meninám (Happy name day)

N A M E D A Y D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 0

Monday

Dagmara

December 20

Tuesday

Bohdan

December 21

Wednesday

Adela

December 22

Thursday

NadeÏda

December 23

Friday

Adam a EvaChristmas Eve

December 24

Saturday

1st Christmasholiday

December 25

Sunday

2nd Christmasholiday, ·tefan

December 26

FIRE and ICE, an exhibition of Finnish glass design made on theItalian island of Murano, the home of Venetian glass, is currentlyon show in the Hall of the Slovak Culture Ministry at SNP Square33 in Bratislava. The pieces on view – more than 80 objects –were designed by Tapio Wirkkala and Timo Sarpaneva for theVenini glass factory on Murano; they come from the SuomenLasimuseo (Finnish Glass Museum) in Riihimäki and private col-lections. The exhibition is open daily, except Mondays, from10:00 to 18:00 until January 14. For more information, please visitwww.finlandembassy.sk. Photo: Courtesy of the Finnish Embassy

THE BANSKÁ Bystrica Opera stages the recently premieredcomic operetta Vojvodkyňa z Chicaga / The Countess fromChicago by Emmerich Kálmán, which mixes elements of the Vi-ennese musical tradition with jazz. It is conducted by Igor Bullaand directed by Jozef Krasula. Tickets for the shows on Decem-ber 28 and 29, both at 18:30, at the State Opera at Národná 11cost €8 and €10 respectively. For more information, visitwww.stateopera.sk.

Photo: Courtesy of the State Opera of Banská Bystrica

THE GALÉRIA u sediaceho anjela / The Sitting Angel gallery inKežmarok has prepared a Christmas gift for locals and visitors –the exhibition Illuminate by Japanese artist Masakazu Miy-anaga: fascinating paintings on wooden boards combiningRenaissance philosophy, iconography, classical painting andZen-Buddhism. The most frequent subjects are animals por-trayed as winged warriors. The name of each work in Latin refersto a quotation by a Greek philosopher. Photo: Courtesy of GUA

15December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011CULTURE

New Year’s Eveacross Slovakia

TRADITIONAL parties tofarewell 2010 and welcome inthe New Year are likely to bemore modest in many townsand cities of Slovakia becauseof the uncertain economicconditions and the austeritymeasures introduced by alllevels of government. Never-theless there will still bemany public celebrations onoffer for those who prefer tojoin with crowds of others tosee in the New Year.

Bratislava will offerplenty of culture, entertain-ment and even sport – such asthe New Year’s Eve (Silvester)walk to Devínska Kobyla be-ginning from the startingpoint of TIK at Istrijská 49 inDevínska Nová Ves.

Celebrators in the capitalcity can also take inchildren's theatre perform-ances, a Silvester Gala in theSlovak National Theatre, jazz

in the Radisson Blu CarltonHotel, and special events atEurovea, among others.

The city government hasorganised celebrations atthree stages – in the MainSquare, in HviezdoslavovoSquare, and a midnightevent on the Danube em-bankment that will includeten minutes of fireworks.Part of the city’s programmewill be the flying of “Chineselanterns of luck”, Milan Va-jda of the city council told theSITA newswire.

Two special trains will berunning between Bratislavaand Vienna, with trips fromthe Wien-Mitte railway sta-tion departing at 1:12 and 2:52on New Year’s Day. Two spe-cial trains will also transportvisitors from Vienna backhome, leaving Bratislava’sHlavná stanica at 1:03 and at2:29, SITA wrote.

Košice, Slovakia’s easternmetropolis, will welcome inthe New Year with bands andperformers such as DJ Pepo,Marián Čekovský & Band,Miro Šmajda and Rosemaid,Pavol Janák (aka MichaelJackson) and others. The mainstage will be in Hlavná Streetnear the Immaculata Statue.

Banská Bystrica will offer‘Silvester bathing’, creation ofice sculptures and a disco inaddition to fireworks and con-certs featuring Ploštin Punk,Leona Šenková, 100 múch, andothers in the city’s SNP Square.

Prešov will offer bands likeMloci, Komajota, Chiki-liki-tu-a, and IMT Smile to celebratethe turning of the years. Butunlike previous years, Prešovhas arranged for just one stagein front of City Hall and hascancelled its traditional fire-works because of financialconstraints, SITA wrote.

Child knights competeat Bratislava Castle

IT SOMETIMES looks asthough Bratislava Castle, nowin its new white dress, issleeping and just waiting tobe awakened for a new lifeafter its thorough reconstruc-tion is finished. But this is notcompletely true as the tradi-tional Christmas at the Castleevent returned to BratislavaCastle on December 12 after anabsence of two years. Duringthe event children who suc-cessfully completed tasks incourage, wisdom and othervirtuous traits were dubbedroyal knights. In addition, thechildren were able to preparetheir own coat of arms,shields or parts of historicalgarments or armour at severalcreative workshops.

To complete one of theirtasks, the children had to visitthe exhibition Ars Liturgica –Goldsmithery in the Service ofLiturgy which is on display atthe castle’s Treasury until theend of next April. This exhibi-tion – organised on the occa-sion of the Year of ChristianCulture – presents sacral ob-jects made from preciousmetals used in the liturgies ofthe Catholic, Protestant andOrthodox churches in Slov-akia.

The luckiest participantson December 12 also had achance to glimpse into thejust restored interior halls ofthe castle. Three 30-membergroups were permitted insideto see the castle’s staircasewhich is probably, accordingto the castle guide, the largestBaroque staircase in centralEurope. The impressive whitestaircase now boasts abund-ant, newly installed, gildedstucco decorations.

Visitors also had the op-portunity to view an almostcompletely renovated hallwhich had been used for rep-resentation purposes duringthe reign of Maria Theresa.Though it no longer has itsoriginal floor plan, as in thepast it consisted of two rooms,the walls of the hall are nowredecorated with gildedstucco while the floor was re-constructed from parquetpanels. The ornaments on thewalls and the ceiling are notoriginals but were inspired by

decorative elements inVienna’s Hofburg Palace be-cause the castle’s 1811 fire didnot leave any physical hintsor drawings about the originaldecorations.

But since the residences ofthe Habsburgs in Vienna andBratislava were designed bythe same architects, it is be-lieved that the decorativeelements were the same orsimilar to those in Vienna.

By Jana LiptákováTo read the complete story,

please go to www.spectator.sk

A squire from PodhradieFOR CENTURIES Slovakiawas part of the HungarianEmpire. In the 9th and 10thcenturies when the kingdomwas being established,power became more concen-trated in the hands of theHungarian nobility. Al-though older chroniclesmention members of theSlavonic aristocracy havinga certain share of power atan earlier point in history,this later ceased to be trueand the highest nobility,with few exceptions, were ofHungarian origin.

However, the privilegedclasses also included themiddle and lower gentry inwhich there were numerousSlovaks. Ethnic-Slovakgentry – squires or zemans –mostly inhabited the north-ern districts. But by the 14thcentury zemans began tohave conflicts with thehigher aristocracy. This wasoften due to a lack of labour,leading to the more powerfulnobles recruiting serfs fromthe zemans’ lands to work ontheir own.

The lower gentry alsogrew gradually poorer be-cause their property was be-ing divided into smallerparts, so they sometimeshad to find new ways ofmaking a living, often inadministration or the army.Later, some of the zemanslost all their serfs and had tophysically work their own

land or were even hired byricher nobles.

Even the poorer gentrycould be distinguished bytheir way of dressing or bytheir houses – usually notluxurious, but different from

simple cabins in that they atleast had stone foundations.

In this postcard from1918, we see an old zemanfrom Podhradie, nearPovažská Bystrica.

By Branislav Chovan

HISTORY TALKS

MON 20.12.

CONCERTO 19:00CHORALIS O

TUE 21.12.

P. I. Tchaikovsky, F. Nault: 11:00The Nutcracker B

TUE 21.12

Ch. Guonod: 19:00Faust O

WED 22.12.

Giacomo Puccini: 19:00La Bohéme O

SUN 26.12.

W. A. Mozart: 17:00The Magic Flute O

MON 28.12.

P. I. Tchaikovsky, F. Nault: 11:00The Nutcracker B

MON 28.12.

P. I. Tchaikovsky, F. Nault: 19:00The Nutcracker B

TUE 29.12.

Giuseppe Verdi: 19:00La Traviata O

WED 30.12.

Benjamin Britten: 11:00The Little Sweep O

WED 30.12.

B. Smetana: 19:00The Bartared Bride O

SUN 31.12.

Magic of the Comic 17:00Opera and Musical O

NEW YEAR,S EVE 19:30

GALA CONCERT OTUE 4.1.

P. I. Tchaikovsky: 19:00Eugen Onegin O

WED 5.1.

Ch. W. Gluck: 19:00Orfeo ed Euridice O

THU 6.1.

P. I. Tchaikovsky, F. Nault: 19:00Twelfth night O

FRI 7.1.

A. Adam, O. Šoth, Z. Mistríková, J. Kubánka 19:00Giselle B

SAT 8.1.

G. Puccini: 19:00Madama Butterfly O

SUN 9.1.

Ch. Guonod: 19:00Faust O

TUE 11.1.

P. Hammel, M. Radačovský, P. Lančarič: 19:00Everest B

FRI 14.1.

G. Puccini: 19:00Tosca O

SUN 16.1.

10:30Voci da Camera O

SUN 16.1.

Gala evenings: 20:15Crystal Wings

Georges Feydeau: 18:00A Flea In Her Ear D

PROGRAM Slovak National Th eatreOPERA and BALLET

DECEMBER 20 – JANUARY 16 SND New Building SND Historic Building Opera and Ballet Hall

20% Discount Voucherfor the Readers

of Slovak Spectator

Take the advantage of this special promotion and enjoy the autumn evenings at one of our ballet and opera performances!

Concerto Choralis: December 20th, 2010 O La Bohéme: December 22nd, 2010 O

Present this coupon at the box office to get a 20% discount on the purchase of two tickets for performances mentioned above. The discount is not applicable with any other promotions and discount offers. We look forward to seeing you!

Benjamin Britten: The Little Sweep

Photo: A. Klenková

SP 90250/6

ADVERTISEMENT

Tickets available at: SND Box offices: Historic Building, Hviezdoslavovo Square, Bratislava, 00421 2 204 94 290 www.ticketportal.sk New Building, Pribinova 17, Bratislava, 00421 2 204 72 298, 204 72 299, e-mail: rezervacie@snd.sk www.snd.sk HOT LINE: +421 2 204 72 297, information and offer for tickets MON - FRI 9:30 - 17:30

Photo: M. Črep

New Year´s Eve Gala Concert

December, 31st 2010Special New Year´s Eve Concert

in the historical building of the Slovak National Th eatre:

Slovak sopranist Adriana Kučerová and next well-known

singers: Ľubica Rybárska, Adriana Kohútková, Ľudovít Ľudha

and others. Except opera performances also ballet:

the best scenes of Giselle and Swan Lake.

Adriana Kučerová

O opera, B ballet, D drama

Photo: C. Bachratý

P. I. Tchaikovsky, F. Nault: The Nutcracker

Christmas has come to Bratislava castle. Photo: Courtesy of SNM

16 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011 CULTURE

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17December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011ADVERTISEMENT

Expedition follows trail of Slovakexplorer Beňovský in Madagascar

MAYAn expedition led by filmdirector Vladimír Dudlákand historian MiroslavMusil is following in thefootsteps of famous Slovak

adventurer and world traveller MóricBeňovský on the island of Madagascar offthe coast of Africa. Beňovský arrived inMadagascar in 1773 after King Louis XV ofFrance appointed him governor andcharged him with leading a French milit-ary and trade mission to the island.

The trek by Dudlák and Musil ex-amined the easternmost point of the is-land, Cape East, where they say they dis-covered new information about the loca-tion of Beňovský’s royal residence and hisgravesite. The residence of Beňovský,

who was named a king by the island’s res-idents in 1776, as well as his grave, hadbeen identified as being elsewhere.

The current expeditionary group hasbeen checking their newly-discoveredfacts in the national archives ofMadagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, aswell as travelling to the north-westerncoast of the island where Beňovskýlanded during his last return to the islandin 1785. In the town of Ambilobe, the ex-pedition members met a local official whoprides himself on owning Beňovský’ssabre, the SITA newswire wrote, as re-lated by Dudlák and Musil.

The group of Slovaks left for Madagas-car on April 16 with a plan to focus primar-ily on less-researched sites connected tothe sojourn of Beňovský on the island, as

well as on Mauritius. One of the currentexpedition’s goals is to enliven thememory of Beňovský and his deeds andthe outcome is expected to be a film por-trait of this Slovak personality whoseexotic global history is not recognisedwell enough in his native country.

Móric Beňovský was born in Vrbovéand achieved many firsts during his life-time. For example, he is reportedly thefirst European to sail in the northern partsof the Pacific Ocean, the first man to visitfour continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, andAmerica), and also the first Slovak authorof a worldwide best-seller, Memoirs andTravels. In Slovakia, many artistic worksare associated with Beňovský, for ex-ample the novel The Adventures of MóricBeňovský by Jozef Nižňanský.

Slovaks rescued inMachu Picchu

FEBRUARYTorrential rains and land-slides trapped about 2,000tourists, including Slovaksand Czechs, at Machu Picchu,the Inca fortress in the Per-uvian part of the AndesMountain range.

No one was able to departthe popular tourist destina-tion as the local railway wasnot functioning: it is nor-mally the only means oftransport between the an-cient site and the nearestcity, Cuzco.

Czech and Slovak visitorswere lodged at local hotelswhile others waited at therailway station. The land-slides killed two people andcaused much damage to thearchaeological sites, the ČTKnewswire wrote.

Two days after the floods,on January 27, the first threeSlovak customers of Bubotravel agency were evacuatedby helicopter to Cuzco, ĽubošFellner, the travel agency’shead, told the SITA newswire.

Eight helicopters wereused in the evacuation, butthe rescue operation wasslowed by fog. About 10 Slov-ak visitors were stranded in asmall tourist train that could

not leave because of dam-aged tracks, but the remain-ing 27 Slovaks were safe anddry at a hotel. By January 29,all Slovak and Czech touristshad departed from MachuPicchu and were able to con-tinue their trip to see themost famous Latin Americanmonuments and sites.

The Slovak Ministry ofForeign Affairs has warnedpeople to seriously reconsiderany travel to the locality ofMachu Picchu, as furtherlandslides are possible. Min-istry spokesman Peter Stanoconfirmed that, by January29, all tour participants of theBubo travel agency had leftthe disaster site.

In addition to the twofatalities, the landslidescaused much damage to thearchaeological monumentsnear Cuzco, which once wasthe Inca capital. The Peruvi-an Tourism Minister, MartínPeréz, assured the world thateven when stranded the tour-ists were safe and had foodsupplies for at least four days.The “forgotten city” of MachuPicchu is a popular touristdestination 2,400 metresabove sea level and has500,000 annual visitors.

Tourists being rescued from Machu Picchu. Photo: TASR

Thomas the Steam Engine would be proud: historical engines competing in Zvolen. Photo: TASR

International Grand Prixbrings clouds of steam

SEPTEMBERThe 12th year ofthe interna-tional GrandPrix for steamengines took

place on September 11 at itstraditional venue at Zvolenrailway station. The firststeam engine arrived in Brat-islava on August 20, 1848 whenthe newly constructed GreatHungarian Central Railwaybrought these engines to whatwas then known as Pressburgor Pozsony, opening the coun-try to railway transport andgradually bringing industrial-isation and connections withother European states.

“The competition inZvolen included several dis-ciplines such as ‘Ladies on theTracks’, ‘Revenge of the RedIndians’, '‘Modern Knights’,and ‘Beer on the Coupling Rod’

as well as a sprint race wherethe accuracy of stopping wascrucial”, Peter Oravec, thehead of the Club of HistoricalTechnology in Zvolen, told theTASR newswire. He addedthat he thought the most in-teresting competition thisyear was a new one, a uniqueEuropean race – a 100-metresprint in which five modern-ised diesel engines raced atthe same time.

The audience also appreci-ated the opportunity to viewthe historical train Štefánik,an armoured train which wasused during the Slovak Na-tional Uprising (SNP), thatlater underwent reconstruc-tion and was furnished withexhibits from World War II.The weather interfered with aplan to have planes ‘bomb’ thearmoured train in a simulatedair attack on September 12 at

Dobrá Niva – the site of actualaerial raids during the war,the SITA newswire wrote.

The competing steam anddiesel engines came fromSlovakia, Poland, the CzechRepublic, Hungary and Aus-tria; the Czech Republic alsosent two additional enginesthat were just for show anddid not compete. Visitors alsohad the opportunity to ridetrains pulled by steam enginesbetween Banská Bystrica andBanská Štiavnica. A steam en-gine also pulled a modern fasttrain, the Domica, into theZvolen cargo station just forthis occasion. Even thoughthe weather did not cooperateduring this year’s Grand Prix,the event’s organisers stillmade the racing competitionsattractive for the public andlet visitors view historicaltechnology.

Trappedhorse

survivesAPRILThe muni-cipality ofAndač nearNitra wasthe scene of

an equine drama on thenight of April 14, after a rid-ing horse fell into an emptywell shaft and had to bewinched out following sev-eral hours down the hole.

It is believed that thehorse, named Grizu andweighing in at a hefty 800kilograms, fell into the12-metre-deep, 1.2-metre-wide well while foraging forfood – and remainedtrapped until he was foundearly the next morning byfarm employees who hadbeen expecting to feed him.They called a vet who wentdown into the well and sed-ated Grizu, after which thefire brigade sent one of theirmen to secure straps underthe animal. Firefightersthen managed to pull thestill-sedated Grizu out of thehole using a crane.

The early prognosis wasnot good: the horse hadspent several hours on hishind legs, almost motion-less and in shock. Vets sus-pected internal injuries andfractures, the Sme dailywrote. The horse’s owner,Katarína Žáková, believedthat the 10-year old Irishhunter, would survive – butnonetheless feared theworse. “He means a lot tome. I only hope he has nointernal bleeding,”Katarína said.

A week after the drama,Grizu was alive and doingwell: he spent only two daysin his stable before being letoutside to graze.

1

3

2

18 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011 FEATURE

THE BEST OF AROUND SLOVAKIAcompiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports

Floating mill turns no moreAUGUSTBY THE be-ginning of thetwentiethcentury, wa-

ter mills were a feature of al-most every village along thelarger rivers of CentralEurope. While several “fixed”mills along river banks havebeen preserved, there is onlyone surviving floating millamong all the countries of theVisegrad Four, in Kolárovo onthe Little Danube River.However, its wheel turnedjust once at Kolárovo beforebecoming non-functional,owner Ivan Šáli told the ČTKnewswire.

“The mill wheel turnedthe first and also the last timewhen the tugboat brought itfrom its original place inKomárno to Kolárovo,” Šáliadded. This is not the originalwork but a functioning rep-lica of a mill that used to work

somewhere on the DanubeRiver near the municipalityof Radvaň on the Danube,close to Komárno. There arebelieved to be only three sur-viving mills of this type in theworld, the other two being inAustria and Slovenia.However, there used to bedozens of floating mills on theDanube and Váh rivers.Gradually, their numbers de-creased after a ban on furtherconstruction was introducedbecause they posed anobstacle to expanding river-borne ship traffic. AfterWorld War II and commun-ist-era collectivisation, de-mand for them dried up.

The mill in Kolárovo wasbuilt at a cost of four millionCzechoslovak crowns in theKomárno dockyards in 1982,based on a two-metre scalemodel by a master miller. Theoriginal mill was owned byBéla Szivanyó and was con-

structed in around 1920. It ex-isted until 1945, when it wasdestroyed in a fire. The newmill, which lacks some of theoriginal parts, did not find aproper use in Komárno andgradually decayed. “The millwas in danger of being des-troyed a second time,” Šáliclaims. The town rented themill to a group of young menwho turned it into a pub forseveral months. “The firstthing they did was to saw offsome parts with a chain saw,”the current owner said. Thedamage amounted toSk140,000 (about €4,600).

Nowadays, the mill isopen to the public, but Šálinoted that it lacks a river cur-rent because five years afterthe mill was hauled toKolárovo, the body managingthe river closed down the parton which the mill lies becauseof the planned constructionof the Nagymaros dam.

Kuzmina wins first WinterOlympic gold for Slovakia

FEBRUARYA Slovak woman of Russian origin, AnastasiaKuzmina, won the gold medal in the women'sbiathlon 7.5-km sprint at the Vancouver 2010Winter Olympics on February 13, the Sme dailywrote.

On the 7.5 kilometre-long trail in Whistler,Kuzmina beat German biathlete MagdalenaNeuner, who crossed the finish line 1.5 secondslater than the 25-year-old Slovak. Marie Dorinfrom France came in third, 10.9 seconds laterthan Kuzmina, according to the SITA newswire.

Kuzmina's gold medal is the first won by aSlovak at the Winter Olympic since its inde-pendence (1993). Before Kuzmina, figure skaterOndrej Nepela representing Czechoslovakia wona gold medal at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sap-poro, Japan.

Kuzmina said for the Sme daily she wasthankful and glad she could represent her newhomeland, and added she would probably not getthe chance to train and concentrate on both herfamily and her sport training and form. She hasbeen living in Slovakia for three years and feelsat home here. She even learned the Slovak an-them so she could sing it after her victory.

The 10 kilometre womens‘ biathlon onTuesday, February 16, at the 21st WinterOlympics in Vancouver where Slovak contest-ant Kuzmina won a silver medal was watchedby 4,875 people live in the Olympic Park inWhistler .

'Krnohe' racersbrave speed, perils

FEBRUARYA specialtysport in Slov-akia is racingold-fashionedsleighs:

“krňačky” or “kr-nohe” or“krnohy” or “kr-naky” or“krne”. Take your pick of thenames as they all describe abigger kind of sleigh made ofa curved piece of wood,called samorast (self-growthin Slovak) or krnáč in a localdialect.

The sleigh is made solelyof wood, without any kind ofmetal parts. In mountain-ous regions of Slovakia, thistype of sleigh was used totransport wood from forests,and hay from steep moun-tain meadows to more ac-cessible places. The sleighswere brought to Slovakiafrom the Tirol region of Aus-tria by lumbermen who hadbeen invited to do so by theEarls’ Chamber.

Their popularity was re-vived several years agowhen sport fans startedcompeting in races withthem. Most of the enthusi-asts of this adrenalin-pump-ing sport can be found in theHorehronie region andaround Banská Bystrica and

Zvolen. Previous smallerkrňačky competitions haveevolved into the Slovak Cupin Krňačky Racing but, un-fortunately, several raceswere cancelled or postponeddue to unfavourable weath-er earlier in the year.

In the Urbanov vrch skiresort near Čierny Balog al-most 30 teams participatedand winners Peter Stierankaand Pavol Zluky came fromthe Premost Brezno club.They finished this track,with a length of more than1,400 metres and a verticaldrop of 280 metres, in oneminute 55 seconds. Thesecond team to cross the fin-ish line were Pavel andVladimír Simans fromHeľpa, and the third teamwere Martin Babjak andĽubomír Hrčka from theStress Podzámčok club.

But not just men com-pete, as there are also wo-men-only and mixed teams.The best women were Si-mona Hrončeková and Zuz-ana Tkáčiková from Heľpa,and the best mixed teamconsisted of Ján Bartošíkand Jana Palovčíková fromMôlča, Pavol Kováčik therace's technical managertold the TASR newswire.

Competing can be fun – sometimes. Photo: Sme-J.Krošlák

Bratislava Zoo's baby woylie is nursed by mom. Photo: Courtesy of Bratislava zoo

New woylie now hoppingaround at Bratislava Zoo

MARCHThe woylie is asmall, 30-cen-timetre-longmarsupial be-

longing to the Potoridae fam-ily which is also known as thebrush-tailed bettong. Bratis-lava Zoo is the first and onlyzoo in Slovakia to successfullybreed these small animals,which look something like across between a rat, akangaroo and a rabbit. Bratis-lava Zoo considers the birth ofits first woylie, born inNovember 2009, to have beenan enormous success and onFebruary 18 the young off-spring left its mother’s pouch.

The woylie typicallymoves by hopping, as is typic-al for kangaroos, wrote theTASR newswire giving itssource as www.zoobratislava.sk. A woylie has grey-brown-ish hair, lighter on the belly,typically a long nose, andsmall rounded ears. Its aver-age body length including the

head is 28-40 centimetres andits average weight is 1.3 kilo-grams. The tail is 21-36 centi-metres long on average, isnearly hairless and is used as arudder while hopping. But thetail is mainly interesting be-cause of the animal’s ability togrip items with it and bringthem – mostly bundles of nest-ing material, such as grass orleaves – to its nest on theground, TASR wrote.

Bratislava Zoo acquiredtwo female woylies fromPrague Zoo in 2005 and a malefrom Duisburg Zoo in Ger-many in 2009. Originally, thisanimal inhabited the forestsof south-eastern Australia. Inits natural habitat the woyliedoes not drink water or eatgreen plants but lives mainlyon sap from undergroundfungi that grow on the roots ofeucalyptus and other trees andalso on tubers, natural resin ofthe Hakea shrub, and insects.

Woylies are nocturnalanimals and prefer solitude.

There are no visible differ-ences between male and fe-male woylies and they meetmainly during mating time;males control their territoryso that they know when fe-males are ready. Males areaggressive towards othermales and can kick usingstrong hind limbs; femaleswhich are not in season areaggressive towards malesthat harass them.

Mating takes place atnight and lasts for just a fewseconds but is repeated sev-eral times; females matewith several males.

The woylie is on theIUCN (International Unionfor Conservation of Nature)Red List of critically en-dangered species. Its popula-tion in Australia has recentlybeen declining steeply forseveral reasons: destructionof its natural habitat; non-native species being intro-duced; and an infestation ofparasites.

EnglishOak is Treeof the Year

NOVEMBERSlovakia'sTree of theYear for 2010is an EnglishOak (Quercus

robur) from the village ofDubinné in eastern Slov-akia which is thought to be850 years old, making itone of the oldest oaks inEurope.

The tree garnered 911votes out of the 3,907 votescast in the competition.Viktor Hvišč, the villagemayor, told the SITAnewswire that the oak wasalmost destroyed severaltimes as it is near a stateroad that has had recurringconstruction.

“It is a miracle that ithas survived,” he said, asquoted by the TASR news-wire, “as some parts of itsroots were covered withconcrete when the roadand the bridge were built.”

The oak’s age cannot beprecisely determined as thewood from which the agecould be calculated has rot-ted away.

But Milan Hronec, theprogramme manager ofthe Ekopolis Foundationwhich organised thecompetition, thinks thereis no question that it isone of the oldest trees inSlovakia.

A common EuropeanYew (Taxus baccata) fromthe village of Prusképlaced second and the treeis thought to have beenplanted as early as 1221.

The third-placed treewas another English Oak,this one in the municipal-ity of Želiezovce, from anEnglish-style park plantedin the 19th century.

Medal-winning Kuzmina. Photo: Reuters

19December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011FEATURE

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20 December 20, 2010 – January 9, 2011 ADVERTISEMENT