NEWS Teen suicides Slovakia saw three suicides of teenage girls in a week, with psychologists saying that they could have in- spired one another. pg 2 Distribution rows Book publishers are com- plaining about the practices of the biggest book-selling network in Slovakia, al- leging that they could result in a monopoly. pg 3 OPINION Recognising reality Slovakia still refuses to re- cognise Kosovo as a sover- eign country, despite a re- cent call by the European Parliament for the five EU- member holdouts to do so. pg 5 BUSINESS FOCUS Law lacks teeth Despite the ambition of the amendment to the law on public procurement to pre- vent companies with vague ownership structures from participating in state tenders, experts say the new legislation is toothless. pg 6 Tax changes reviewed Six law firms active in Slovakia comment on le- gislative changes adopted in 2014. They describe changes to tax law as the most controversial, and propose some revisions to other laws. pg 7 CULTURE Family drama in opera Romeo and Juliet, an opera by Charles Gounod, premi- eres at the Slovak National Theatre for the first time in its 95-years history, directed by Slovenian Diego de Brea. pg 9 FOCUS On sale now On sale now FOCUS of this issue CONSTRUCTION Vol. 21, No. 6 Monday, March 23, 2015 - Sunday, April 5, 2015 € 1.20 LEGISLATION Kiska slams health policy of government PRESIDENT Andrej Kiska is dissat- isfied with the government’s ap- proach to health care and is openly criticising Health Minister Viliam Čislák. It is the first time that Kiska has publicly criticised a cabinet mem- ber. He says that Čislák has failed to respond to mounting scandals in the sector in recent months. Speak- ing after a meeting with the health minister on March 16, the presid- ent said that Čislák had failed to provide any clear information about the measures he had taken or was planning to take in order to “stop the ineffective and non- transparent spending of money in health care”. Kiska’s criticism was also mo- tivated by Čislák’s statements on Slovak Radio on March 7, that the CT scanner case, a major scandal that forced the resignation of Čislák’s predecessor Zuzana Zvolenská and speaker of parliament Pavol Paška, and that prompted street protests, was a “pseudo-case” and “business as usual”. Such statements make the personnel changes that took place four months ago at the ministry and in parliament seem like an empty gesture, according to Kiska. When Kiska won the presiden- tial election run-off against Prime Minister Robert Fico one year ago, analysts were concerned about the quality of the relations between the presidential office and the govern- ment. However, Kiska’s first year in office had until now passed without any major public clashes. In his critical comments, Kiska listed a number of issues he believes require the attention of the govern- ment: the bad atmosphere in the patient-doctor relationship, the non-transparency of the system, and the absence of a DRG (diagnosis- related group) system of financing, “which would bring order, greater transparency, and more objectively measurable information”. See HEALTH pg 2 BY MICHAELA TERENZANI Spectator staff State takes control of Gabčíkovo PRIME Minister Robert Fico an- nounced that the state was assum- ing full control over the Gabčíkovo hydroelectric power plant on March 9, and presented the change as a means to partially redress what he sees as the unfair privatisation of Slovenské Elektrárne (SE) in 2006. “I have good news for Slovakia because today at the special cabinet session we carried out further legal steps on whose basis I can say that we are taking back full state ownership and full control of the Gabčíkovo hy- dropower plant,” Fico said, as quoted by the SITA newswire. The state terminated the con- tract for operation of the Gabčíkovo hydropower plant in December 2014 and the state takeover was sched- uled for mid March. State-run Vodohospodárska Výstavba took over management of the hydropower plant on March 10 from the country’s largest electricity producer, SE, which is majority owned by Italian firm Enel. Meanwhile the Regional Court in Bratislava decided on March 9 that the contract for operation of the Gabčíkovo hydropower plant is in- valid because instead of a direct agreement with SE, a public tender should have been announced. SE, which argues the contract remains valid, has said it intends to chal- lenge the verdict and seek compens- ation for lost profits. It is expected that this legal dis- pute as well as others pertaining to SE’s privatisation and the lease of Gabčíkovo, which has annual reven- ues of about €100 million and costs of between €8-10 million, will continue. See PLANT pg 10 BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ Spectator staff Police probe ex-MP over abuse claims CHARGES relating to the abuse of a close person against ex-lawmaker Vladimír Jánoš have sparked a debate about new le- gislation on domestic violence, as experts cite gaps in the existing law. “There are some rules which are not complete,” Sylvia Gancárová, a lawyer with Slniečko, a centre for abused women, told The Slovak Spectator. “On first sight they seem to provide protection for the victims, but in real life they are ineffect- ive.” Jánoš, who is also former vice- chairman of the parliamentary human rights committee, resigned as a member of parliament for the ruling Smer party on March 4. That came in the wake of a scandal in- volving transcriptions of audio recordings published on the internet on March 3 in which he appears to verbally abuse his wife and issue threats. He also resigned as Smer party district chief in Prievidza. See HOME pg 5 BY ROMAN CUPRIK Spectator staff Slovakia still tops car production SLOVAKIA remains the world leader in car production per capita, and planned invest- ments and the launch of new models mean it is likely to keep this position. Moreover, another carmaker, Britain’s Jaguar Land Rover is reported to be considering a new in- vestment. “Slovakia ranks first with the produc- tion of 183 cars per 1,000 citizens,” wrote UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slov- akia in a memo. It calculated the ranking of countries in production of passenger cars based on preliminary data from the Inter- national Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA) for 2014. The Czech Republic followed in second, with 118 cars per 1,000 citizens. Slovakia’s three carmakers – Kia Motors Slovakia, PSA Peugeot Citroën, and Volk- swagen Slovakia – made 973,370 cars in 2014, a decrease of 14,348 cars compared with 987,718 cars manufactured in 2013. While Kia and PSA revealed last year’s results in Janu- ary, the Slovak arm of German carmaker Volkswagen did so only in mid March. Volkswagen Slovakia (VW SK) manufac- tured a total of 394,474 automobiles in 2014, a drop from 426,313 manufactured in 2013. See CARS pg 4 BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ Spectator staff Prime Minister Robert Fico arrived in person at the Gabčíkovo hydropower plant on March 9 to announce that the state was taking over control of the facility. Photo: Sme SELECT FOREX RATES € benchmark as of March 19 CANADA CAD 1.35 CZECH REP. CZK 27.42 RUSSIA RUB 64.16 GREAT BRITAIN GBP 0.71 HUNGARY HUF 303.22 JAPAN CZK 129.12 POLAND PLN 4.12 USA USD 1.06
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NEWS
TeensuicidesSlovakia saw three suicidesof teenage girls in aweek,with psychologists sayingthat they could have in-spired one another.
pg 2
Distribution rowsBook publishers are com-plaining about the practicesof the biggest book-sellingnetwork in Slovakia, al-leging that they could resultin amonopoly.
pg 3
OPINION
Recognising realitySlovakia still refuses to re-cognise Kosovo as a sover-eign country, despite a re-cent call by the EuropeanParliament for the five EU-member holdouts to do so.
pg 5
BUSINESSFOCUS
Law lacks teethDespite the ambition of theamendment to the law onpublic procurement to pre-vent companieswith vagueownership structures fromparticipating in statetenders, experts say thenew legislation is toothless.
pg 6
Taxchanges reviewedSix law firms active inSlovakia comment on le-gislative changes adoptedin 2014. They describechanges to tax law as themost controversial, andpropose some revisions toother laws.
pg 7
CULTURE
Familydrama inoperaRomeo and Juliet, an operaby Charles Gounod, premi-eres at the SlovakNationalTheatre for the first time inits 95-years history, directedby SlovenianDiego de Brea.
pg 9
Vol. 20, No. 41 Monday, December 1, 2014 - Sunday, December 7, 2014
FOCUSof this issue
On sale now
THE NETHERLANDSBELGIUM
SELECT FOREX RATES� benchmark as of November 27
CANADA CAD 1.40CZECH REP. CZK 27.61RUSSIA RUB 58.66GREAT BRITAIN GBP 0.79
HUNGARY HUF 307.14JAPAN JPY 146.67POLAND PLN 4.18USA USD 1.25
NEWS
Eight is enoughSlovakia has agreed to taketwomore detainees fromtheUS’s GuantanamoBayprison camp. This bringsthe total number up to eightsince 2010,with a Yemeniand a Tunisian slated forarrival shortly.
pg 2
Lucrative libel suitsAfter a quarter century offree press, Slovakia stillstruggleswith onerous li-bel laws. Excessive pay-outs to public officials canoften serve to threatenjournalists and lead to self-censorship.
pg 3
OPINION
CautiousoptimismRecent changes in the judi-ciary are a sign of positivechange. At the same time,the chance to reformpublicprocurement cannot bemissed.
pg 5
BUSINESSFOCUS
DutchdirectnessJudges in theNetherlandsmake strong efforts to com-municate and engagewiththe public. The Slovak judi-ciarymight consider doingthe same, says DutchAm-bassador Richard VanRijssen.
pg 6
PresidentialpartnersAs Slovakia takes on theEuropeanCouncil’s rotatingpresidency in 2016, expectinvestment cooperationwithDutch companies togrow even further.
pg 7
CULTURE
Artistic initiationThe topworks by some ofthe country’smost prom-ising artists are ondisplay at Bratislava’sNedbalka gallery throughDecember 21.
pg 10
Smer’s Pellegrinitakes up speaker role
PRIME Minister Robert Fico haspicked a rising star of his Smerparty, Peter Pellegrini, to becomethe speaker of parliament after Pa-vol Paška resigned from the keyconstitutional post on the heels of ascandal, and alleged corruption,surrounding overpriced medicalequipment.
Pellegrini has changed jobs sev-eral times in recent months: from astate secretary at the Finance Min-istry he replaced Dušan Čaplovič aseducationminister, and after a briefstop there he is nowmoving to par-liamentary speaker. Pellegrini,whostarted his career as assistant to aSmer deputy, earlier this year ad-vanced to the post of deputy chair-manofSmer.
The post of education ministernow goes to the ministry’s statesecretary Juraj Draxler, who in thepast worked for the Brussels-basedthink-tank, theCentre forEuropeanPolicy Studies (CEPS), and focusedoneducationandscience.
Paška’s fall has not calmed pub-
lic anger over dubious deals in thehealth-care sector while theprotests organised by a number ofopposition deputies culminated onNovember 25 when approximately5,000 people filled the streets ofBratislava.
The protesters demanded theban of shell companies in publictenders and the recall of additionalpeople linked to a flawed computertomography(CT)scannertender.
Last week, the governmentpitched a revision to the public pro-curement law to parliament to lockout shell companies from thetenders; critics call the law tooth-less.
SeeNEWpg5
BYBEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff
Anti-corruptionrallies intensify,CT scanner fallout
continues
Harabin out of Judicial Council
JUDGES have opted for yet anotherchange to the country’s ailing judi-ciary, selecting pro-reform judgeDušan Čimo over Štefan Harabin tofill a vacant seat on the JudicialCouncil, a collection of judges thathelp oversee the country’s court sys-tem.
Earlier this year Harabin, whohas long been criticised for how heguided the judiciarywhile operating
as both Supreme Court and JudicialCouncil chair, also failed inhis bid toget re-elected as Supreme Courtchairman. Čimo was a former Judi-cial Council member who was dis-missed by the Smer-controlled par-liamentonlyoneweekbefore thekeySeptember 16 election of the Su-preme Court president and thecouncil chair. He returns to thecouncil after 342 of the country’s1,119votingjudgessupportedhim.
While Harabin’s critics rejoicedover the results, the man who con-trolled the country’s judiciary overmore than a decade said that “small
defeats have always launched me tobig victories”. Harabin did not saywhether he would challenge theresults of the vote, in which he fin-ishedthird.
Čimo of the Trnava RegionalCourt said the results were betterthan his expectations and that they“givea reason foroptimism”, theSITAnewswire reported. Čimo is a WhiteCrow award winner, an honour thatgoes toSlovakswhotookpersonal riskas whistleblowers by challengingunethicalorcorruptbehaviour.
SeeOUTpg2
BYBEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff
Kiska makesfirst address
to MPsPOLITICIANS can hardly keep convincingpeople that the biggest problem of health careis the lack of money if the state toleratesmurky deals and waste of public funds in thehealthcare sector, President Andrej Kiska saidin his first key address to the parliament onNovember 26 – with Prime Minister RobertFico notably absent. The president’s speechcame on the heels of a number of changes tosenior political posts, including that of thespeaker of parliament after the resignation ofPavol Paška provoked by a recent scandal sur-rounding overpriced medical equipment andsubsequent anti-corruption rallies. Fico didnot attend and Kiska spoke to a half-emptyhouse in the presence of a single cabinet offi-cial, Finance Minister Peter Kažimír, the Smedaily reported.
“Understandably, people in this case re-act especially sensitively to profiting fromillnessandhumanmisfortune,”saidKiska inresponse to a series of anti-corruption ral-lies. “There are fewpeoplewho in suchacasewould remain indifferent and would not bedisillusioned and angry. This is how I seeprotests and demonstrations these days.”
The protests organised by a number ofopposition deputies culminated on Novem-ber 25 when approximately 5,000 peoplefilled the streets of Bratislava.
SeeSPEECHpg9
Mochovcebudget hikecleared
THE ECONOMYMinistry agreed to increasethe budget on building two new reactors attheMochovce nuclear power plant during aSlovenské Elektrárne (SE) shareholdermeeting on November 21. Costs will balloona further €830 million to €4.63 billion, thestate owns a third of SE’s shares with Itali-an conglomerate Enel controlling the rest.
The third block of Mochovce is plannedto be put into commercial operation in late2016 and the fourth one year later, both fouryears later than originally planned.
“There is no other possibility than tocomplete Mochovce,” Economy MinisterPavol Pavlis told the Hospodárske Novinydaily, referring to already invested money,thousands of people working on the blocksunder construction as well as 150 subcon-tractors, half ofwhomare fromSlovakia.
While SEwill take out a loan to cover theextra €830 million, the postponed comple-tion of the project alsomeans lessmoney inthe state budget as SE dividends are used tofinance completion works. At the share-holder meeting, Enel agreed to 14 measuresto improve projectmanagement.
SeeNUCLEARpg4
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁSpectator staff
Several thousandsof people gatheredat SNPSquare inBratislavaonSeptember 25 toprotest against corruption inthehealthcare sector. Photo: Sme
Vol. 21, No. 3 Monday, February 9, 2015 - Sunday, February 22, 2015
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.20Vol. 21, No. 6 Monday, March 23, 2015 - Sunday, April 5, 2015 € 1.20
LEGISLATION
Kiska slams healthpolicy of governmentPRESIDENT Andrej Kiska is dissat-isfied with the government’s ap-proach to health care and is openlycriticising Health Minister ViliamČislák.
It is the first time that Kiskahaspublicly criticised a cabinet mem-ber. He says that Čislák has failed torespond to mounting scandals inthe sector in recentmonths. Speak-ing after a meeting with the healthminister on March 16, the presid-ent said that Čislák had failed toprovide any clear informationabout themeasures he had taken orwas planning to take in order to“stop the ineffective and non-transparent spending of money inhealth care”.
Kiska’s criticism was also mo-
tivated by Čislák’s statements onSlovak Radio onMarch 7, that the CTscanner case, a major scandal thatforced the resignation of Čislák’spredecessor Zuzana Zvolenská andspeaker of parliament Pavol Paška,and that prompted street protests,wasa“pseudo-case”and“businessasusual”. Such statements make thepersonnel changes that took placefourmonths ago at theministry andin parliament seem like an emptygesture, according to Kiska.
When Kiska won the presiden-tial election run-off against Prime
Minister Robert Fico one year ago,analysts were concerned about thequality of the relations between thepresidential office and the govern-ment. However, Kiska’s first year inoffice had until now passed withoutanymajor public clashes.
In his critical comments, Kiskalisted a number of issues he believesrequire the attention of the govern-ment: the bad atmosphere in thepatient-doctor relationship, thenon-transparencyof thesystem,andthe absence of a DRG (diagnosis-related group) system of financing,“which would bring order, greatertransparency, and more objectivelymeasurable information”.
SeeHEALTHpg2
BYMICHAELA TERENZANISpectator staff
State takes control of Gabčíkovo
PRIME Minister Robert Fico an-nounced that the state was assum-ing full control over the Gabčíkovohydroelectric power plant on March9, and presented the change as ameans to partially redress what hesees as the unfair privatisation ofSlovenské Elektrárne (SE) in 2006.
“I have good news for Slovakiabecause today at the special cabinetsession we carried out further legalstepsonwhosebasis Icansaythatwe
are taking back full state ownershipand full control of the Gabčíkovo hy-dropower plant,” Fico said, as quotedby the SITA newswire.
The state terminated the con-tract for operation of the Gabčíkovohydropower plant in December 2014and the state takeover was sched-uled formidMarch.
State-run VodohospodárskaVýstavba took over management ofthe hydropower plant on March 10from the country’s largest electricityproducer, SE,which ismajority ownedby Italian firm Enel.
Meanwhile the Regional Court inBratislava decided on March 9 that
the contract for operation of theGabčíkovo hydropower plant is in-valid because instead of a directagreement with SE, a public tendershould have been announced. SE,which argues the contract remainsvalid, has said it intends to chal-lenge the verdict and seek compens-ation for lost profits.
It is expected that this legal dis-pute as well as others pertaining toSE’s privatisation and the lease ofGabčíkovo, which has annual reven-ues of about €100 million and costs ofbetween €8-10million, will continue.
SeePLANTpg 10
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁSpectator staff
Police probeex-MP overabuse claims
CHARGES relating to the abuse of a closeperson against ex-lawmaker VladimírJánoš have sparked a debate about new le-gislation on domestic violence, as expertscite gaps in the existing law.
“There are some rules which are notcomplete,” Sylvia Gancárová, a lawyerwith Slniečko, a centre for abusedwomen,told The Slovak Spectator. “On first sightthey seem to provide protection for thevictims, but in real life they are ineffect-ive.”
Jánoš, who is also former vice-chairman of the parliamentary humanrights committee, resigned as amember ofparliament for the ruling Smer party onMarch 4.
That came in the wake of a scandal in-volving transcriptions of audio recordingspublished on the internet on March 3 inwhichheappears toverbally abusehiswifeand issue threats. He also resigned as Smerparty district chief in Prievidza.
SeeHOMEpg5
BYROMANCUPRIKSpectator staff
Slovakia stilltops car
production
SLOVAKIA remains the world leader in carproduction per capita, and planned invest-ments and the launch of new models meanit is likely to keep this position. Moreover,another carmaker, Britain’s Jaguar LandRover is reported to be considering anew in-vestment.
“Slovakia ranks first with the produc-tion of 183 cars per 1,000 citizens,” wroteUniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slov-akia in a memo. It calculated the ranking ofcountries in production of passenger carsbased on preliminary data from the Inter-national Organization of Motor VehicleManufacturers (OICA) for 2014. The CzechRepublic followed in second, with 118 carsper 1,000 citizens.
Slovakia’s three carmakers – Kia MotorsSlovakia, PSA Peugeot Citroën, and Volk-swagen Slovakia –made 973,370 cars in 2014,a decrease of 14,348 cars compared with987,718 carsmanufactured in2013.WhileKiaand PSA revealed last year’s results in Janu-ary, the Slovak arm of German carmakerVolkswagen did so only inmidMarch.
Volkswagen Slovakia (VW SK) manufac-tured a total of 394,474 automobiles in 2014,a drop from 426,313manufactured in 2013.
SeeCARSpg4
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁSpectator staff
PrimeMinisterRobert Fico arrived in personat theGabčíkovohydropower plant onMarch9 to announce that thestatewas takingover control of the facility. Photo: Sme
SELECT FOREX RATES€ benchmark as of March 19
CANADA CAD 1.35CZECH REP. CZK 27.42RUSSIA RUB 64.16GREAT BRITAIN GBP 0.71
HUNGARY HUF 303.22JAPAN CZK 129.12POLAND PLN 4.12USA USD 1.06
Slovakia copes with aseries of teen suicides
ON the first day of her schoolholidays Dominika, a 14-year-old living in Piešťany took herown life with her father’s rifleon 2 March. Even as the coun-try’s parents were still askingthemselves why, Zdenka, a 16-year-old girl living in NovéZámky, killed herself with apistol the next day, and Nina,a 14-year-old, jumped from abalcony three days later.
Three teen suicides in oneweek is an extraordinary situ-ation, say psychologists point-ing out that the suicide rate ofchildren aged between 1-14 os-cillates between zero and threeper year. And though it is tooearly to say they are connec-ted, it is possible the three girlsinspired one another, accord-ing to psychologist Eva Pálová.
“Young people have atendency to follow their idolsand it can happen that theywill copy even self-destructivebehaviour,” Pálová told The
Slovak Spectator. “Mediashould not report about par-ticular caseswith such detail.”
In fact Slovakia has a lowsuicide rate. In 2013 therewerejust 2.5 suicides by teens aged15-19 per 100,000 citizens. Theaverage of 33 countries in theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) is 6.9.
Furthermore, the numberof teen suicide attempts hasbeen falling. There were 10childrenwhowere less than15-years-old and 68 people
between ages 15 and 19 thattried to commit suicide in 2013,the latest year for which com-plete statistics are available. Tocompare, in 2011 it was 18peopleunder 15yearsoldand91teens between 15 and 19 whotried to commit suicide, ac-cording to statistics providedby National Health Informa-tion Centre.
Copycat suicides
There are documentedcases of suicides inspired by
widely publicised suicides ofnotable figures. For example,Marilyn Monroe’s deathcaused by barbiturate over-dose in 1962 was followed by arise in the American suiciderate by more than 10 percentthemonth after.
The phenomenon receivedthe name the “Werther effect”linked to the series of suicidesthat occurred in 18th centuryGermany after the publicationof Goethe’s novel “The Sor-rowsofYoungWerther.”Manyyoung men followed the ex-ample of the novel’s maincharacter who shot himselfover unrequited love. Author-ities subsequently banned thenovel in some regions.
The Austrian Associationfor Suicide Preventionlaunched a campaign urgingmedia not to report suicides bypeople who jumped in front oftrains in the 1980s. After themedia stopped reporting onthem, or reported them onlybriefly, suicides halved, ac-cording to Pálová.
SeeCOPYpg 10
BYROMANCUPRIKSpectator staff
Three teenagegirls took their lives in oneweek. Photo: Sme
HEALTH: Kiska sees ‘avoidable deaths’Continued from pg 1
“How is it possible that in all EU coun-tries the DRG has been partially or fullyintroduced, andnot here?” he asked in hisspeech.
Slovak health care does not havenormatively introduced standard dia-gnostic and treatment procedures, whichare the norm in other countries, Kiskasaid, adding that their absenceoften leadsto what he called “avoidable deaths”.
Kiska also called on the ministry, thepublic health insurer and other public of-fices to put together the data they have attheir disposal and use it to evaluate thequality and effectiveness of health-careproviders.
Experts on health care mostly agreewith Kiska’s reservations towards thestate of the health-care sector.
“The president posed questions thatthe Medical Trade Unions Association(LOZ) has been posing for a long time,”LOZ President Peter Visolajský told theSme daily.
Čislák: we took steps
Čislák rejected Kiska’s criticism of hisdepartment, saying that among otherthings the ministry has helped hospitalscope with debts that have accumulatedover the course of years. He called Kiska’sspeech a pre-planned media perform-ance.
“Regardless of the statement by thepresident, who in the health-care sectorhas no responsibility or competencies,the government will continue fulfillingits programme statement in this sector,”Čislák said as quoted by TASR.
Čislák also insisted that in this elec-tion term the ministry has dealt with thesalaries of doctors and nurses, starteddealing with the lack of general practi-tioners, reconstructed several hospitalswith the use of EU funds, and “abolished
nonsensical fees” patients paid to doc-tors.
Prior tobecomingpresident,Kiskaranthe Dobrý Anjel charity organisation,which works with mainly cancer pa-tients. In his election campaign hestressed health-care-related problems asmajor issues that the government needsto deal with, and pledged that he wouldkeep pushing for improvement.
Past scandals
The achievements listed by Čislák,however, are not what has kept the pub-lic focused on the healthcare sector in thepast few months, starting in November2014, when news of the flawed CT tenderbroke. This forced the resignation of Zuz-ana Zvolenská as health minister, as wellas Renáta Zmajkovičová – a key Smer of-ficial, who also led the supervisory boardof the Piešťany hospital which pur-chased the device – as deputy speaker ofparliament. The scandal eventually led tothe resignation of Pavol Paška, one ofSmer’s top officials, from his long-standing position as speaker of parlia-ment. Then state secretary at the HealthMinistry Viliam Čislák was then appoin-ted as the minister.
The fall of Zvolenská and Paška didnot, however, calm public anger over du-bious deals in the health-care sector, andprotests organised by a number of op-position deputies culminated on Novem-ber 25 when approximately 5,000 peopletook to the streets of Bratislava. Kiska re-acted to the scandal by going to speak toparliamentarians about health-care is-sues.
In December, another scandal fol-lowed, when the Sme daily and Trans-parency International Slovensko (TIS) re-viewed contracts at four large state hos-pitals and found that they would pay ex-ternal caterers nearly €81 million includ-ing VAT over the course of 10 years. The
overpriced contracts saw the heads of thestate-owned hospitals forced out, alongwith the Health Ministry’s service officehead.
Smaller-scale corruption in health-care made the news in February 2015,when famous cardiac surgeon ViliamFischer was charged with taking bribes,and a well-known Bratislava-based GP,Peter Lipták, spoke about small informalpayments he receives from patients asgifts, provoking massive criticism.
Conflict with the government?
It is the first time that Kiska has dir-ectly criticised the government and aspecific cabinet member, but that doesnot mean the president and the govern-ment have been of one mind all throughthe first year of Kiska’s presidency.
Kiska, however, has never directlycriticised the government when express-ing opinions that differed from the primeminister. Thatwas the case in foreign andsecurity policy, Institute for Public Af-fairs President Grigorij Mesežnikov toldThe Slovak Spectator.
“Now the situation has reached thepoint where problems cannot be criti-cised fromageneralviewpointanymore,”Mesežnikov said, adding that Kiska nowseems to be willing to contribute to solv-ing theproblemshe sees inhealth care, bycalling on the government to presentsome solutions.
If the government does not want toenter into useless conflicts with the pres-ident, it should answer pragmatically, byproposing concrete steps in the health-care sector, according to Mesežnikov.
Though Kiska was unusually criticaltowards the health minister, it does notmean that he will now maintain a dir-ect, critical tone towards the govern-ment in theyear aheadof the elections. Atthe same time, Mesežnikov does not ex-pect the president to remain silent.
Court supported rejected judges
PRESIDENTAndrej Kiskabreached the fundamentalrights of selected candidatesfor the posts of the Constitu-tional Court (CC) judges totake up elected and non-elected public offices underequal conditionswhenherefused to appoint them lastJuly, according to aMarch 17ruling by the ConstitutionalCourt’s third senate, theTASRnewswire reported.
The Court decided thatKiska violated the rights ofjudges Eva Fulcová, JurajSopoliga andMiroslav Ďuriš.The CC at the same timeoverturned the respective de-cision of Kiska to reject thethree candidates on July 2,2014 and obliged him to dealwith the issue again. Fur-thermore, the Kiska’s Office issupposed to pay the threejudges the costs associatedwith the court proceedings.
Back in July 2014, Kiskadecided not to appoint fiveout of six candidates forthree vacant posts of judgesat the CC thatwere elected bythe Smer-dominated parlia-ment. Following personalinterviewswith the applic-ants, Kiska decided to ap-point only one judge – JanaBaricová. All five rejectedcandidates subsequently
challenged the president’sdecisionwith the Constitu-tional Court.
The case of the two re-maining judges – Ján Bernátand Imrich Volkai – is beingdealtwith by another CCsenate, which has not cometo a decision yet.
The decision is confusingand does not explainwhenthe alleged violation of thecomplainers’ rights occurs,according to Kiska’s legalrepresentative and formerCC head JánMazák.
Themost serious fact isthat it appears that actuallyonly one judge in the senatemade the difference, saidMazák, adding that Kiska’scomplaint against possiblebias of senatemember JanaBaricová,whowas person-ally involved in the appoint-ments last year, was rejected.
Mazák pointed out thatSenate ChairmanRudolfTkáčik adopted a differentstance as he does not agreewith the verdict.
“Therewas a judgewhoreally lacked impartiality,”Mazák said, as quoted byTASR. “Thismeans that onevote in this senate decided onthe result of these proceed-ings. It’s a precedent that Ican’t understand.”
Police investigate Statistics Office
THENEWwebsite of theStatisticsOffice (ŠÚ), some-times fails toprovideactualstatistics and informationpromptly andusers also saythat it is chaotic and fre-quently freezes.
TheNationalCriminalAgencyhasbegunexaminingthecompetition for the con-tract tobuild thewebsite,whichcost€22millionandwasco-fundedby theEU,public serviceRTVS reportedMarch 13.
TheFinanceMinistry alsocalledonŠÚto return25per-centof the funds,€5.39mil-lion,whichwasallegedlyspent inways irrelevant totheproject.However, ŠÚ re-fuses topay, theoffice’sheadĽudmilaBenkovičová toldmediaMarch 17.
Theministrydemands 25percentof funds fromall 16projects of theEU’s opera-tional programme informat-isationof society checkedbytheEuropeanCommission.The investigation showssimilar results inall checkedprojects andare related tocurrent legislationwhichchanged since thoseprojectswere implemented, accord-ing toBenkovičová.
It is an “unacceptableprinciple of retroactivity andintroducingof legal insecur-ity”,Benkovičová said, asquotedby theTASRnews-wire, adding thatduring thecreationof thewebsite
projectnine inspectionsandanaudit of ŠÚdidnot findanyviolationof the law.
Headof theŠÚIT sectionŠtefanTóth says that thenewportal functionswithoutproblems.
EuropeanCommissionauditorspointed tomistakesin competition ruleswhichcouldbebeneficial for onespecific participant. TheStatisticsOffice only con-sidered companieswithanannual turnover of€20mil-lionor expertswith individu-al publicationactivities, ac-cording to theDenníkNdaily.
SlovakTelekomandMi-crocompComputersystémwonthecompetition,whilefive firmsparticipated. Tóthpreviouslyworked for thefirmVidoswithVojtechLukácsofMicrocompComputersystémcompany,between1990and1992.Benkovičová toldDenníkNthat shedoesnotknowaboutanypersonal connectionbetweenStatisticsOfficeemployeesand thewinningfirm.
Tóthdidnot answeraquestiononhispersonalconnection.
“Donot answer suchquestions, youarenot apublicemployee,”Benkovičová toldTóthafter thepress confer-ence, as quotedbyDenníkN.
CompiledbySpectatorstaff
frompressreports
2 March 23 – April 5, 2015 NEWS
Book publishers feardistribution changes
MORE than two dozen pub-lishers signed a joint state-ment in early March express-ing concern about alleged at-tempts by the J&T financialgroup to control Slovakia’sbiggest bookstore chain, PantaRhei, and its biggest book dis-tribution company, Ikar, inorder, they allege, to elimin-ate competition.
The publishers accuse J&Tof attempting “to monopolisethe Slovak bookmarket”.
“We do not consider theprocedures Panta Rhei uses inthis process to be fair and hon-est as theybringarroganceanddishonest practices into thebook market,” reads the jointstatement.
The publishers referred toproposals concerning whatthey say are inappropriate and– for them – disadvantageousmarket and trading condi-tions, as well as proposals todistribute books exclusivelyvia Ikar, which is owned byJ&T.
Panta Rhei dismissed theaccusations as “the expressionof feelings”. The bookstorechain stressed that it does nothave a monopoly in the mar-ket, merely a share of about 30percent. Nor will closer co-operation with Ikar result inthe creation of a monopoly, itadded in its official statement.
“Themarket is undergoingnatural development and theproposed changes are the res-ult of standard efforts by PantaRhei to improve the operationof its supply processes,” thecompany told The SlovakSpectator in a statement. Itadded that its aim is to havereliable logistics and to ensurethat there would be the samebroad range of books availablein all its shops across Slovakia.
It also rejected the claimthat it is owned by J&T, stress-ingthat it isonlyaclientof J&TBanka, which has provided itwith an operating loan. TheAntimonopoly Office at firsttold the Sme daily that it hadnothing to investigate, butlater changed its position. Ithas now said that it will checkthe structure of the companyand the areas in which it isactive, aswell as its position inthe bookmarket, Smewrote initsMarch 18 issue.
Daniel Kollár, head of theAssociation of Publishers andBooksellers in Slovakia (ZVKS),says that the distribution pro-posals recently received bypublishers are not normal. Ac-cording to him, the changesmay affect smaller publisherswho issue non-commercialbooks in particular.
“Signing the commissionagreement sent to publishersby Ikar will limit their in-
comes and they will becomemore dependent on distribu-tion,” Kollár told The SlovakSpectator. He added that ifthey do not sign it, they willface problems placing theirbooks, which together withother factors could contributeto themgoing out of business.
Meanwhile, Culture Min-ister Marek Maďarič enteredthe discussion. Though it istrue that the publishing, dis-tribution and sale of books areeconomic activities which ob-serve market rules, “the bookmarket cannot be considered apurely economic sector”, hesaid in a statement, as repor-ted by the TASRnewswire.
In this respect, Maďaričsaid that if there are any at-tempts to dictate “inappropri-ate and disadvantageous con-ditions which would threatentheir [publishers’] existenceand would eventually unifythe Slovak bookmarket”, therewill need to be some response.
“The current situationpoints to theneedtoadoptsomekind of book law,” the ministrywrote, as quoted by TASR. Sucha law may, however, be adop-ted only by the next govern-ment, he added.
Problematic distribution
Panta Rhei sent publishersa letter in September 2014 inwhich it informed them that itwas reducing the number ofdirect suppliers it uses, and mi-grating towards Ikar. Sub-sequently, Ikar sent a letter inwhich it announced its basicbusiness conditions and in-cluded draft commission con-tracts with its general businessconditions, Kollár explained.
According to the proposal,thebookstoreplanstomovethedistribution of books, cur-rently made by several suppli-ers, only to Ikar.Moreover, Ikarwants to increase its commis-sion to 53 percent of the coverprice, plus additional fees forvarious bonuses, maturity ofinvoices, damaged or lostbooks. The publishers will alsohave to pay more money forbetter placement of their booksin the Panta Rhei bookshops,theDenníkN dailywrote.
“We do not consider itright to let one distributor,who will subsequently be ableto dictate the conditions topublishers on onehand, and tobooksellers on the other, takecontrol of the Slovak bookmarket,” the publishers wrotein their statement.
Kollár told The SlovakSpectator that the proposedcommission contracts containnearly no rights for publishersand that they are disadvant-ageous and unbalanced forthem.
The publishers were hor-rified by these proposals, andas a result the ZVKS initiatedmeetings with Panta Rhei inOctober and November 2014 atwhich they expressed theirdisagreement, Kollár added.
However, the bookstoresaid that the changes to its lo-gistics should bring “more ef-fective operation on bothsides”.
There were two factorswhich influenced the decisionto extend and consolidate thecooperation between PantaRhei and Ikar. First was “thehigh level of professional trustwhich we have been buildingsince 1993”, while the secondwas “the high level of personaltrust”, the company said,pointing to the fact that bothLadislav Bödök and Igor Mrvaserveonthestatutorybodiesofboth firms.
Disputeoverpremises
Distribution was not theonly problem cited by the pub-lishers. They also referred tothe activities of Panta Rhei,which tried to get newpremises in the City ArenaTrnava shopping centre that iscurrently under construction.According to them, “in an at-tempt to obtain commercialspace the companycrossed theborders of ethical behaviourtowards its rival”.
Though they did not namethe rival, several media out-lets mentioned its recent dis-putewith bookstoreMartinus.Its head Michal Meško wroteon the company’s blog on Feb-ruary 23 that they wanted toopen a shop with café in the
shopping centre. Though theyhad been discussing the open-ing with the developer since2012 and even signed an agree-ment in 2014, the developerterminated the deal in mid-February 2015.
“The letter reads that theproject changes allegedly oc-curred in our plannedpremises, because of whichour bookshop cannot bethere,”Meškowrote. “Andthatregarding the actual state ofpre-lease they cannot offer usany alternative space in theshopping centre.”
Meško continued that theyreceived the information insummer 2014 that they shouldterminate the agreement, asPanta Rhei wanted to sellbooks in the premises. Thebookstore’s representativessubsequently confirmed theinformation they were inter-ested in having a shop in CityArena.
Panta Rhei denies the al-legations.
“It is natural that PantaRhei, as the biggest network ofbrick-and-mortar bookshops,tries to get the best commer-cial premises,” the bookstorewrote in a statement, addingthat for this reason it showedan interest in space in CityArena in Trnava.
According to the com-pany, it is up to the developerto whom it chooses to rentspace. It stressed it does notconsider competition overquality premises to be “unfairbehaviour”.
Next steps
Since the sales of most ofthe publishers who signed thestatement have increased inthe past few years, Panta Rheiconsiders all accusations as“tendentious pressure fromour competitors, trying toharmus”.
The company told TheSlovak Spectator that it hadstarted intensive negotiationswith all its partners and isseeking ways that will benefitthemall.
“As we wrote in our state-ment, during the past 20 yearswe have always succeeded [infinding a solution], and wehope we will do it also now,”the bookstore added.
Kollár said that the ZVKSwill continue its role as medi-ator of this problem and willtry to “deepen the communic-ation between the publishersand Panta Rhei or Ikar”. He isconvinced that they willeventually reach a comprom-ise over the issues.
The publishers alsoclaimed in their statementthat the only solution for afunctioning book market inSlovakia is “the way of mutualrespect, dialogue and cooper-ation on the principle of mu-tual benefit.”
BYRADKAMINARECHOVÁSpectator staff
Somebookpublisherswarn against amonopoly. Photo: Sme
No decision ongarages passed yet
SOME12hoursofdiscussiononMarch17 failed toresolvethe futureofexcavationandconstructionplansaroundBratislavaCastle.
Thoughanexpertcom-missionagreed it is import-ant toprotect thesiteandbanconstructionequipmentfromthearea,whatwillhap-pento theCelticarchitecturefoundonthesiteasworkonaplannedparkinggaragegotunderway isstillunclear.Parliament,which initiatedtheconstructionof thegar-ages, saysa finaldecisionwillbemadeafter further talks.
Expertsconsider thear-chaeological siteonthenorthernterraceofBratislavaCastle tobeofhighquality,andtheycalled forbetterpro-tectionvia fencingaroundthearea.Theyalsoagreedthat theexcavationsshouldbeexhib-itedonthesitewhere theywere found.Thecommissionsubsequently recommendedtoaccelerate renovatingthefindingsunder thecastlecourtyardandthenorthernterrace, theSITAnewswirereported.
“Thesenegotiationswerecertainlynoteasy,” saidDanielGuspan,headof theParlia-mentaryOffice, asquotedbytheTASRnewswire, “therearedifferentopinionsamong lay-menandalsoexpertsabout theexhibitionof theexcavations,theconstructionobjectsor thearchaeological solutionsofsomepartsof the reconstruc-tionofBratislavaCastle.”
Thecommission,however,didnotagreeonwhat todowiththeplannedundergroundgarages,SITAwrote.
It isnecessary tocom-plete theundergroundcon-structionat thecastle,SpeakerofParliamentPeterPellegrini said.Only timeandmutualagreementwill showwhether therewillbegaragesorsomethingelse,headded.
“Itmayhavemultifunc-tionaluse,”Pellegrini said,asquotedbyTASR,addingthatincaseofneed itmaybeusedforparking,andotherwise forotherpurposes.
Healsosaid that thepar-liamentwill acceptsomeoftheexperts’ recommenda-tions, likeadoptingmeasuresforbetterprotectionof thefindingsandtheirexhibition.However,heconsiders theproposal tohalt constructionat thecastle tobeunjustified,TASRwrote.
Theactivists fromSOSBratislavskýHradcivic initi-
ativewelcomedtheoutcomesof thecommission.
“It is important that theartefactsontheworkingsitewill beprotected,” saidMonikaKozelováofSOSBratislavskýHrad,asquotedbyTASR.
Whatnext?
While therewasnoprob-lemwithpreservingtwooftheexcavatedobjects, thereis still discussionovera thirdlocatedunder thewinter rid-ingschool, a replicaofan18thcenturybuildingwhichpar-liamentwantedtouse forpublicevents.
Accordingto the latestplans,excavationwasset tocontinueunder theball-room’sstage.Duringthedayitwillbeopentovisitors,while intheevening itwillbeused forvariousevents, theDenníkNdailywrote.
SOSBratislavskýHradhasmade itsownproposals, in-cludingturningthebuildingintoaconcerthall andball-room,or intopartof theSlov-akNationalMuseumortheSlovakNationalGallery.An-otherpossibility is tocreateanewmuseumthere.
This ideawasalsowel-comedbyAustrianarchae-ologistHeinrichZabehlickywho,as the first foreignex-pert, confirmedinthepastthat itwasRomanarchitectswhobuilt theconstructionsatBratislavaCastle for theCelts,DenníkNwrote.
“Themodernmuseumwouldnotbemuchdifferentfromtheplans for theBaroqueridingschool,”Za-behlickytold thedaily.
Zabehlickyvisited thecastle togetherwithtwootherforeignarchaeologists,BojanDjurić (Slovenia)andBalászKomoróczy (CzechRepublic).Thoughtheyagreedthat thearchaeological researchmetall standardsandthat theprotection isappropriate,Za-behlickytoldDenníkNthathedoesnotknowanysimilarsiteabroadnearwhichun-dergroundgarageswerebuilt.
Oneof thereasonsparlia-mentopposedanychanges isthat itwould forcedelays,andtheridinghall andgaragesareset forusestartingnextJulywhenSlovakia’spresidencyover theEuropeanCouncilbegins,DenníkNwrote.
“Asanarchitectwith25-yearexperienceIestimatethat thearchitectural changeof theproject shouldnot takemore thantwomonths if theinvestorknowswhat theywant,”ĽubomírBoháč,deputymayorofBratislava’sOldTowndistrict,whoisalsoresponsible for thebuildingauthority, toldDenníkN.
Accordingtohim, thegaragesshouldnotbesitu-atedonthesite, regardlessofwhat is foundthereandhowit isprotected.
ByRadkaMinarechováwithpressreports
WorkatBratislavaCastlewasdiscussed. Photo: TASR
NEWS March 23 – April 5, 2015 3www.spectator.sk
Slovaks with HSBC accounts
EARLIER in March the SlovakFinancial Administration re-ceived a list of 25 Slovak cli-ents of the Swiss branch ofHSBC bank. The list, fromwhich several names havesince been leaked, includesnames identical to those ofhigh-profile businesspeople,athletes, doctors and models.The amounts in individualaccounts were up to €3.5 mil-lion, Financial Administration(FA) spokeswoman PatríciaMacíková told the SITA news-wire.
The leaked names includeDaniela Hantuchová, IgorGrošaft and Ján Sabol.
While the tennis playerDaniela Hantuchová has notcommented on the presenceof her name on the list, IgorGrošaft, co-owner of the SITAnewswire, as well as JánSabol, a former state secretaryof the Economy Ministry dur-ing the first Mikuláš Dzurindacabinet, have denied holdingaccounts at the bank.
Lawyers point out thathaving an account with a for-eign banks is not illegal.
“For example, athletes or
productive artists, who prac-tically do not have any in-come from Slovakia but fromvarious events abroad, com-monly open accounts abroad,”Radovan Pala, partner of thelaw firm TaylorWessinge/n/w/c told the Dennik Ndaily.
The FA is now checkingthe list, while further stepsshould be taken within theTax Cobra, within which theNational Criminal Agency, theFinancial Administration andthe General Prosecutor’s Of-fice collaborate.
FA President FrantišekImrecze asked for the list inmid February after involve-ment of Slovaks in the ‘SwissLeaks’, a case in which therole of the Swiss branch ofHSBC in assisting people fromother countries to dodge taxesand change money intodifficult-to-trace cash was re-vealed. The leaked list in-cludes 60 people with links toSlovakia.
Igor Grošaft owns throughNAMAV a minority stake in PetitPress, the co-owner of The SlovakSpectator.
Business environment index falls
BASED on the perceptions ofbusiness people, the quality ofthe business environment inSlovakia continued toworsenduring the final quarter of2014. They objected especiallyto constant changes in legis-lation and an increasing taxburden caused by the revi-sions to the income tax law.The business environmentindex, which the BusinessAlliance of Slovakia (PAS)prepares based on a survey ofbusiness people, decreased by1.71 percent to 61.2 points overthe last quarter of 2014. Thedropwas less dynamic thanduring the previous quarterwhen the index fell 2.58 per-cent. PAS revealed the latestdata onMarch 12.
Out of allmonitoredparameters of the index, theitem assessing comprehens-
ibility, usage and stability oflegislation decreased themost. This reflected thechanges in several importantlaws for doing businesswhichtook place at the end of 2014.Themain changewas the re-vision to the income tax lawchanging the depreciationscheme.
The low enforceability oflaws and the functionality ofthe judiciarywas the seconditemwith the biggest drop,followed by inconsistent en-forcement of the principle ofequality before the law. Thelatterwas ascribed to re-structuring of the construc-tion company Váhostav,whichwas disadvantageousfor small andmedium-sizedbusinesses in particular.
Compiledby Spectator staff
Students to get moreexperience with new law
AFTER nearly two years of dis-cussion, parliament has adop-ted a new law on vocationaltraining which should meetthe requirements of employ-ers for more professionalstaffers. It will carry out thetheoretical part of the educa-tion process at schools, whilepractical training will be en-trusted to companies. Despitesupport from employers’ asso-ciations, there still remainsome weak points that, theyhope, may be removed afterfurther negotiations.
“Vocational education inSlovakia has a long and qualitytradition which was interrup-ted to a certain extent in pastyears, sowehavenot built it ona green field,” Education Min-ister Juraj Draxler said, asquoted by the TASR newswire.He referred to the fact thattherewasdual education in thepast, but it gradually faded
after the fall of communism.An important part of the
new law, approved by 80 MPson March 12, is the imple-mentation of the dual educa-tion scheme into vocationaltraining, including the mech-anism of verification of em-ployers’ abilities to offer prac-tical training, Education Min-istry spokeswoman BeátaDupaľová Ksenzsighová toldThe Slovak Spectator.
In practice, employers whodecide to join the project willenter into learning contractswith secondary school stu-
dents, who will undergo prac-tical training at the company.The system is beneficial forstudents in that they will beentitled to receive remunera-tion for their work, while thecompanieswill bemotivatedbytax relief. The government hasallocated €26 million for thispurpose up to 2018. The level ofthegranted tax reliefwill be thesame for all participating firms.
Employers who want tojoin the system but lack therequired equipment andpremises will be able to ar-range for part of the practical
training to be carried out onthe premises of a differentemployer, the law stipulates.More powers within the cer-tification process for employ-ers will be assumed by theState Institute of VocationalEducation (SIOV).
The time spent in thecompanymay be from 60 to 80percent of the total number oflessons.
After being signed by thepresident, the new law willbecome effective as of April 1,and become part of school cur-ricula as of September 1.
“We consider the adoptionof the law positively, as a suc-cess of employers to legitimisetheir efforts for the trans-formation of vocational edu-cation and implementation ofthe dual education system inSlovakia,” Roman Conorto ofthe Federation of Employers’Associations (AZZZ) told TheSlovak Spectator.
Foreign chambers in Slov-akia also welcomed the law,though they say it is not ideal.
SeeTRAINpg 10
BYRADKAMINARECHOVÁSpectator staff
Studentswillwork directly in firms. Photo: TASR
CARS: PSA Trnava faces labour unrestContinued frompg 1
The carmaker ascribed the drop to thelaunch of new production lines as well asthe volatile car market, with declines insales in somemarkets, notably Russia, af-fecting car production in Bratislava.
Kia Motors Slovakia near Žilina pro-duced 323,720 cars, up nearly 3.5 percentand PSA Peugeot Citroën in Trnava in-creased its production by 2.7 percent to255,176 cars, a new record.
Newmodels to boost production
All three carmakers introduced newproducts at the annual Geneva Interna-tional Motor Show held March 5-15, hop-ing that new or improved models wouldboost car sales and production.
“2015 will be a challenge for Volkswa-gen Slovakia,” Albrecht Reimold, thepresident of the board of directors of VWSK said at a press conference onMarch 16.“We are starting production of the newAudi Q7. Thus we will become the firstplant in theworld to startmanufacturinga diesel-driven plug-in hybrid car – theAudi Q7 e-tron.”
VW SK is also preparing for produc-tion of bodies for the new BentleyBentayga SUV expected to be launched onthe market in early 2016, while the Brat-islava plant will, as of late 2017, also as-semble the Porsche Cayenne. While VWSK has previously manufactured severalof its parts, final assembly has been donein Leipzig.
VW SK plans to invest €1.5 billionbetween 2012 and 2016, while invest-ments between 2012 and 2014 amountedto €939.3million.
PSA Peugeot Citroën introduced a re-vamped 208model in Geneva.
“Out of all Peugeot 208 cars, 90 per-cent are manufactured in Trnava,”Peugeot Slovakia spokeswoman IvanaOrviská told the Pravda daily, adding that
the remaining 10 percent are manufac-tured in the French town of Poissy.
Peter Švec, spokesman for PSAPeugeotCitroën, specified that theTrnavaplant introduced two new things inGeneva, with the second being a two-toned bodym the technology for whichwas designed by technicians from theTrnava plant, offered under the Black Topbrand. Clients can choose the roof andcovers of drivingmirrors in black in com-binationwithoneof threecolour tones forthe body.
But thebiggestnews forTrnava is thatthe plant should manufacture Citroën’scrossover model which should replaceproduction of the Citroën C3 Picasso,Pravda wrote. While total investmentsrelated to the newmodel are calculated at€300 million, €80 million of this shouldgo to Trnava.
Originally the carmaker planned tomake the announcement in a ceremonialway with the presence of Prime MinisterRobert Fico on March 6, but Fico was un-able to attend and no announcement wasmade.
Nevertheless, even plans for produc-tion of a newmodel and thus actual guar-antees that the carmaker would keep itslabour force, have not calmed the tensesituation in the plant, and trade unionsare threatening to strike if they do not re-ceive a pay raise.
Unions have asked for a 9-percentsalary hike, but the company’s manage-ment has thus far refused. They proposeda one-off contribution to the employeesinstead, which was rejected by the tradeunions. The negotiations are now beingled by amediator.
Two years ago the company manage-ment agreed with employees on a 24-month salary freeze, because of lowerproduction, for the years 2013 and 2014.Thethirdshiftwaspreservedeventhoughproduction was below the plant’s annualcapacity of 300,000 cars.
ThisMarchseveral employees,mostlyworking on the lines, told the MYTrnavskéNoviny regionalweekly that theworking conditionswere not good.
“People work a lot and at a tempowhich is unthinkable in France,” one ofthe employees said, adding they have towork also on Saturdays. “And then theylearn that theywill pay €1,000 bonuses inFrance.”
Korean-owned Kia Motors Slovakia,which produces cars in Teplička nadVáhomnearŽilina,unveiled thesport lineof its cee’d models under the GT Linebrand in Geneva.
“Wewillmanufacture it in three bodyversions,” said Jozef Bačé, spokesman forKiaMotors Slovakia.
Fourth carmaker?
While car market watchers rather seespace in Slovakia for more auto subcon-tractors, the media have reported thatcarmaker Jaguar Land Rover is consider-ing opening a new facility here.
“They are addressing constructioncompanies for potential designs for theirpremises,” an anonymous source told theHospodárske Noviny economic daily.“They are deciding between Slovakia, Po-land, the Czech Republic and Hungary,”he added.
The question remains, however,whether this will be a logistics ware-house, additional production site, or evena plant for car production. Several thingshint that the second option is more prob-able. Owned by India’s Tata Motors, thecompany is building at full capacity andneeds to expand.
Jaguar Land Rover officials did notcomment for Hospodárske Noviny, butSlovak analysts point out that this regionis a logical choice, due to its low costs, de-velopednetwork of suppliers, flexible andhighly motivated labour, and the coun-try’s growth potential, plus other factors.
4 March 23 – April 5, 2015 BUSINESS
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HOME: Boost police power?Continued frompg 1
Meanwhile, Jánoš an-nounced he has filed a crim-inal complaint concerningslander and the infringementof the sanctity of intimateverbal expression, claimingthat “many allegations, half-truths anduntrue claims”havebeen published in the mediaabout thecase.Healsosaid thathe has a heavy heart when itcomes to his wife, with whomhe is in the process of divorce.
Releaseonbail questioned
Jánoš spent four days incustody before he was re-leased on bail, which was setby the judge at €20,000. Theprosecutor appealed againstthe release but Trenčín Re-gional Court approved the de-cision of Prievidza DistrictCourt to let him go.
Ivan Katrinec, the lawyerrepresenting Iveta Jánošová,Jánoš’ wife, said he respectsthe decision of the court, eventhoughhe disagreeswith it.
“We hope that the judgehas taken all measures to en-sure the safety of the wife anddaughter,” Katrinec said, asquoted by TASR. “By releasingVladimír Jánoš from custody,the judge has de facto as-sumed responsibility overeverything Vladimír Jánošwill do in the followingweeks.”
General ProsecutorJaromír Čižnár said he dis-agrees with the decision. Hepointed out that on March 6,police in Prievidza chargedtwo people with interfering inthe process of justice in con-nection with the case. Accord-ing to unofficial reports, alawyer and a doctor issued afalse medical certificateclaiming that Jánoš isnot fit totestify before police.
“When someone evadescriminal prosecution it isreason to at least consider cus-tody,” Čižnár said in an inter-viewwith the Sme daily.
Recanting testimony
Commenting on the ver-dict, Katrinec pointed out thatJánoš faced domestic violenceallegations as far back as 10years ago. In May 2005, hiswife Iveta filed a complaintwith Prievidza police, but thenext day she came to amendher complaint, and claimedthat she had fabricated thewhole attack.
“My husband forced me totell police that I fabricated itafter anhourofpersuasionandthreatening,” Jánošová toldSme. “I had to recant my testi-mony.”
As victims of domestic vi-olence often recant their testi-monies because of fear of orthreats from abusers withwhom they share a home, the
government adopted legisla-tionmaking it impossible todoso in 2002, according to thedaily.
The prosecutor should, inthis case, have launched acriminal prosecution for falsetestimony, Čižnár said. Fur-ther investigationwould showwhy Jánoš’ wife truly recalledher testimony.
“This did not happen,”Čižnár told Sme. “The questionis whether the silence was be-neficiary for someone, be-cause I don’t see any otherreason.”
Avoiding investigation
There is a way for policeofficers to avoid their duty todeal with such cases. The ab-used woman files a criminalcomplaint but later amendstestimony instead of recallingit and she does it in a way thatthe whole testimony will benegated, according to JozefŠotkovský, the lawyer cooper-ating with Slovak Women Al-liance.
Another option is toderogate the whole situation.For example, to say that con-trary to original testimony theabuser hit victimwith an openpalm to the shoulder, not withfist to the face. Police there-fore deal with it as misde-meanour, not as criminal act.
Police are authorised toinvestigate even such com-plaints, especially when it ap-pears a woman changed hertestimony under duress, butmany officers do not do so as itismore convenient for themtodo nothing, according toŠotkovský.
“Police officers just shelvethe criminal complaint and donothing further in the case,”Šotkovský told The SlovakSpectator. “Then it will be for-gotten.”
Expelled fromthehouse
To fight domestic viol-ence, police propose to extendthe power of police officers toto expel alleged abusers fromtheir households from thecurrent two days to a new lim-it of ten days, Police Presidi-um spokesman Michal Slivkatold The Slovak Spectator.
Professionals dealing withabused women welcome theidea.
“Two days are too short atime for abused person to de-cide what to do,” Gancárovásaid. “Awomanhas to decide ifshewants to divorce or sue herpartnerandthosedecisionsarenot easy for a woman who ispsychologically and econom-ically dependent on aman.”
Police registered 312 ex-pulsions in 2014, Sme wrote,which is too low a number, ac-cording to Čižnár.
When police officers cometo the crime scene, the violent
attack is usually over andneighbours pretend that theydid not notice anything,Šotkovský said.
Gancárová, who in the pastwasapoliceofficerdealingwithabused women, added that of-ficers do not use this power asthey are often frustrated by thepoor results of their efforts.There are no interventionteams in Slovakia to providelegal and psychological help forvictims, so they are passive andabusers return to their homesafter 48 hours as if nothing hadhappened, she said.
There is, however, anotherloophole in legislation whichcomplicates the means an ab-used person can be protectedfrom a violent partner. As inthe Jánoš case, a court decideswhether an alleged abusershould be imprisoned andhowthe alleged victim should beprotected during a criminalprosecution. Itmay issueabanpreventing the accused fromcoming close to the house oftheir accuser. However, thevictims do not receive an offi-cial document saying this, be-cause they are not parti-cipants in the proceeding, ac-cording to Gancárová.
“Evenwhen the abuser hassome restriction, such as a banon returning to their home,the victim does not knowabout it because the court doesnot deliver its decision tothem,” Gancárová said.
New legislation
The Ministry of Labour,Social Affairs and Family ispreparing a draft law on do-mestic violence which shouldbe finished by the autumn.
“It’s too early to commenton particular measures… butthere is a need to focus on situ-ations where there are re-peated misdemeanours in onehousehold,” Labour MinistryspokesmanMichal Stuška toldThe Slovak Spectator.
Meanwhile Slovakia adop-ted several measures to im-prove the situation: it trainedspecialists for these types ofcrimes, improved training ofregular police officers andlaunched a hotline for abusedpeople onMarch 1, Čižnár said.
Slovak legislation is notbad in itself, but the rules areoverseen by incompetent orpoorly trained people,Gancárová said. Police of-ficers, prosecutors and judgesoften downplay the serious-nessofsuchcases,whichcouldstemfromthe fact that someofthem witnessed domestic vi-olence as children and con-sider violence as to some ex-tent normal, she suggested.
“There are police officerswho were victims of domesticviolence and they are nowdealing with victims of do-mestic violence,” Gancárovásaid.
Recognise reality,and Kosovo
WARandabrutal campaignofethnic cleansing leads to amajor refugee crisis. Globalpowers intervene in attemptto quell the bloodshed andimplement an imperfectceasefire stalemate. Eventu-ally, events on the groundovertake the status quo and anew country unilaterally de-clares independence. A ma-jority of United Nationsmembers, but not all, recog-nise the independence of thisnew country – while otherspersist in denying the newreality for years.
Israel is the country inquestion, but much as theabove scenario applies to theMiddle East of 1948, so it cor-respondswith eastern Europeof 2008 and Kosovo. Slovakiarecognises the former, butnotthe latter.
It is hard to figure the lo-gic behind Slovakia’s contin-ued reluctance to recognisetheplainreality thatKosovoisa country that has already ex-isted for seven years. In re-cent days the issue has resur-faced as voices from theEuropean Parliament havebegun openly calling for thefive European Union mem-bers – Cyprus, Greece, Ro-mania, Spain and Slovakia –that have still not recognisedPristina as a sovereign capitalcity to do so.
Among the squeamish,most have concerns that por-tions of their own countrywill secede. Some of these areeven legitimate, and in thecase of Cyprus the island isalready partitioned. In thecase of Slovakia the idea ispreposterous. The conceptthat the country must be onguard against ethnic Hun-garians that are secretlyscheming to break away ishallucinatory and leads toequally delusional publicpolicy.
This manifests itself inany number of ways. Ignor-
ing Kosovo is one, but themost obvious is the comical2010 citizenship law that re-mains on the books becausethe leadership of the ruling
Smer party is incapable of ad-mitting when they makemistakes.That law,onemightrecall, was meant to discour-age ethnic Hungarians fromtaking up Hungarian citizen-ship by stripping them ofSlovak citizenship if they did.
In the intervening years,just 6 percent of the 1,000
people who lost their Slovakpassport did so because theytook up Hungarian citizen-ship. A significant plurality ofthosewhowere punished hadCzech citizenship instead.
Other arguments againstrecognising Kosovo are evenmore problematic. One goesthatSlovakiamuststaytruetoits Slavic roots and supporttheir brothers and sisters inSerbia. A second alleges thatacknowledging Kosovomeans a precedent that clearsthe way for, among otherthings,RussianannexationofCrimea.
Setting governmentpolicies along ethnic or lin-guistic lines is not only racist,but causes more harm thangood. Should Slovaks support20thcenturySoviet gulagsoutof shared Slavic identity? Asfor setting precedent, there isliterally zero indication thatRussia puts any stock in in-ternational law. Those aretanks, not attorneys, inUkraine’s eastern provinces.
Slovakia need not recog-nise Kosovo because theEuropeanParliamentwants itto. It should recognise Kosovobecause it already exists andcounterfactual realities –never mind foreign policiesthat emanate from them – arebest left to science fiction.
EDITORIAL
BYBENJAMINCUNNINGHAMSpectator staff
Kosovo celebrated the seventh anniversary of its independenceinmid February. Photo: AP/TASR
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
OPINION / NEWS March 23 – April 5, 2015 5www.spectator.sk
“This is the part of the filmwhere Frodo, hungry and thirsty, wanders aim-lessly around the swamps ofMordor.”
Sieť leader Radoslav Procházka appears to compare the travails of his party,whose support has recently dipped in opinion polls, to those of a hobbit.
NEW: Pellegrini named afterPaška is forced out
Continued frompg 1
Thenewspeaker
Pellegrini said he would beguided by tolerance, respectand openness in his new par-liamentary job, and has drawnpraise from a number of op-position deputies who saidthey believe that the newspeaker will be less confront-ational than Paška.
“I am ready for construct-ive cooperation,” Pellegrinisaid, as quoted by the SITAnewswire, adding that im-proving the political culture inparliament and the credibilityof the institution are a task forboth the ruling majority andthe opposition.
Of 136deputiespresent, 120supported Pellegrini as speak-er. Miroslav Číž was elected toreplace Renáta Zmajkovičová,a key Smer official, whostepped down in connectionwith the CT scandal, in thedeputy speaker post.
Most-Híd Chairman BélaBugár said he hopes that Pel-legrini would respect the op-positionandmake itpossible forit toperformits controlling role.
Pellegrini has said hewould listen to arguments ofthe opposition but he expectsthe same in return.
“People often view parlia-ment only as a politicaltheatre,” said Pellegrini, asquoted by the TASRnewswire.
Pellegrini’s appointmentcame as a surprise, as manyexpected Culture MinisterMarekMaďarič of Smer to takeup the post.
Paška’s departure
Paška resigned as speakerof parliament the same nightas municipal elections, over-shadowing reports on out-comes of mayoral races acrossSlovakia. Fico, who had beenbacking Paška since the CTscandal broke, said Paškaresigned to protect his family
and said he does not see it as asign that Paška is necessarilydone in politics.
The scandal surroundingthe CT device has also claimedhead of Zuzana Zvolenská ashealthminister.
The Piešťany Hospital ofAlexander Winter purchasedearlier this year a CT scannerwith a price tag approxim-ately three times higher thansimilar devices purchased inthe Czech Republic. MedicalGroup SK won the criticisedtender after facing a singlecompetitor, the Nitra-basedfirmMeditecon,which offereda price €300 lower.
While Fico called Paška’sdecision the gesture of astatesman, which is rare inSlovakia, oppositionMPDanielLipšic claims that the CT scan-dal must not end with resig-nations only, but it also shouldcontinue at a level of criminalresponsibility, TASRwrote.
The opposition put Paškain hot water over what theysay are his ties to medicalcompanies, especially theMedical Group,whichwon theCT tender. They also claimedthat Paška did not publish hisincome from the sale of sharesin private companies.
Theprotests
More than 1,000 peoplegathered in Bratislava to de-mand Paška’s resignation onNovember 14 during a rally or-ganised by independent MPAlojz Hlina, following a similarprotest in Košice in front ofPaška’shousewherearound300people gathered on November11, according to TASR.
Bratislava saw a rally onNovember 25 organised byHlina, Daniel Lipšic of opposi-tion NOVA, Richard Sulík ofFreedom and Solidarity (SaS)and Igor Matovič of the Ordin-ary People and IndependentPersonalities (OĽaNO) swell-ingtoagathering5,000-strong,according to the Sme daily.
Along with a law to limitshell companies in publictenders, the protesters alsodemand a law on material re-sponsibility of state officialsand a special committee over-seeing the investigation of theGorilla file, a transcript pur-porting to originate from con-versations between seniorpoliticians and Penta covertlyrecorded by the country’s SISintelligence service between2005 and 2006 mainly aboutthe privatisation and sale ofstate property.
They also call for the end ofpolitical nominations inhealth care and the election ofthe Supreme Audit Office headproposed by the opposition.Moreover, they urged Fico tostep down, according to Sme.
Ice hockey player MichalHandzuš and ZuzanaMelicherčíková, decoratedwith the White Crow corrup-tion whistleblower award, aswell as anumber of actors, alsoaddressed the crowd.
TheCT scandal
The Piešťany hospital hadannounced a tender to pur-chase a CT SomatomDefinitionAS produced by Siemens in 2012for roughly €1 million withVAT; however, after officialsfromthe rulingSmerparty tookcontrol over the hospital fol-lowing the 2012 election, themanagement cancelled thedeal and announced a newtender for a more expensivedevice, TV Markíza reported onOctober 30.
The winning bid by Med-ical Group SK at almost €1.6million for a Philips IngenuityCore 128 CT scanner was€600,000 higher than the CTdevice from the cancelledtender, Sme reported. At thetime of the deal, Zmajkovičováheaded the hospital’s super-visory board.
The leadership of the hos-pital announced on November6 that they are seekingways tocancel the contract with Med-ical Group SK. Yet, director ofthe hospitalMária Domčekováin an interview with Sme onNovember 12, insisted that thepurchase came after a legitim-ate tender.
In an unexpected turn, theauthorised representative ofMedical Group SK, Juraj Koval,sacked itsdirectorErikaBilá forwhat he called damaging thecompany’s reputation. The su-pervisory board of the com-pany allegedly had not knownabout the €1.6 million deal,sealed in the summer. A fewdays earlier, the company hadsaid it was prepared to file law-suits over the claims that theCT scannerwas overpriced.
Readmore on pg 9
There is still a longroad ahead
ŠTEFAN Harabin failed in hislast shot at keeping power inthe Slovak judiciary afterjudges on November 25 saidthey do not want to see theman who lorded over the sec-tor for much of past decade tohave a seat on the JudicialCouncil, which oversees thefunctioning of courts nation-wide. The year 2014 is praisedbymanyas a year of change inthe judiciary, and is proving athorny one for Harabin whoalso failed in his bid to get re-elected as Supreme Courtchairman and departed ashead of the Judicial Council aswell.
Harabin, true to hisnature, did not admit defeat,but said instead that “smalldefeats have always launchedme to big victories”, a state-ment which indeed suggeststhat he takes his role in thejudiciary very personally.“Have I lost? What are youtalking about?” Harabin re-sponded in an interviewearlier this year after he sawhis hopes to return to the Su-premeCourt evaporating.
Harabin indeed under-stands the current situationas a proverbial lost battle,while at the same time hisrhetoric indicates an unwill-ingness to surrender in thelargerwar.
He is right in one thing.Just because he was removedfrom the judicial steeringwheel does not mean thathow the courts work willautomatically, dramaticallyimprove. It does howevermean that there is now a con-siderably bigger chance forletting fresh air into thecountry’s court system andfor the atmosphere of fear andintimidation to be replaced bytransparency and accountab-ility.
Still, Harabin is far frombeing the sole problem ofSlovakia’s courts. As Trans-parency International Slov-ensko (TIS) noted in a public
post on Facebook, whenjudges elected their repres-entatives to the 18-memberJudicial Council, Harabin de-feated his challenger Dušan
Čimo, a pro-reform judge, inregions where the so-calledjudge family clans still flour-ish. According to TIS, everyfifth active judge in Slovakiavoted in favour of Harabin,and thus in some way hisworld view too.
Čimo noted in an inter-view with the Sme daily thatHarabin “still received relat-ively high support”.What caninduce amental shift inheadsof the 255 judges who stillvoted forHarabin?
Society does seem to belosing patience with well-connected public officials si-phoning funds from the no-toriously cash-strappedhealthcare sector. A recent5,000-strong protest rallysuggests that the scandal sur-rounding overpriced medicalequipment hit a raw nervewith many who feel it takesboth excessive greed andstrong political connectionstomake amint at the expenseof the sick.
It also seems that theprotests are making the gov-ernment nervous because lastweek the cabinet pitched arevision to the public pro-curement law to parliamentthat purports to eliminate thepossibility that murky shellcompanies can take part inpublic tenders. However, aquick review of the lawalready seems to show itneeds significant revisions toactuallymake it effective.
The departure of PavolPaška from the post of speak-er of parliament is a strongindicator of just how deep therabbit hole goes, and if the op-position truly cares abouttransparent public procure-ment, now is the time topressthe ruling Smer party and tryto come up with real propos-als in parliament that wouldactually induce progress.
If the new speaker of thehouse Peter Pellegrini reallymeans what he says, and ac-tually will listen to argu-mentsby theopposition, thenthere is a chance somethinguseful could come from thissituation. If this turns out tobe another way the opposi-tion tries to make voters re-member their names and dis-tinguish their parties fromone another, then it will godown as a missed opportun-ity.
Changes to the judiciaryand public procurement lawscould of coursework hand-in-hand. If there was a water-proof prosecution and well-functioning court system, thepublic could hope that any-one who outrageously abusedtheir political connections tomake a fortune would actu-ally pay for it by losing morethan their political post.While there may be somereasons for tentative optim-ismabout recent changes, thelist of high ranking public of-ficials convicted of graft andsitting in jail remains shame-fully low.
EDITORIAL
BYBEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
OPINION / NEWS December 1 – 7, 2014 5www.spectator.sk
“I wish our education sector had the same efficiency as the exchange ofeducationministers has had in recentmonths.”
President Andrej Kiska said while appointing new EducationMinisterJuraj Draxler, the third to serve since July.
NewSpeaker of Parliament Peter Pellegrini Photo: SITA
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The Slovak Spectator is an independent newspaper published by The Rock, s.r.o. Subscriptions: 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. © 2015 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 such commercial 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. IČO: 313 86 237.
LEGISLATIONBUSINESS FOCUS Next issue:
BUSINESS FOCUSTRANSPORT
New procurement lawlacks teeth
THELATE-2014 scandal over anoverpriced computed tomo-graphyscanner forcedchangesto public procurement laws.Since the beginning of March,the changes are meant to bancompanies with unclear own-ership or those owned by pub-lic officials from taking part inpublic procurements and alsoliberalise purchasing associ-ated with the Slovak Presid-ency of the Council of theEuropeanUnion (EU) in 2016.
Though opposition partiesas well as law experts have cri-ticised the amendments,PrimeMinisterRobertFicoandhis Smer party used their out-rightmajority inparliament tooverrule President AndrejKiska’s veto and adopted thebill in late January. “It is better
tohave such a law than tohavenothing,” Fico said, as quotedby theTASRnewswire.
Opposition parties Most-Híd and Sieť perceive the newlegislation as just a marketingsolution by the Smer govern-ment and that it does not forcefirms to reveal the ultimate re-cipient of profits in practicallyany shell firm.
“The official point of theamendment – to exclude firmswith unknown ownershipfrom public procurement – re-mained on paper and in realityit will fail,” MP MiroslavBeblavý of the Sieť party, told
The Slovak Spectator. The lawbans companies that have res-idence in a country with lawsthat do not require the disclos-ure of all owners with a 10 per-cent or more share in a com-pany from bidding on publiccontracts. It also places limitson companies in which publicofficialshavea10percentstakeor more. An exception is madefor limited liability companieslisted on stock exchanges inthe EU, the European Eco-nomic Area or an OECD coun-try. At the lastminute the gov-ernment also added anamendment that streamlines
purchasing made in prepara-tion for the EU Council presid-ency in the latter half of 2016,changes critics fear are open toabuse.
Excluding certain com-panies from EU countrieswhere shareholders’ anonym-ity is permitted by law fromthe public procurement pro-cess in Slovakia violatesEuropean law on public pro-curement, Andrej Leontiev, apartner at the law firm TaylorWessing e/n/w/c, told TheSlovakSpectator.
“Such a legislative ap-proach is not correct,” said Le-ontiev.
Peter Kunder, an expert onpublic procurement from thenon-governmental organisa-tion Fair-Play Alliance, saidthat the rules can be easily by-passed and that companieswith dummy owners can stilloperate.
“It was only about passingthe exception [for the EU pres-idency] and political PR,”Kunder told The Slovak Spec-tator. The government soughtsimplified processes to makepurchases for the Councilpresidency,he added.
SeeFUNDSpg9
Management of state funds is at issue. Photo: Sme
BY PETERADAMOVSKÝSpecial to the Spectator
Opposition,watchdogs
believe Smer-backed changesare cosmetic
New public information bill proposed
THEPROPOSEDamendment to the lawonthe free access to information,which stillneeds the approval of the Slovak parlia-ment, is a welcomed step forward al-though most agree there is still moreroom for improvement.
The Ministry of Justice, which over-saw the drafting of the bill, argues thatSlovakia has some of themost liberal lawsin Europe when it comes to public ac-cess to information and that the revisionkeeps the current standard while remov-ing bureaucratic barriers. The aim is thatthe public administration does not needto prepare extensive documents or back-groundresearchinsteadofsomebodyelse,Justice Minister Tomáš Borec explained,as cited by the SITA newswire.
“It is far from ideal, but neverthelessimproves the current state of affairs,” saidPeter Kunder from the Fair-Play Alli-ance, one of the organisations that con-sulted on preparing the draft law.
The Association of Towns and Vil-lages of Slovakia (ZMOS) considers thelaw on the freedom of information to beone of the key tools in building the re-lationship between the people and thepublic authorities, ZMOS spokeswo-man Marta Bujňáková told The SlovakSpectator. She said that there is a lot ofleeway for abuse in the old law, validsince 2001.
“The revision of the law is a result ofnot easy compromises and only its ap-plication inpracticewill showwhetherallpowers and duties were clearly and com-prehensively formulated and space for itsabuse, either from the view of applic-ants as well as the obliged people, waseliminated,” said Jozef Dvonč, the ZMOSchair, as cited by SITA.
Problems with current law
In general, provisions of the existinglaw are not clearly defined, according toZMOS, and open to ambiguous interpret-ation. It threatened the legal security ofthe members of the public that wereseeking information from public author-ities as well as those officials tasked withproviding access.
In order to prepare an amendment tothe law, the Justice Ministry formed agroup which included representativesfrom non-governmental organisations
and ZMOS. It worked on the draft revi-sion for two years. The revision to the lawon free access to information amends theconditions, process and extent of the freeaccess to information. It requires thegovernment bodies, municipalities,higher regional units, and the author-ised legal and civil entities to enable ac-cess to information on management ofthe public resources, administration ofthe property of state, municipality orhigher regional unit; the environmentand about services and activities arisingfrom an agreement.
As themain obstacles Kunder lists thelimited enforceability of the law, and thelarger incapacity or lack of willingness ofthe police, prosecutors and courts to re-veal, explain and penalise corrupt beha-viour.
The law helped to uncover an over-priced purchase of a computed tomo-graphy scanner for a hospital in Piešťanywhich shocked Slovakia in November2014. It resulted in the resignation of thespeaker of parliament Pavol Paška andalso other figures in top positions inhealth care. In reaction to the Piešťanypurchase, but also other suspicious pub-lic procurements that followed, the par-liament pushed forward a new publicprocurement law.
See BILL pg 9
BY ERIKRÉDLISpecial to the Spectator
Watchdog groups saychanges are a step in the
right direction
Institutions, organisationsand useful links
related to Slovak law
Ministry of JusticeMinister: Tomáš Borecwww.justice.gov.sk
SlovakBar Association – an independent, self-governingprofessional organisation of attorneyswww.sak.sk
Chamber of Notaries – a self-governing professionalorganisation representing notaries in Slovakiawww.notar.sk
Public Defender of Rights– Ombudswoman JanaDubovcováwww.vop.gov.sk
Awebsite publishing some Slovak court verdicts(in Slovak):http://www.justice.gov.sk/Stranky/Sudne-rozhodnutia/Sudne-rozhodnutia.aspx
Collection of laws (in Slovak)http://www.justice.gov.sk/Stranky/Zakony/Zbierka-zakonov.aspx
CompiledbySpectator staff
6 March 23 – April 5, 2015
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LAW FIRMS in Slovakia
Slovakia lacks law on cybersecurity
Cabinet backs civil lawre-codification
Lawyers say tax changes problematic
THOUGH legal experts admitthat some revisions adopted in2014 will improve the envir-onment in Slovakia, they alsopoint to negative impactsbrought by measures adoptedby parliament last year. Theseconcern, in particular, thechanges to the Income Tax Actwhich most of them view asproblematic.
The Slovak Spectator spokeabout these changes withDaniel Futej, partner at Futej&Partners, Allen & Overy Brat-islava law firm, Tomáš Urban,attorney at Čechová & Part-
ners, Ľubomír Leško, attorneyat Peterka & Partners, andHavel, Holásek & Partners lawfirm.
The Slovak Spectator (TSS):Which legislative changes ornew laws adopted in 2014 doyou consider to be most im-portant,andwhy?
Daniel Futej (DF): The re-visionof the tax law, collectivebargaining and amending thecode concerning agency em-ployees are pretty important.Furthermore a new law on en-ergy effectiveness is import-ant in identification of energysavings. Certain changes weremade even in the area of im-migration law related todoublecitizenshiprules.
In spite of the corporate tax
dropping from 23 percent to 22percent it is still far from theoriginal 19 percent. Unfortu-nately, the decrease made by
the government is com-pensated through the intro-duction of tax licenses. Thenewly introduced license fee is
paid by enterprises irrespect-ive of whether they make aprofit or not. Even though suchfees are tax deductible, they donot contribute to simplifica-tion of the business environ-ment. Mandatory electronicVAT records introduced forVAT-payers will allow fightingof carousel fraud by acceptingmonthly and quarterly VAT re-cordsonly inelectronic form.
Introduction of specificrules related towhistleblowersare very critical since it sends asignal to the public at largethat the government is readyto fight corruption. The intro-duction of transfer pricingrules, even between two do-mestic companies, is a veryimportant tool for the tax of-fice to fight tax evasion. Underthe new legislation, even do-mesticentitieswillbe forcedtodemonstrate that the pricesapplied in their mutual busi-ness transactions, includingprices for services, credit andloans; do not differ from theprices used by non-related en-tities in comparable businesstransactions.
Allen & Overy Bratislava:In our view, two pieces of le-gislation governing arbitra-tion and capital marketswhich were adopted in 2014were particularly encouragingandwill haveapositive impactonthebusinessclimate.
First, a major amendmentto the Arbitration Act hasaligned the Slovak frameworkwith the modernised 2006UNICTRAL Model Law andwill, undoubtedly, facilitatethe settlement of commercialdisputes by arbitration. At thesametime,anentirelynewActon Consumer Arbitration willregulate an alternative meth-od for resolving consumer dis-putes. The clear separationbetween commercial and con-sumer arbitration will benefitboth by introducing greaterflexibility in commercial ar-bitration and more robustprotection in consumer arbit-ration. These changes willsend a strong signal that Slov-akiawishes to be recognised asan arbitration-friendly andwelcoming jurisdiction.
Secondly, the Slovak cap-ital markets have been mod-ernised by an amendment tothe Act on Bonds. Slovak legis-lation now expressly recog-nises established conceptssuch as bondholder meetingsand joint trustees. Theadoptedmeasures may facilitate thedevelopment of the Slovakcapital market and bond fin-ancingbySlovak issuers.
Finally, an importantpieceof EU legislation was also ad-opted in 2014 – theDirective onDamages for Competition LawInfringements. Once imple-mented into Slovak law, thislegislation will facilitateclaims for damages brought byconsumers or businesses onthe basis of anti-competitiveconduct, such as cartels or bid-rigging.
Tomáš Urban (TU): Webelieve that adoption of the
Whistleblowing Act deservesto be marked as a breakingpoint and an important step inthe corruption-fighting effortwithin Slovakia. Even thoughit has its shortcomings and itcreates a number of obliga-tions and administrative bur-dens for businesses, it has thepotential to effectively protectand thus encourage potentialwhistleblowers. A whis-tleblower who reports one ofthe so-called “serious anti-social activities” to the au-thorities may be granted pro-tection and even a reward andfree legalassistance.
Further, we appreciate thenews that the Electronic Mar-ket Place, which was intro-duced by legislation adoptedearlier in 2013, was finally cre-ated on July 1, 2014 and sinceMarch 1, 2015 is supposed to bemandatorilyusedbythepubliccontracting authorities for allspecified below-the-threshold-limit contracts. Webelieve that this may signific-antly increase transparency inthe public procurement sectorand allow awide range of busi-nesses to compete for publiccontracts.
Ľubomír Leško (ĽL): Wenoticed several importantchanges to tax laws in 2014, es-pecially regarding income tax,where we can mention thetightening of duties in the fieldof transfer pricing in the formofmoreprecise anchoringof itscontent and extending thegroup of taxpayers on whomthese rules apply (originallythe rules were applied only ontransactions between domest-ic and foreign related legal en-tities, while under the newrules they also apply on trans-actions between domestic re-lated legal entities). We canalso mention the changes tothe depreciation of tangibleproperty, introducing the rulesof low capitalisation, or allow-ing reduction of tax bases byadditional expenditures on re-searchanddevelopment.
Regarding labour laws, theamendment to the Protection,Support and Development ofPublic Health Act was adoptedwhich introduced a mandat-ory health service to everyemployer, regardless of thecategorisation of work fromthe point of evaluating healthrisks. As of January 1, 2015 em-ployers, including those hav-ing only one person in an em-ployment relationship (in-cluding working agreementsoutside employment), are ob-liged to secure health supervi-sion by a working health ser-vice which can be implemen-ted in twoways: either by hav-ing their own professionalemployees or by signing anagreement with an externalsupplier. Another importantchange is the amendment tothe Labour Code effective as ofJuly 1, 2014, which limited theduration of agreements otherthan those of employment tonomorethan12months.
SeeLAWpg8
BYRADKAMINARECHOVÁSpectator staff
Lawyers criticise somechanges to tax laws. Photo: Sme
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BUSINESS FOCUS March 23 – April 5, 2015 7www.spectator.sk
8 March 23 – April 5, 2015 BUSINESS FOCUS
LAW: Other changes spark emotions tooContinued frompg7
The amendment alsochanged the maturity and pay-ments of salaries, which in-creased the administrative bur-den on employers, especially inrelation to login and logout tothe health and social insurers.
As for businesses, also theamendment to the Law onProtection of Competition ad-opted inMay 2014 was import-ant. The changes pertainmostly to the field of agree-ments limiting competition,anchoring the institutes ofsettlements and commit-ments directly into the law, ortheir more detailed changes inthe law, new rules for leni-encyandchanges inthefieldofreporting concentrationswhich should simplify the ac-cess of participating partieswhen reporting and assessingthe concentrations.
Havel, Holásek & Part-ners: An amendment to thePublic Procurement Act wasadopted in2014whoseaimis toprevent the participation ofthe so-called “shell compan-ies” in public procurements.As a result, competitions caninvolve only business entitiesthat can prove their owner-ship structure up to a naturalperson (demonstration ofequityparticipation§ 26a). Thebidders who will falsely in-form about their ownershipstructure will face a fine fromthe Public Procurement Officeof up to €10,000 and ban fromparticipating in public pro-curement for three years.
Further, two importantnew tax changes were adop-ted: the amendment to the In-come Tax Act and the amend-ment to the Value Added TaxAct which are expected tocontributetoanincrease inthestate budget, to create a fa-vourable and stable businessenvironment, to increase legalcertainty and to fight tax eva-sion. Unlike the amendmentto theValueAddedTaxAct, theamendment to the IncomeTaxAct negatively interferes intonearly every business sector.
A significant legislativechange is undoubtedly the ad-option of the amendment tothe Arbitration Act and thecompletely new Act on Con-sumer Arbitration, which be-came the only regulationbased on which decisions canbe passed in consumer dis-putes in Slovakia.
TSS: Which legislativechanges or new laws adop-ted in 2014 do you considercontroversial or problemat-ic, andwhy?
DF: The amendment toagency employees may causesignificant cost problems forbusinesses.Under thenew lawthe user employer is obliged topay the difference in wages ifthose of a temporary employ-ee are lower than those of itsown comparable employees.Suchbalancepaymentmustbepaid within 15 days from thepayday agreed on between theuser employer and the agency.It means that if temporary
employees get a lower wagethanacomparableemployeeofthe user employer, it maymean that the temporary em-ployees can enforce their rightdirectly against the user em-ployer before a court!Moreover, for the purposes ofpayment of the difference inwages, user employers shall beobliged to make all obligatorydeductions (social security,health insurance, tax advancepayments); for this purpose,the user employer is con-sidered a regular employer of atemporary employee. It willnot be possible to conclude thecontract on providing otherservices if these serviceswould basically mean that theuser employer is giving the in-structions to the employees ofanother employer or agency;the services would be per-formed on the premises of theuser employer; and the scopeof activities performed by em-ployees belong to the scope ofbusiness of the user employer.Such employees would beconsidered as user employeesand would be entitled to getthe same wage as actual em-ployees of the user employer.Finally, the conditions of tem-poraryassignmentarestricter.
Allen & Overy Bratislava:Another consumer-relatedamendment to the Civil Codeand the implementing legisla-tion has underlined the oftennon-conceptual and idiosyn-cratic method of protectingSlovak consumers. Whilst con-sumer protection is certainly alegitimate policy, it is ques-tionable whether it is really ad-vanced by setting a minimumfont size of 1.9 mm and, mostimportantly, by sanctioning allnon-compliant contracts withnullity. At the end of the day,the nullity of contracts mayeven be detrimental to con-sumers. In any event, at leastthe legislator did not adopt thebizarre proposal tabled in thelegislative process that all con-sumer contracts should beprinted in one specific font(Times NewRoman).
Another problematic pieceof legislation was the amend-ment to the IncomeTaxAct. Inaddition to headline changessuch as the introduction ofthin cap rules, extension oftransfer pricing and restric-
tions on tax expenses,we haveencountered numerous prob-lems concerning the practicalapplication of thewithholdingtax on pharmaceutical com-panies, in particular regardingnon-monetary benefits.
TU: Probably 2014’s mostcontroversial topic in Slovakcorporate law was adoptionand subsequent presidentialveto of the amendment to theCommercial Code. The intentof the amendment, amongothers, was tomake setting upa company easier (whichshould encourage new start-ups) by allowing creation ofnew private limited liabilitycompanies with registeredcapital as low as €1 as opposedto the currently required min-imum amount of €5,000. Atthe same time the amend-ment intended to introducenew limitations in terms ofoperation of such “small”companies compared to the“regular” private limited liab-ility companies with minim-um registered capital of€25,000. The president vetoedthe amendment arguing it isincomplete and insufficient,criticising for example thelimitations applicable to the“small” private liability lim-ited companies, inconsistencyin the ban on returning thecontributions to the registeredcapital or the ban on transac-tions between a company andits shareholders that would beapplicable only to private liab-ility limitedcompaniesbutnotto joint-stock companies. Asthe attempt of the governingparty to overcome the presid-ent’s veto in the parliamentwas unsuccessful, the amend-menthasnot becomevalid andeffective.
Also a new amendment tothe Competition Act, whichintroduced the possibility toreward an individual who in-formed authorities on a hori-zontal agreement restrictingcompetition and provided re-lated essential evidence,raised somecontroversies. Thereward may amount to 1 per-cent of the aggregate fines im-posed on all members of thecartel with a maximum of€100,000. Critics of theamendment argue that it israther a non-standard practicewithin the EU to reward whis-
tleblowing individuals in suchcases, and they warn that thismay encouragemisuse of suchan institute and false allega-tions raised by bitter ex-employees of the accused cor-porations.
ĽL: The amendment to theCollective Bargaining Act,which became effective onJanuary 1, 2014, limited em-ployers in regard to extendinghigher-level collective agree-ments in a given sector. Ac-cording to the amendment,higher-level collective agree-ments can be signed for awhole sector or part of a sec-tor. Their validity can be ex-tended also to employeeswithout their consent, aftergetting permission from theMinistry of Labour, Social Af-fairs and Family. The proposalto extend the higher-level col-lective agreements can besubmitted also by only one ofthe contracting parties (forexample trade unions). In 2014higher-level collective agree-ments were extended in sev-eral sectors.
Havel, Holásek & Part-ners: The controversialamendment to the Public Pro-curement Act does not revealthe final beneficiaries frompublic procurements, but con-tains the identification ofpeople who have managingrights in companies. In this re-spectapublic register shouldbecreated of final beneficiariesfrom the order which,however, still does not exist. Inour opinion the amendmentwill not stop companies withsecret owners from winningtenders, since it requires onlythe revelation of the formalowners of the bidders.
Within the amendment tothe Income TaxActmostly thefollowing problematicchanges were adopted: pro-longing the depreciations ofsome kinds of property; lowcapitalisation on connectedbusiness companies; transferpricing of transactionsbetween domestic related leg-al entities; extending thegroup of services onwhich thedutytoregister therevenues inelectronic or virtual cash re-gisters applies, etc.
To read the whole survey,please see www.spectator.sk.
Changes to temporary employment are also seenas controversial. Photo: Sme
FOCUS shorts
Slovakia lacks law on cyber security
IN SLOVAKIA, a law is lackingthatwould integrally solvethe issue of cyber security,the Concept of Cyber Securityfiled by the Slovak Govern-ment Office for commentsstates.
The lack of legislation inthis sphere is “the gravestproblem of cyber security inSlovak conditions”, accordingto the concept.
The responsible institu-tion for the preparation of thelaw is the FinanceMinistry.Theministry’s press depart-ment confirmed for the SITAnewswire at the beginning ofMarch that they are preparingthis law, but refused to dis-close details. The draft shouldbe filed by the end of 2015 forgovernment approval. Duringthe preparatory phase, allbodies of state administrationand experts from academiahave been approached.
One cannot say thatwe,in Slovakia, would not solvecyber threats – it is a hot topicthat arousesmuch interest,security analystMarianMa-jer of the Center for EuropeanandNorth Atlantic Affairs(CENAA) told SITA. As thereare several subjects and in-stitutions involved, it isquestionable, however,
whetherwe are dealingwithit in a sufficiently effectiveway, he said and added thatalready, it is too late to adoptthe concept, a law and toelaborate other related issues.
In Slovakia, the level ofpreparedness for cyberthreats is different, theconcept finds. As the net-works and systems are inter-connected, those lacking asufficient level of protectionweaken the overall security ofthe networks and informa-tion in thewhole country.The issue of cyber threats isnot considered enough of aproblemyet.
The concept considers apriority in protecting cyber-space not just by adopting theplanned legislation, but alsoby increasing security con-sciousness, education andtraining in this sphere, aswell as support for researchand development in inform-ation and communicationtechnologies and their secur-ity. According to the Concept,a cyber-security committee ofthe Security Council of Slov-akia shall be established thatwould operate as a perman-entworking body for the co-ordination ofmeasures of cy-ber security.
More time to re-think
EVERYwomanwill have twomonths to change hermindafter giving so-called secretbirth to a child – according toa draft amendment to theLawon Family. Currently,she can ask for her identityto be secret, but can revokethis decisionwithin sixweeks after the birth.
The explanatory reportto the amendment – elabor-ated by the JusticeMinistry –proposes to handle cases ofbirths the same as caseswhen parents fail to show aninterest in ababy for at leasttwomonths after its birth.
AnnaGhannamová, head
of the civic associationChance for theUnwanted ,who focuses on the issue ofsecret births, told the SITAnewswire that she sees nological reason for this change– according to their statist-ics, only sixmothers out of atotal of 238 returned to theirbabies by the end of 2013. Inthe 10 years since the SafetyNests (wheremothers canleave newborn babies to berescued bymedical staff)have been in operation, sixmothers returned to theirchildren, out of 47 in all wholeft them in baby-boxes.
Cabinet backs civil law re-codification
THE SLOVAK cabinet hasbacked a proposal by theJusticeMinistry to re-codifythe civil law. The Code of CivilProcedure, Civil Suit Procedureand Civil Non-suit Procedureshall replace the Civil Proced-ure Code dating back to 1963.
The proposed laws belongamong the biggest andmostimportant legal reforms sinceSlovakia became independentin 1993, each of themhavingaround 500 paragraphs.JusticeMinister Tomáš Borecstressed that the re-codification of civil law“brings awhole complex ofchanges that shall speed up,simplify and improve civilproceedings to a completely
new level. They shouldmeanan importantmove forward,”he stressed, as quoted by theSITA newswire. He called theapproved laws “a Christmasgift for citizenswho can lookforward to them”.
Borec said that after thefirst reading in January 2015,the draft shall be commentedupon and changed; until sum-mer, the draft should bepassed and become effectiveonly in July 2016 – taking intoconsideration how crucialthey are.
To read the whole story,please go to www.spectator.sk.
CompiledbySpectator staff
CULTURE / FOCUS March 23 – April 5, 2015 9www.spectator.sk
Romeo and Juliet staged
WILLIAM Shakespeare is anunfailing inspiration formanyartists, including opera com-posers.HisRomeo and Juliet isthe basis for several operas,including one by FrenchmenCharles Gounod. The SlovakNationalTheatre (SND) is set toproduce it for the first time inits 95th history.
“Shakespeare is such aptmaterial for musical worksbecause of its structure, itscomposition – other writers indrama also used Shakespeare,”Diego de Brea, the Sloveniandirector of this staging, toldThe Slovak Spectator. “Be-cause of the plot, the conflictsamong the characters, just likeDostoyevsky… In contrast,modern texts are veristic anddo not open ontologicalthemes; they open just smallcuts of life.”
De Brea has previouslydirected two drama pieces forthe SND and received the Slov-ak Dosky award for his stagingof Coriolanus, also emphas-ised that in his view the plot ofRomeo and Juliet is not asmuch a love story of those twoas it is a conflict between herfather’s power ambitions, in-cluding his selected match forher husband, and her free, un-yielding spirit that desires fora loveandapartner selectedonher own.
Moreover, de Brea likenedthe crucial conflict betweentwo rival families to a fight forpower and for keeping it –“imagine two families rulingthe whole city state of Verona,something like Putin andMedvedev are in today’s Rus-sia”, he said at the matinee onMarch 1.
The SND’s Romeo and Ju-liet is conducted by Rastislav
Štúr. “I try to stick to themod-el and the score as much aspossible, it should be playedvery sensitively, beautifully,”he told the SND’s monthlymagazine. “It is an opera basedon the solo parts to a great ex-tent.”
De Brea said that apartfrom the fact that the originalstory is one about family con-flict, power, opportunism andpolitical weddings, or aboutinfatuation that lasts for onlya few days – and not about love– it is the “smaller” characterslike Father Capuleto, Thybaultor Mercuzio who pull thestrings of fate of the maincharacters, Romeo and Juliet.
Unlike the big operas ofGiuseppe Verdi, Gounod’s ver-sion is more intimate, morefocused on the conspiracies,the relationships among thecharacters and the impossib-ility for the lovers to developtheir relationship, or even tobe alone and enjoy it fully.Gounod’s version has onlybeen staged once before inSlovakia, at the Zvolen CastlePlays.
“For me, it was interestingthat the music is lyrical andromantic, the situation is dra-matic,” de Brea said at at thepress conference. “There are
three crucial issues in it: war,faith and love.”
The scenery made by Slov-enian Marko Japelj, is soph-isticated but minimalist, put-ting all the focus on the hap-penings and the actors. Thecomplex cordage and thehanging balcony offer a greatbackground for one of the cru-cial scenes. The costumes byBlagoj Micevski are also neut-ral and low-key.
What is even more soph-isticated is the lighting – “thelights and the fog alone took 60hours tomake,” de Brea said.
“At a certain level, opera iseven harder than drama,” hetold the Slovak Spectator, “as itis more limited by music.
Modern opera does quite thecontrary to what the musicsays, but for me, it is im-possibleasyoumust followthedramaturgy of the music. Youcannot escape it, you must bevery precise because musictells all the structure of the dy-namics.”Opera singers often know
where they are supposed to goand what they should sing,while not knowing what theconflict is andwhere it is lead-ing, de Brea said, but hepraised the Slovak cast and ad-ded that they were able enterthe story, rather than to tell orapproach it fromoutside.
“This brings the crucialquestion of art and its per-forming – are we experiencingand living it, or just illustrat-ing and showing it?” de Breasaid.
Romeo and Julietpremiered on March 6 and 8.The cast includes EvaHornyáková, Kyungho Kim,Sergej Tostov, DenisaŠlepkovská, Aleš Jenis, MartinGyimesi, Roman Krško, JánGallo, Monika Fabianová andothers.
This opera is sung inFrench and returns to the SNDstage on April 2, May 17 andJune 20 this theatre season.More details are available atwww.snd.sk.
D.Čapkovič, J. Ďurčo andT. Kružliaková inRomeoand Juliet.
BY ZUZANA VILIKOVSKÁSpectator staff
Šlepkovská,Galla,Hornyáková, Tolstov Photos: Jozef Barinka
Delight for bodyand soul
THE SLOVAK National Gallery(SNG) tries, in its Nestex ex-hibition, to present old Slovakart in a very modern way. InMarch, this offer is being en-hanced with a lecture inEnglish.
Art had a different func-tion in the past, trying to di-vert the focus of people’sminds from everyday trivialissues to the more spiritual,elevating matters, or topresent extraordinary graceand embellishments.
People usually viewGothic and Baroque artworksin religious buildings or inthe places where they havebeen created. Thus, it mayseem something of a chal-lenge to try to exhibit themin a modern gallery.
However, the SNG hasundertaken this challengeand on the 1st floor of itsEsterházy palace in Bratis-lava, it presents the paint-ings, altars and statues fromthe 14th-18th centuries ex-hibited in a special, impress-ive design and lighting.
It may seem that unlike
modern art, old art needs noexplanation or additionalbackground information. Thisis not absolutely true forNestex (Nestála expozícia, orNon-Permanent Exposition),as the selection of worksfrom the SNG’s historical col-lections, as well as the designand work with architecture,space and light, are betterclarified and illustrated.
On March 24, all this willbe offered – and in English –as both one of the curators,Dušan Buran (the other onebeing Katarína Chmelinová),and the architects and au-thors of the visual side of theexposition, Martin Jančokand Aleš Šedivec will lead theNestex events of the TalkingArt series of evenings in theSNG. The lecture will start at18:00, with a glass of wineand more informal talks areplanned for 19:15.
More information on boththe lecture and the Nestexexhibition can be found atwww.sng.sk.
By Zuzana Vilikovská
BILL: No leewayfor abuse
Continued frompg6
Kunder of Fair-Play Alli-ance considers the proposedchanges as something thatenables the state to guaran-tee access to at least themostnecessary information.
“Tomaintain correct-ness, it is necessary that thelaw states the rights and du-ties clearly and does not giveleeway for abuse,” saidBujňáková.
What toexpectfromthenew law
All the participatingparties agree that corruptionis a complex issue that can-not be solved by a single law.However, they hope that theproposed law can help.
The original law on thefree access to informationwaspassedwith an aim to enablethe public to access the con-tracts, agreements and in-voices of the state and re-gional administration.However, publicly owned
companies could opt out ofthe law easily as uncoveringtheir financial statements andtransactionswould give anadvantage to their opposition.
“The amendment bringsmore specific definition ofthe duties of the responsiblepeople, including the re-sponsibilities of themuni-cipalities, and also addressesthe application of the re-quirements up to the degreethat they can be compelledlegally,” said Bujňáková.“However, not all the re-quirements on the part of thecitizen sector or from therepresentatives of the publicadministration can be eval-uated as fully acceptable.”
Access to informationdoes not apply to informa-tion that is not available, in-cluding the opinions and un-written viewpoints.
Transparency Interna-tional Slovakia (TIS) says thenew lawwill dealwith tech-nical problems, but also ad-mits continued reservations.
FUNDS: New legislation in pipelineContinued frompg6
Leontiev added he believes thechange will not decrease the risks of cor-ruption and non-transparent spendingof public resources.
“All goods and services should andcould be purchased through the stand-ard methods of public procurement,”said Leontiev. “There has been plenty oftime to prepare for this situation.”
Oppositionproposals
In January, Beblavý and MEP LuciaŽitňanskáfromMost-Hídpresentedtheirown proposals to change procurementlaws. They proposed a registry of finalbeneficiaries at a meeting with officialsfrom the Office for Public Procurement(ÚVO).
Theregistrywouldbeused inall casesof state spending including public pro-curement, sales and rental of state prop-erty, investment subsidies and incent-ives, EU funding and in handling of pub-lic resources in health insurance.
ÚVO should submit the bill on re-gistry of final beneficiaries by the end of
March.But Beblavý and Žitňanská point out
that the bill does not apply to handlingwith all public funds.
“The office has been developing theregistry of final benefit users only for thepurpose of public procurement,” saidŽitňanská during a press conference sheheldwithBeblavý onMarch 5, as cited byTASR, adding that the ruling Smer doesnot want to prepare a comprehensivelaw.
The law has to show the definitiverecipient of benefits, offer ameans to ad-judicate doubtful cases and also offerpublic control, Gabriel Gilányi, spokes-man for Most-Híd, told The Slovak Spec-tator.
“Public control would not be left onlyto politicians and their nominees,” hesaid.
Leontiev agrees that the registrywould enhance public control, if it is ac-cessible for all.
The public registry will be managedby the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS),according to the amendment. Gilányi ofMost-Híd points out that extending ofscope of NBS must be cleared by the
European Central Bank (ECB).
Further steps
Experts from the Fair-Play Alliancethink that the registry will do little tosolvemajor issues.
Beblavý perceives the establishmentof the registry as a partial step. The realchange will come with a new law onpublic procurement which will changethe current system so that it stops beingcomplicated, pretend competition.
Kunder has suggested that futurechanges must define shell firms in ameaningful way and initiate effectivesteps to increase their transaction costs.
According to Leontiev, it is essentialto choose the way that does not discrim-inate any legal forms acknowledged inother EU countries and requires consist-ent disclosure of ownership structure asthe requirement to be eligible for publiccontracts.
He sees a possibility in extendinglaws that target money laundering topublic procurement.
“It has a foothold in European publicprocurement law,” Leontiev said.
Nestex: Gothic andBaroqueat the SNG. Photo: TASR
10 March 23 – April 5, 2015 NEWS / BUSINESS
PLANT: Questions still unansweredContinued from pg 1
Gabčíkovo’s legacy
The Gabčíkovo hydroelec-tric plant is the Slovak part of afailed communist-era Slovak-Hungarian twin-damproject onthe Danube. It was hoped thatthe two dams, a projectlaunched in 1977, would worktogether to provide electricalpower, limit flooding and im-prove the navigability of theRiver Danube.
Hungary pulled out of theproject in 1989, but Czechoslov-akia responded by switching toan alternative plan and build-ing its part of the project.Gabčíkovo began operating in1992.
Hungary terminated thetreaty in 1992 against thewill ofSlovak officials and in 1993 thecase was brought to the Inter-national Court of Justice in TheHague, which ruled that bothsides had breached the con-tract and that the contract wasstill valid. The dispute betweenSlovakia and Hungary contin-ues.
Based on valid contracts theGabčíkovo hydropower plantshould have remained statepropertyandwasexcluded fromassets of SE allocated for privat-isation. When Enel acquired 66percent of SE assets, it alsosigned a 30-year contract to op-erate Gabčíkovo. This meantthat the plant remained stateproperty, but was operated bySE – which also sold the elec-tricity generated by it.
SE sent 65 percent of therevenues to VodohospodárskaVýstavba (VV) and kept the re-maining 35 percent. From thismoney it financed repairs,maintenance and paid thewages of Gabčíkovo’s employ-ees. SE also paid a €5 millionrental fee to VV and an addi-tional €5 million to SlovenskýVodohospodársky Podnik eachyear.
Fico has been criticising thesale of the majority stake in SEfor €840 million to Enel as wellas SE’s contract to operateGabčíkovo for 30 years. He por-trayed the lease contract as in-valid and harmful to Slovak in-terests. The situation culmin-ated last December when hisgovernment terminated the
contract. Fico listed three mainreasons for doing so. He said SEhad failed to provide data toVodohospodárska Výstavba,necessary for it to calculate itsshare of the revenue from thesale of electric power from theGabčíkovoplant.He furthersaidthat SE had not prepared anyplan for the reconstruction andgeneral overhaul of the plant.Finally, he alleged that Enelwasnot fulfilling its obligation topay €5 million a year toSlovenský VodohospodárskyPodnik, which manages thewhole Gabčíkovo project. SEdenied all the allegations.
Meanwhile, the Public Pro-curement Office (ÚVO) has alsoalleged that the lease contractwas invalid, andchallenged it incourt as early as in 2007, ar-guing that when the contractwas signed, some regulations ofthe law on public procurementwere violated. The RegionalCourt in Bratislava decided on 9March this year that the con-tract for operation of theGabčíkovo hydropower plant isinvalid, because instead of adirect agreement with SE, apublic tender should have beenannounced.
According Fico, the verdictof the invalidity of the con-tract “enables us, andwewill doit, to demand from [SE’s own-er] Italian company Enel allmoney that it has ‘drawn’ fromGabčíkovo”. According to him,every year Enel has supposedlygained€35-€40million throughoperation of the power plant.
Fico recalled that his cab-inet has reiterated that the con-tract is invalidandthat the leasehas damaged the economic andfinancial interests of Slovakia.
SE says it will challenge theverdict.
“Slovenské Elektrárne with
respect to today’s verdict of theBratislava Regional Court oninvalidity of the contract foroperation of the Gabčíkovo hy-dropowerplantannouncesthatit will use extraordinary ap-pellate means immediatelyafter it officially receives theverdict of the court and its jus-tification,” SE spokeswomanJanka Burdová said. “Our com-pany is convinced that thecontract is valid, as confirmedby the first-instance court onNovember 19, 2013.”
Consequences
Following the terminationof the contract, SE is preparingto ask the state for compensa-tion, as the original contractwas signed for a 30-year term.
According to Fico, the factthat the court ruled that thelease contract was invalid en-ables the state to ask for all rev-enues SE received fromGabčíkovo. He announced inparliament onMarch 12 that thestate wants €350 million fromSE, the TASR newswire repor-ted.
On the other hand, the stateshould compensate SE for op-erating costs, lawyer Andrej Le-ontiev, a partner with Taylor-Wessing, told the Dennik N. Le-ontiev also indicated that sinceit was the state which had toannounce a public tender foroperation of Gabčíkovo, thesecond party in the conflictmight be compensated fordamages caused.
Michal Hudec, CEO of En-ergy Analytics, added thatapart from 100 percent of rev-enues of Gabčíkovo, the state isalso taking over 100 percent ofthe costs of operation, main-tenance and other activitieslinked with operation of the
hydropowerplant.Oneof theseis the expected overhaul ofGabčíkovo’s turbines, with anestimated price tag of €80 mil-lion. While before the termin-ation of the lease contract itwas SE who would have de-cided about this order, now itwill be the state via VV.
The recently establishedopposition SKOK party, led byformer economy minister JurajMiškov, has called on Fico toguarantee that VV carries out aproper and fair internationaltender. In this way, it says, Ficoshould rebut suspicions that thereal motive of the Smer gov-ernment in taking control ofGabčíkovo is to award its nom-inees control of this lucrativeorder, TASR wrote.
Ladislav Lazár, director ofVV, said the tender might takeplace later thisyear inorder thatthegeneraloverhaulcanstart in2015. Lazár criticised SE duringa discussion programme on theTA3 news channel on March 15,saying that ithasnot carriedoutneeded repairs even though thiswas one of its duties. The over-haul isplanned to take sixyears,he said.
The opposition Freedomand Solidarity (SaS) questionswhether it is necessary tooverhaul the turbines soquickly. Karol Galek from SaSrecalled that the start of theoverhaul is planned for theyear before an election, TASRwrote. He further pointed outthat Gabčíkovo has eight tur-bines, but out of these only twoor four are actually operatingbecause Nagymaros, thesecond, Hungarian part of thetwin-dam project, was nevercompleted. He calculates thecosts of overhauling one tur-bine at €15million, so repair ofall eight would cost €120 mil-lion. SaS recalled that SE, basedon a special general assemblyattended also by representat-ives of the Economy Ministryonly last November, plannedthe overhaul for the firstquarter of 2016.
Italy’s Enel is seeking tosell its 66 percent share in SEand the loss of Gabčíkovo,which generates more than 7percent of Slovakia’s annualenergy consumption, may re-duce the selling price of En-el’s share in SE.
TheGabčíkovohydropower plant Photo: Sme
COPY: Suicidescan prompt others
Continued frompg2
Employees of the Slovakversion of UNICEF’s ChildLinefor children in distress alsocite the influence of themediaon young people’s thinking,said Jana Šimončičová,whoworks at the helpline.
“Usually, if themediaopen a topic and society re-sponds to it, children andyoung peoplemay react sens-itively,” Šimončičová told TheSlovak Spectator. “ChildLineusually sees an increase incalls related to a topic that isdiscussed in society.”
Childrenare vulnerable
Children often copywhathappens around them.Mediashould report on suicides lessfrequently and provide justbrief stories about particularcases, according to psycholo-gist Štefan Skokan.
“This issue has receivedtoomuch space in themediarecent days,” Skokan told TheSlovak Spectator.
Children often actwithoutfully grasping the con-sequences, psychologist Gab-riela Herényiová said in aninterviewwith theNový časdaily.
“During puberty childrencannot fully comprehend thefatal consequences of theirdecision,” Herényiová told thedaily. “Theywant to dealwiththeir problems radically. Theywant to draw attention so thateveryonewill keep that inmind.”
Avoid sensationalism
TheWorldHealth Organ-isation has guidelines for themedia on how to report sui-cideswithout inspiring othersto act similarly. Reportsshould focus solely on facts,without emotions, they say.They should not report everydetail of the process, thescene, or family issues, ac-cording to Darina Sedláková,the head of theWHOCountryOffice in Slovakia.
On the other hand, not re-porting suicides is also amis-
take, Press Council headJúlius Lőrincz said.
“Iwould never havethought about it in thewaythatmedia should not reportabout such cases,” Lőrincz toldThe Slovak Spectator.
The council has not re-ceived any complaints aboutinsensitive reporting on thelatest suicides, according tohim. The same is true even forthe Council for BroadcastingandRetransmission (RVR)which dealswith ethical is-sues in the electronicmedia,RVR spokeswoman LuciaJelčová told The Slovak Spec-tator.
She pointed out that thebiggest fine the RVR issuedwithin the last five yearswasrelated to suicide inmedia. InOctober 2009moderator ViloRozboril conductedwhatwasdetermined to be an insensit-ive interviewwith a youngboy about an attempted sui-cide during theModré z nebashow on TVMarkíza. The RVRfined the broadcaster €20,000.
Underlying reasons
Themain reasons behindsuicides are not related tome-dia coverage. All the recentcases happened inwesternSlovakia and the region hadschool holidays during thatweek. Thereforemost prob-ably itwas combination of badrelationshipswith family orfriends and a lot of free time,Skokan says.
“Themedia could be aninitiator [of suicides] in suchcases but themain reason ispersonal and family life,”Skokan told The Slovak Spec-tator.
Moreover, two childrenhad access to a gun, and bothfathers could have problemswith the authorities, accord-ing ĽudovítMiklánek of LegisTelum, the civic association ofweapons owners.
“Eachweapon is legallyconnectedwith only one spe-cific owner of the [firearm] li-cense,”Miklánek told theNový čas. “Only that personcanmanipulate theweaponand no one else can get to it.”
BUSINESS / NEWS November 24 – 30, 2014 9www.spectator.sk
LEAVE: Scandalclaims senior heads
Continued frompg 1
The opposition had de-clared earlier in November themayoral election in Košice,Slovakia’s second biggest city,to be a referendum on Paškaclaiming that Smer’s candid-ate and former health minis-ter Richard Raši was merely aPaška stooge. Incumbent Rašidefeated his challenger RudolfBauer, who was backed by anumber of opposition parties.
The scandal surroundingthe CT device has claimed sev-eral senior heads already. Ficocalled on Smer nominee Zuz-ana Zvolenská to resign fromthepost of healthminister andRenáta Zmajkovičová, a keySmer official, who sat at thetop of the hospital’s supervis-ory board, stepped down asparliamentary deputy speak-er.
The Piešťany Hospital ofAlexander Winter purchasedearlier this year a CT scannerwith a price tag approxim-ately three times higher thansimilar devices purchased inthe Czech Republic. MedicalGroup SK won the criticisedtender after facing a singlecompetitor, the Nitra-basedfirmMeditecon,which offereda price €300 lower.
“The resignation of Paškawas certainly a surprise,” In-stitute for Public Affairs Pres-ident Grigorij Mesežnikov toldThe Slovak Spectator whenasked about the most noteddevelopment of the municipalelections, adding that the casemust be seen through the con-text of elections because theopposition was trying topresent the Košice vote as areferendum against Smer andPaška. “Even if the referen-dum did not work out, the op-position managed to stopPaška,” he added.
More than 1,000 peoplegathered in Bratislava to de-mand Paška’s resignation onNovember 14 during a rally or-ganised by independent MPAlojz Hlina, following a simil-ar protest in Košice in front of
Paška’s house where around300 people gathered onNovember 11, according toTASR.
While Fico called Paška’sdecision the gesture of astatesman, which is rare inSlovakia, opposition MPDaniel Lipšic claims that theCT scandal must not end withresignations only, but it alsoshould continue at a level ofcriminal responsibility, TASRwrote. Paška has already suedLipšic for his claims on Paška’sinfluence over the health-caresector.
Nevertheless, Fico, whoclaims that Paška resigned toprotecthis family, doesnot seethe resignation of his right-hand man as his end in polit-ics.
“Pavol Paška is my friendand I view his decision verysensitively,” Fico has said,adding thathecountsonPaškacontinuingtocontribute to theSmer party.
The opposition had tried tooust Paška on November 10,citing what they say are histies to medical companies, es-pecially the Medical Group,whichwontheCTtender.Theyalso claimed that Paška didnotpublish his income from the
sales of shares in private com-panies but ultimately Paškadid not face a no-confidencevote after Smer MPs refused tosupport the programme of thespecial session initiated by theopposition.
TheCT scandal
The Piešťany hospital hadannounced a tender to pur-chase a CT Somatom Defini-tion AS produced by Siemensin 2012 for roughly €1 millionwith VAT; however, after offi-cials from the ruling Smerparty took control over thehospital, the managementcancelled the deal and an-nounced a new tender for amore expensive device, TVMarkíza reported on October30.
The winning bid by Med-ical Group SK at almost €1.6million for a Philips IngenuityCore 128 CT scanner was€600,000 higher than the CTdevice from the cancelledtender, the Sme daily repor-ted. At the time of the deal,Zmajkovičová headed the hos-pital’s supervisory board.
The leadership of the hos-pital announced on November6 that they are seekingways to
cancel the contract with Med-ical Group SK. Yet, director ofthe hospitalMária Domčekováin an interview with Sme onNovember 12, insisted that thepurchase came after a legitim-ate tender.
In an unexpected turn, theauthorised representative ofMedical Group SK, Juraj Koval,sacked its director Erika Biláfor what he called damagingthe company’s reputation. Thesupervisory board of the com-pany allegedly had not knownabout the €1.6 million deal,sealed in the summer. A fewdays earlier, the company hadsaid it was prepared to filelawsuits over the claims thatthe CT scanner was over-priced.
Medical Group SK was co-founded by Paška before heenteredpolitics.Thespeakerofparliament claims that heended his activities with Med-ical Group SK as a minorityshareholder 13 years ago.
Meanwhile, Paška admit-tedknowing the formerboss ofMedical Group SK, Bilá, ori-ginallyaphysicianfromSnina.According to daily Sme, Bilámanages additional firmswhere Paška appeared as co-owner.
People protestedagainst Paška inBratislava aswell. Photo: Sme
GDP: Economy toslow down
Continued from pg 4
“Household consump-tion most probably roseagain, although maybe at aslower pace, which is indic-ated by a cooling down inretail sales and a drop inimports,” J&T Bank analystStanislav Pánis said. “Nev-ertheless, overall consumerdemand is still sound, sinceconsumer confidence is atits highest level since theautumn of 2008. This devel-opment is being supportedby an improving situationon the labour market, accel-erated growth in real salar-ies with zero inflation, andfavourable conditions forloans.”
Analysts concur thatapart from household con-sumption, the GDP growthwas also positively influ-enced by a more intenseconsolidation of public fin-ances and growth in invest-ments by the public sectorand companies.
“[Companies] are carry-ing out hitherto postponedmodernisation projects andcapacity expansion, a de-velopment that is indicatedby a gradual recovery inlong-term loans provided tocompanies,” said Pánis.
Juraj Valachy, senioranalyst with Tatra Bankarecalled that monthly databased on which analysts es-timate the economic devel-opment, worsened comparedto the previous quarter.
“The most importantsector for our economy, in-dustry, grew only at half thepace compared with the firstand second quarters of thisyear,” Valachy wrote in hisanalysis. “Retail sales repor-ted during the third quarterthe slowest growth of thisyear while constructioneven deepened its fall.”
Slovakia’s automotiveindustry is also feeling alower demand of Russianclients, when European carsare becoming too expensivefor them due to the weak-
ening Russian currency, thePravda daily wrote. Whilethe Russian client paidRUB484,324 for a €10,000 carless than three months ago,now it is RUB580,382.
Employment grows
Employment also keptincreasing, by a seasonallyadjusted 0.3 percent com-pared to the previousquarter, while it grew by 1.4percent on an annualisedbasis.
“The economy continuedduring the third quarter toproduce work positions in alarger extent than used to behistorically common at sucha growth,” said Arady.
Over the last year therewere 25,800 new workingplaces generated, of which5,500 were created duringthe July-September period.
Outlooks
Slovakia’s economicperformance in the next fewmonths will be mainly in-fluenced by the slowdown inthe eurozone and the ongo-ing Ukrainian crisis. Basedon data thus far, SLSP es-timates the GDP growth for2014 at 2.2 percent. VÚB es-timates this year’s economicgrowth at 2.4 percent, whilenext year it may accelerateto 2.6 percent.
Valachy expects that theupcoming months will con-tinue to be under the influ-ence of the Russo-Ukrainianconflict, “which furthermeans an increasing rate ofrisk and uncertainty”. TatraBanka does not count in itsprognosis with a further es-calation of the conflict, andthus it does not predict anyfurther deceleration of thegrowth dynamics. But it willdecrease its prognosis of 2.7percent.
“Our basic scenario isthat it’s only a transitoryweakness, which might befollowed by reacceleration,”Pánis wrote.
Tatras mark 10th anniversary of windstormTEN years ago, onNovember 19, 2004, extremewindswithspeeds of up to 230 kmper hour levelled forests in the Tatramountains, toppling the nation’s pride alongwith them. Thedisaster left two people dead, billions of crowns in damagesand Slovakia’smost popular tourist destination badly scarred.After 10 years, all the damages have yet to be counted due tothe arrival of the bark beetlewhich has caused comparabledamages. Nevertheless, new forests are growing on affectedterritories,while only children of current generationswill liveto see proper forests here.
“At that timewindwas breaking trees, tearing off roofsand destroying everything that came into its path,” JánMokoš, themayor of Vysoké Tatrymunicipality, a clusteringof villages in theHigh Tatras, recalledwhat happened 10 yearsago for the Košice’s Korzár daily.
Thewind, called Tatra bora, blasted theHigh Tatras after15:00 and over the next nearly three hours, it toppled trees ona stretch three to four kilometreswide and 40 km long. Severedamagewas done also to other forests, including in the Low
Tatras, Orava, Kysuce and Slovenské RudohorieMountains.Damageswere calculated at almost €260million.
Thewindstormdamaged 12,600 hectares of forestswhen itlevelled about 3million cubicmetres of treeswithin the ter-ritory of the Tatras National Park (TANAP). Foresters haveplanted 5million trees over the last 10 years .
Part of the calamity deadwoodwas excavated,while fallentrees in themost protected parts of theNational Parkwere leftto nature to take care of. This has led to amassive outbreak ofbark beetles and spread of this insect into parts of Tatra forestsnot damaged by thewindstorm. The bark beetle damaged7,000 hectares of forests administered by the state forestcompany Štátne Lesy TANAP.
Whether to remove fallen trees and help nature recover byplanting young trees, or to leave fallen trees as they are and al-lownature to copewith the impact of thewindstorm remains atopic of dispute among foresters and environmental activists.
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10 December 1 – 7, 2014 CULTURE / FOCUS
Connecting with the classics
IT IS difficult and challengingto evaluate art, but there arecompetitions thatdare to treadon this thin ice – with the goalof exhibiting and promotingcertain genres, styles or youngartists.
This year’s is the ninthversion of the Maľba/Paintingcompetition, and 20 artworksthat have made it to the fi-nals can be seen until Decem-ber 21 in the Nedbalka galleryin downtown Bratislava.
Juraj Florek won the con-test of this year. Jury mem-ber Jan Skřivánek told Sme hehad already put Florek’s workcalled Night TellerMachine onthe first place of a short listwhen selecting the 20 final-ists from among nearly 100contestants.
“If someonepaints likevanGogh did, it is very tricky, andthe result is usually kitsch,”one of the fourmembers of thePainting 2014 jury, JanSkřivánek told the Sme daily.“But with Florek, it all holdstogether. He works with thisform,buthis artworks are veryup-to-date. His painting of theteller machine is a very in-teresting testimony of ourworld.”
Florek, a graduate from theBanská Bystrica Art Academy,selects for his paintings un-attractive, ignored places andfinds certain poetry in them.
“He has acquired a tech-nique which is tricky, andcombines it with banal citycorners – a soda machine, thecornerof aparking lot, thewallof a department store,”Skřivánek continued. “Thepainting of the teller ma-chine, too, reminds me of thepainting of a chair by vanGogh; it is a similarly banalmotif, although it was a moreradical step at the end of the19th century to paint a chairthan to paint a teller machinetoday. But there is a certainsimilarity – who would like tohave a teller machine hangingon a wall today?”
It is a commoncityviewon
one hand, but Florek man-aged to shift it a bit further. “Itis rather an altar of an un-knowngod than the portrait ofa common routine of city en-vironment,” says exhibitioncurator Alexandra Kusá.
Runners-up
Secondplacewent toMatejFabian with a large-sized mo-tifof skiers–orare theyghosts?
“Thispaintingsurprisedusincloserview,”Skřiváneksaid.“It isverysculpted,pasty,evena relief painting. It is a verygood picture – already in howwell he has mastered such aformat.”
Nonetheless, the motif isimportant, according toSkřivánek. “It gives the view-er a disquieting, provokingimpression; forcing them toreact. And we were lookingexactly for paintings that canactivate people. With many ofthem, we said that they arewell-mastered but somewhatacademic: well-painted, butthe artists does not risk andprovoke.”
Third placewent to AndrásCséfalvay who usually workswith video, sound and music.This time, the music ispresent, but rather in a sym-bolic way. The painting showstwo men in period clothingbeating a third man, and thetext overhead says:“Wolfgang, the music in yourhead is superfluous for us!”
“This is a conceptual ap-proach towards painting thatworks with the important is-sueof the roleof art inour life,”Skřivánek said. The workcommunicates with the his-tory of modern painting, lim-its of the genre.
“The result is an intelli-gent picture that tests the lim-its of contemporary paint-ing,” Kusá commented.
Work and its background
The exhibition of indi-vidual artists can be slightlyconfusing for people. The jury
members also had at their dis-posal whole portfolios, so thatthey can evaluate if the com-peting painting is not a merestroke of luck.
“When looking at a paint-ing, it is always like this: oneneeds to put the work and itsauthor into context,”Skřivánek says. “The idea thatthe work speaks for itself andthat even a solitarily hangingoriginal can win the awe ofeverybody is illusory. It israther the other way round –strong artworks, expressive ata first sight, can absorb a per-son only for a brief moment,and then they get overlookedand ignored quickly. Good-quality art requires people toknow more about it, and it isbetter if they struggle with itfor awhile before deciding andappreciating its quality.”
The jury of the competi-tion was composed of PawelJarodzki (Poland), Jan Skři-vánek (Czech Republic), TiborSomorjassi Kiss (Hungary) andRudolf Sikora (Slovakia).
The exhibition, organisedby the VÚB Foundation, is freein the Nedbalka Gallery on Ned-balova Street daily from 13:00and 19:00, except Mondays,through December 21.
Compiled by ZuzanaVilikovská using Sme
report by Jana Németh
J. Florek:Night TellerMachine Photo: Courtesy of VÚBFound.
M.Fabian:GhostRiders. Photos: Courtesy of VÚVFoundation
Young Slovakpainters compete,
display works
JAZZ: Goes roundContinued frompg8
Currently, there are thefour already named,who areparticipating (with prospectsof one Vienna-based and oneMunich-based jazz club join-ing in).Musicians have a freehand in choosingwhat toplay; but this changes if abigger band gets involved.“The result is different everytime, of course, becausethere are different tempera-ments involved,” Torfssummedup.
But there is a changeplanned: next year, a bigbandwill be put together,with one artistic directorhired to arrange them.
As for selection of artists,he said that they just look foryoungmusicians, probablyunder 35, and in each coun-try, the due partner organ-isation –Music:LX in Lux-embourg,Music CentreSlovakia in Slovakia, JazzlabSeries in Belgiumand JazzusProductions in France – thenchooses one performer toparticipate,without dis-cussing the choicewith theothers. Torfs concluded thatthere are ongoing discus-sions betweenmusicians,and so the first concert isusually quite different thanthe last one.
This year, RubenMachtelinckx fromBelgium(guitar), Nikolaj Nikitin fromSlovakia (saxophone), CharlyVilmart fromFrance (doublebass) and Jeff Herr fromLuxembourg (drums) playedin Bratislava, in Ormes; nearReims, France inmid-October; in Abbaye deNeumünster in the capital ofLuxembourg and again inSlovakia, at the Jazz FOR Salefestival in Košice, at the be-ginning of November. Thelast concert took place onNovember 26 in Gent, Belgi-um.
“Iwas selected by the jazz
section of theMusic CentreSlovakia – due to the com-position of the band, theyneeded a saxophonist,”Nikitin said. “We rehearsedseven tunes in total: twocomposition fromeach of us,with the exception of thedrummer,who got one.” Heopined that for a small band,this is the bestmethod,while a biggermusical bodyneeds someone to coordinateand conduct them.
Nikitin said that eachconcertwas different, fromabig Slovak jazz festival inKošice, to a small jazz club inOrmes (which looked like aformer farming-cooperative-turned-cultural-venue). InLuxembourg, the concerttook place in a clubwherethere are Sunday concerts,and in Bratislava, it was in asmall studio of the SlovakRadio. The Slovakmusiciandeemed the first concert “themost cautious and tentative,unfortunately”, complainingalso about the long pausesbetween the concerts thatmakes jazzmen lose contactand the “commondrive”.
Askedwhatwas theproject’s ultimate asset forhim,Nikitin said that theinteresting thingwas to fine-tune the different styles andtemperaments of the parti-cipants, “butwe have found acommon language and Ithink thatwemanaged tocreate something new andinteresting”.
He added that they founda concord and understandingalso on the human level, inhumour andmentioned evenan ambition tomeet outsidethe project –which is ratherdemanding, though, espe-cially for him, as he lives1,500 kilometres away. “ButJeff Herr fromLuxembourgeven proposed two concertsfor next year, and Iwould beglad ifwe canmake it,”Nikitin concluded.
Puppet theatre awarded
BRATISLAVAPuppet Theatreplaced among 10 financiallyawarded pieces at the inter-national festival, HarmonyWorld Puppet Carnival, heldin Bangkok, Thailand,with itsplay called Aaahr!! performedin English.
Itwas the only Slovaktheatre to attend the festivalwhere 116 plays from64 coun-trieswere presented, the TASRnewswire reported.
The theatrewas nomin-ated in three categories: thebest artistic performance, thebest actress (where AdelaMojžišováwas nominated)and themost original per-formance. Itwon the last cat-egory, receiving $1,000.
The Aaahr!! performance
has already been awarded atseveral international compet-itions.
It is directed by IvanMar-tinka andAndrej Kalinka andtranslated by KatarínaJánošová.
The play, intended forchildren younger than 5 yearsof age, describes theworld of acreative childwho tries tocatchwhat is real andwhat isnot.
It gradually reveals therelations of an ordinary fam-ily, its problems and also joysconnectedwith searching foryour own self, as reported byTASR.
CompiledbySpectator staff from
press reports
SOZA prizes given
THESLOVAKPerformingandMechanical Rights So-ciety (SOZA), a non-profitassociation of authors andpublishers ofmusicalworkswhichprotects their copy-rights, granted for the 17thtime the awards to artistssuccessful in the Slovakmusical scenewho areforming the profile ofmusicculture. It awarded eightmusicians altogether,withtwo Slovak composers in-scribed into the SOZAgoldenbook, the SITAnewswire reported.
Musician IvanTásler,frontmanof IMT Smileband, received the award forthe composer of themostplayed songs in 2013,whilethe lyricswriter of themostplayed songs becameKamilPeteraj.
The award for themostplayed song for 2013went toPeter Bič Project for Thinkingabout You.
SOZA also awardedhip-
hop bandKontrafakt for themost sold soundtrackmedi-um for their Navždy (Forever)album. Themost sold audio-visual trackmedium for 2013became theDVDSpevankovo(the Song’sWorld) byMáriaPodhradská andRichardČanaky.
The award for the highestshare of Slovakmusic inbroadcastingwent to RadioModra, SITAwrote.
SOZA also granted threehonorary awards. Vašo Pate-jdl received the award forsignificant contribution tointroducing Slovakmusicabroad. Two composers of thelast centuryAlexanderAl-brecht and ŠtefanNémethŠamorínskywere inscribedinto the SOZAgolden book inmemoriam.
The award for lifetimeworkwent to Slovakwriter,lyricist and dramaturgeBorisFilan.
CompiledbySpectator staff
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10 December 1 – 7, 2014 CULTURE / FOCUS
Connecting with the classics
IT IS difficult and challengingto evaluate art, but there arecompetitions thatdare to treadon this thin ice – with the goalof exhibiting and promotingcertain genres, styles or youngartists.
This year’s is the ninthversion of the Maľba/Paintingcompetition, and 20 artworksthat have made it to the fi-nals can be seen until Decem-ber 21 in the Nedbalka galleryin downtown Bratislava.
Juraj Florek won the con-test of this year. Jury mem-ber Jan Skřivánek told Sme hehad already put Florek’s workcalled Night TellerMachine onthe first place of a short listwhen selecting the 20 final-ists from among nearly 100contestants.
“If someonepaints likevanGogh did, it is very tricky, andthe result is usually kitsch,”one of the fourmembers of thePainting 2014 jury, JanSkřivánek told the Sme daily.“But with Florek, it all holdstogether. He works with thisform,buthis artworks are veryup-to-date. His painting of theteller machine is a very in-teresting testimony of ourworld.”
Florek, a graduate from theBanská Bystrica Art Academy,selects for his paintings un-attractive, ignored places andfinds certain poetry in them.
“He has acquired a tech-nique which is tricky, andcombines it with banal citycorners – a soda machine, thecornerof aparking lot, thewallof a department store,”Skřivánek continued. “Thepainting of the teller ma-chine, too, reminds me of thepainting of a chair by vanGogh; it is a similarly banalmotif, although it was a moreradical step at the end of the19th century to paint a chairthan to paint a teller machinetoday. But there is a certainsimilarity – who would like tohave a teller machine hangingon a wall today?”
It is a commoncityviewon
one hand, but Florek man-aged to shift it a bit further. “Itis rather an altar of an un-knowngod than the portrait ofa common routine of city en-vironment,” says exhibitioncurator Alexandra Kusá.
Runners-up
Secondplacewent toMatejFabian with a large-sized mo-tifof skiers–orare theyghosts?
“Thispaintingsurprisedusincloserview,”Skřiváneksaid.“It isverysculpted,pasty,evena relief painting. It is a verygood picture – already in howwell he has mastered such aformat.”
Nonetheless, the motif isimportant, according toSkřivánek. “It gives the view-er a disquieting, provokingimpression; forcing them toreact. And we were lookingexactly for paintings that canactivate people. With many ofthem, we said that they arewell-mastered but somewhatacademic: well-painted, butthe artists does not risk andprovoke.”
Third placewent to AndrásCséfalvay who usually workswith video, sound and music.This time, the music ispresent, but rather in a sym-bolic way. The painting showstwo men in period clothingbeating a third man, and thetext overhead says:“Wolfgang, the music in yourhead is superfluous for us!”
“This is a conceptual ap-proach towards painting thatworks with the important is-sueof the roleof art inour life,”Skřivánek said. The workcommunicates with the his-tory of modern painting, lim-its of the genre.
“The result is an intelli-gent picture that tests the lim-its of contemporary paint-ing,” Kusá commented.
Work and its background
The exhibition of indi-vidual artists can be slightlyconfusing for people. The jury
members also had at their dis-posal whole portfolios, so thatthey can evaluate if the com-peting painting is not a merestroke of luck.
“When looking at a paint-ing, it is always like this: oneneeds to put the work and itsauthor into context,”Skřivánek says. “The idea thatthe work speaks for itself andthat even a solitarily hangingoriginal can win the awe ofeverybody is illusory. It israther the other way round –strong artworks, expressive ata first sight, can absorb a per-son only for a brief moment,and then they get overlookedand ignored quickly. Good-quality art requires people toknow more about it, and it isbetter if they struggle with itfor awhile before deciding andappreciating its quality.”
The jury of the competi-tion was composed of PawelJarodzki (Poland), Jan Skři-vánek (Czech Republic), TiborSomorjassi Kiss (Hungary) andRudolf Sikora (Slovakia).
The exhibition, organisedby the VÚB Foundation, is freein the Nedbalka Gallery on Ned-balova Street daily from 13:00and 19:00, except Mondays,through December 21.
Compiled by ZuzanaVilikovská using Sme
report by Jana Németh
J. Florek:Night TellerMachine Photo: Courtesy of VÚBFound.
M.Fabian:GhostRiders. Photos: Courtesy of VÚVFoundation
Young Slovakpainters compete,
display works
JAZZ: Goes roundContinued frompg8
Currently, there are thefour already named,who areparticipating (with prospectsof one Vienna-based and oneMunich-based jazz club join-ing in).Musicians have a freehand in choosingwhat toplay; but this changes if abigger band gets involved.“The result is different everytime, of course, becausethere are different tempera-ments involved,” Torfssummedup.
But there is a changeplanned: next year, a bigbandwill be put together,with one artistic directorhired to arrange them.
As for selection of artists,he said that they just look foryoungmusicians, probablyunder 35, and in each coun-try, the due partner organ-isation –Music:LX in Lux-embourg,Music CentreSlovakia in Slovakia, JazzlabSeries in Belgiumand JazzusProductions in France – thenchooses one performer toparticipate,without dis-cussing the choicewith theothers. Torfs concluded thatthere are ongoing discus-sions betweenmusicians,and so the first concert isusually quite different thanthe last one.
This year, RubenMachtelinckx fromBelgium(guitar), Nikolaj Nikitin fromSlovakia (saxophone), CharlyVilmart fromFrance (doublebass) and Jeff Herr fromLuxembourg (drums) playedin Bratislava, in Ormes; nearReims, France inmid-October; in Abbaye deNeumünster in the capital ofLuxembourg and again inSlovakia, at the Jazz FOR Salefestival in Košice, at the be-ginning of November. Thelast concert took place onNovember 26 in Gent, Belgi-um.
“Iwas selected by the jazz
section of theMusic CentreSlovakia – due to the com-position of the band, theyneeded a saxophonist,”Nikitin said. “We rehearsedseven tunes in total: twocomposition fromeach of us,with the exception of thedrummer,who got one.” Heopined that for a small band,this is the bestmethod,while a biggermusical bodyneeds someone to coordinateand conduct them.
Nikitin said that eachconcertwas different, fromabig Slovak jazz festival inKošice, to a small jazz club inOrmes (which looked like aformer farming-cooperative-turned-cultural-venue). InLuxembourg, the concerttook place in a clubwherethere are Sunday concerts,and in Bratislava, it was in asmall studio of the SlovakRadio. The Slovakmusiciandeemed the first concert “themost cautious and tentative,unfortunately”, complainingalso about the long pausesbetween the concerts thatmakes jazzmen lose contactand the “commondrive”.
Askedwhatwas theproject’s ultimate asset forhim,Nikitin said that theinteresting thingwas to fine-tune the different styles andtemperaments of the parti-cipants, “butwe have found acommon language and Ithink thatwemanaged tocreate something new andinteresting”.
He added that they founda concord and understandingalso on the human level, inhumour andmentioned evenan ambition tomeet outsidethe project –which is ratherdemanding, though, espe-cially for him, as he lives1,500 kilometres away. “ButJeff Herr fromLuxembourgeven proposed two concertsfor next year, and Iwould beglad ifwe canmake it,”Nikitin concluded.
Puppet theatre awarded
BRATISLAVAPuppet Theatreplaced among 10 financiallyawarded pieces at the inter-national festival, HarmonyWorld Puppet Carnival, heldin Bangkok, Thailand,with itsplay called Aaahr!! performedin English.
Itwas the only Slovaktheatre to attend the festivalwhere 116 plays from64 coun-trieswere presented, the TASRnewswire reported.
The theatrewas nomin-ated in three categories: thebest artistic performance, thebest actress (where AdelaMojžišováwas nominated)and themost original per-formance. Itwon the last cat-egory, receiving $1,000.
The Aaahr!! performance
has already been awarded atseveral international compet-itions.
It is directed by IvanMar-tinka andAndrej Kalinka andtranslated by KatarínaJánošová.
The play, intended forchildren younger than 5 yearsof age, describes theworld of acreative childwho tries tocatchwhat is real andwhat isnot.
It gradually reveals therelations of an ordinary fam-ily, its problems and also joysconnectedwith searching foryour own self, as reported byTASR.
CompiledbySpectator staff from
press reports
SOZA prizes given
THESLOVAKPerformingandMechanical Rights So-ciety (SOZA), a non-profitassociation of authors andpublishers ofmusicalworkswhichprotects their copy-rights, granted for the 17thtime the awards to artistssuccessful in the Slovakmusical scenewho areforming the profile ofmusicculture. It awarded eightmusicians altogether,withtwo Slovak composers in-scribed into the SOZAgoldenbook, the SITAnewswire reported.
Musician IvanTásler,frontmanof IMT Smileband, received the award forthe composer of themostplayed songs in 2013,whilethe lyricswriter of themostplayed songs becameKamilPeteraj.
The award for themostplayed song for 2013went toPeter Bič Project for Thinkingabout You.
SOZA also awardedhip-
hop bandKontrafakt for themost sold soundtrackmedi-um for their Navždy (Forever)album. Themost sold audio-visual trackmedium for 2013became theDVDSpevankovo(the Song’sWorld) byMáriaPodhradská andRichardČanaky.
The award for the highestshare of Slovakmusic inbroadcastingwent to RadioModra, SITAwrote.
SOZA also granted threehonorary awards. Vašo Pate-jdl received the award forsignificant contribution tointroducing Slovakmusicabroad. Two composers of thelast centuryAlexanderAl-brecht and ŠtefanNémethŠamorínskywere inscribedinto the SOZAgolden book inmemoriam.
The award for lifetimeworkwent to Slovakwriter,lyricist and dramaturgeBorisFilan.
CompiledbySpectator staff
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Crystal Wings awards conferredA DOZEN outstanding Slovak personalit-ies are awarded Crystal Wings every yearand recently, their names were an-nounced.
Musicians, an actor, and architect, abusinessman, a philanthropist, a scient-ist, a writer, an athlete, an aero-mobiledesigner, and two laureates of the awardfor life-long achievement were selected
and awarded on February 1 at a cere-mony in the Slovak National Theatrebuilding. The Crystal Wings 2014 win-nerswere selected by expert juries in duecategories, followedby theBig Juryof theCrystal Wing headed by Gabriel Csollár.Štefan Polakovič got the award for ar-chitecture, founder of DecodomVladimírŠrámek for business, founder and con-
ductor of Bratislava Boys’ ChoirMagdaléna Rovňáková for music, theband Korben Dallas for rock-pop-jazz,Olympic winner Anastasia Kuzmina forsport, Peter Káčer for philanthropy (he isdisabled after battling polio, but collec-ted money crossing Slovakia on a specialbicycle), Juraj Pechan for medicine,Henrieta Moravčíková for a book on ar-
chitect Freidrich Weinwurm,and actor Juraj Vajda, who justpopped in from his perform-ance in a drama staging nextdoor; all clad in a nice attire.
ŠtefanKlein, thedesignerofthe break-through aero-mobilehybrid transport means, re-ceived the award for visual art.
Priest Anton Srholec whohas helped the homeless andpeople living on the margin, aswell as wine-breeder DorotaPospíšilová who bred 24 newvine cultivars, got the CrystalWing for life-long achieve-ment.
They were selected out of atotal of 32 nominees. Theaward, in its 18th year, aims tosearch for and bring to the fore-ground outstanding Slovakpersonalities in their fieldswhoare sometimes rather low-profile.
CompiledbyZuzanaVilikovská
Aupark retools image
THEBRATISLAVA shoppingcentre Aupark is launchingreconstruction –more than10 years since originally be-ing built. The goal is to renewthemallwith a newdesignand adapt it to currenttrends.
The reconstruction thatis already underwaywill lastuntil October 2015 andwillcost €15.5million. Recon-structionwill not limitAupark’s operation in anyway.
Analysts say the recon-struction of the centre is in-evitable. “Aupark is one ofthe oldest shopping centresin Bratislava, and so it re-quires renovation to contin-ue being attractive and in-triguing for customers,”Ľubomír Drahovský, analystof the Terno agency, told theHospodárskeNoviny eco-nomic daily.
Auparkwants to differ-entiate itself from its com-petitors not just through
visual adjustments, but alsoby attracting newbrandsthat have not been represen-ted on the Slovakmarket sofar.
“Within one year, severalnewnoveltieswill appear,”Arnaud Burlin, CEO of theUnibail-Rodamco companywhich operates AuparkBratislava, said. “For ex-ample, theUS brand of lux-ury clothingRalph Lauren orItalian brand SylviaHeach.”
The firstmono-brandshop of Pandora jewelswillbe opened here, too.
Drahovský opined thatpresenting newbrands is theonlyway to stand out amongthe growing competition.While, “Bratislava is alreadyfilledwith shopping centres,andwith newbrands,Aupark strives tomake theimpression of being unique –but this is a long-distancerun”, Drahovský said.
CompiledbySpectator staff
CULTURE / FOCUS February 9 – 22, 2015 9www.spectator.sk
SNG features Košice modernismART hailing from the eastern-Slovak city of Košice, and theunique cultural heritage thatbred it, is on display at Brat-islava’sNationalGallery as partof the “Košice Modernism andIts Context” exhibition, whichruns through March 15.
Visitors can get an insightinto the atmosphere and vividcultural and social life of thiscity between the two worldwars, and elements of its pastas a part of Hungary. ĽudovítČordák and Elemír Halász-Hradil are mentioned as theforerunners of modernism inKošice at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.
The exhibition itself notonly presents a wide selectionof paintings, but also bill-boards and examples of someperiod exhibitions taking placein this metropolis, books –mostly on art – that appearedthere, almanacs of scientificsymposiums and a video withcomments of various person-alities.
The international impactofSlovakia’s second city is appar-ent, as art theoretician and oneof the exhibition curators Zuz-ana Bartošová noted, in theway work of artist KolomanSokol, went on to influenceMexican and American mod-ern art.
The collapse of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Repub-lic in 1918 led many leftist in-tellectuals to flee the country,and nearby Košice in the newCzechoslovak state became apreferred destination.
“In Košice, a group ofpeople met that would other-wise not make a stop in Cze-choslovakia… they lived therefor several months or years,”Bartošovátold thePravdadaily.
The East-Slovak Museumled by inspiring and creativehead Josef Polák, young law-yer and art lover, represented akind of refuge for artists flee-ing the aftermath of Hungari-an revolution. He founded anart school at the museum, or-ganised 200 exhibitions.
One such artists-immi-grant was Eugen Krón wholater went on to run his owngraphic school (Krón’s Schoolof Graphics), while also teach-ing and forming art personal-ities like Július Jakoby and theaforementioned Sokol.
Another central figure ofKošice Modernism is AntonJaszusch who returned to thecity after five years’ imprison-ment in Russia, to develop hisown style combining the
European stream of Symbol-ism with expression form,curators Bartošová, AlexandraHomoľová and Michal Burdz-inski write in the exhibitionbrochure.
Othernotablenamesof thisperiod in Košice includeFrantišek Foltýn, Gejza Schil-ler, Konštantín Bauer and Al-exander Bortnyik – althoughthe last stayed only for sixmonths, between his stays inWeimar and Budapest.
During a guided lecture,the curators mentioned as anoutstanding example, maybediffering from other artists,Anna Lesnay, local artist whocollected folk embroidery, de-signed patterns and organiseda small commercial manufac-ture of embroidery. Les-nay,
born Amália Moskowitz (AnnaLes-nay is her artistic name) inNižný Hrušov, lived much ofher life in Budapest and latermoved to the US.
In the 1920s, the East-Slovak Museum organisednearly 100 exhibitions wherethe works of modern andavant-garde artists were intro-duced. As a result, Košice ex-tended its already abundantdomestic and foreign contactsin the art world.
Many of those works focuson the local cultural and so-cial urban life, some showingcafes and bohemian intellec-tuals, while others concen-trated on the industrial and so-cial motifs that made Košicestand out among other townsand cities of the region.
Later, many of the artistsmoved out to try their luckelsewhere or returned to Hun-gary after a general pardon in1925. Some died.
Before coming to the Na-tional Gallery’s EsterházyPalace the exhibition alsoshowed at the East Slovak Gal-lery. The Bratislava version ofthe exhibition is smaller –comprising a mere one floor,with some of the paintings ofgraphic artworks differentthan those shown in Košice.
The exhibition is opendaily, except for Mondays,between 10:00 and 18:00 untilMarch 15. Admission is free, asit is for all SNG exhibitions inBratislava this year.Apart froma bulletin in English (availableat the box office), the cata-logue accompanying the ex-hibition is also available inEnglish. I comprises 140 pagesand costs €10.
By Zuzana Vilikovská
KonštantínBauer –Odsúdená (1927). Photo: Courtesy of SNG
RETAIL: Shoppinghabits changingContinued frompg 7
M-Market investmentgroup focuses on this aspectof themarket.
“Our priority is to re-vitalise original centres thatare historically close to thecustomers and designed foreveryday shopping,” saidMarian Šufliarsky, the pres-ident ofM-Market. So far,they have opened centres inSenec, Zvolen, TurčianskeTeplice andModrawithplans to open inMartin inearly 2015.
“We focus not only onretail as such, but also onservices and long-termfunctionality of thecentres,” said Šufliarsky.Disabled facilities, newtechnologies, parking lotsand glass elevators are amust, he added, as well ascoffee houses and childrencorners for the shoppingfamilies.
Looking ahead, themain
aims of the retailers pub-lished by ZOCR are tomain-tain a long-term positiverelationship between theproducers and the retailers,adequate protection of theconsumer and objectivitytowards the consumer pub-lic.
The trend of new retailprojects will continue.Romaňák believes thatSlovakia has not drained itsfull potential for newprojects, many of them loc-ated closer to the residentialareas and traffic hubs.
Furman sees building ofnew shopping centres as away for local businesses toimprove their standards.
’’By opening a newcentre, the local entrepren-eurs and sellers raise theirstandards, design and offer,”said Furman. “Moreover, thenew centres and retail parksattract international con-cerns that offer employmentopportunities.”
BUSINESS / NEWS November 24 – 30, 2014 9www.spectator.sk
LEAVE: Scandalclaims senior heads
Continued frompg 1
The opposition had de-clared earlier in November themayoral election in Košice,Slovakia’s second biggest city,to be a referendum on Paškaclaiming that Smer’s candid-ate and former health minis-ter Richard Raši was merely aPaška stooge. Incumbent Rašidefeated his challenger RudolfBauer, who was backed by anumber of opposition parties.
The scandal surroundingthe CT device has claimed sev-eral senior heads already. Ficocalled on Smer nominee Zuz-ana Zvolenská to resign fromthepost of healthminister andRenáta Zmajkovičová, a keySmer official, who sat at thetop of the hospital’s supervis-ory board, stepped down asparliamentary deputy speak-er.
The Piešťany Hospital ofAlexander Winter purchasedearlier this year a CT scannerwith a price tag approxim-ately three times higher thansimilar devices purchased inthe Czech Republic. MedicalGroup SK won the criticisedtender after facing a singlecompetitor, the Nitra-basedfirmMeditecon,which offereda price €300 lower.
“The resignation of Paškawas certainly a surprise,” In-stitute for Public Affairs Pres-ident Grigorij Mesežnikov toldThe Slovak Spectator whenasked about the most noteddevelopment of the municipalelections, adding that the casemust be seen through the con-text of elections because theopposition was trying topresent the Košice vote as areferendum against Smer andPaška. “Even if the referen-dum did not work out, the op-position managed to stopPaška,” he added.
More than 1,000 peoplegathered in Bratislava to de-mand Paška’s resignation onNovember 14 during a rally or-ganised by independent MPAlojz Hlina, following a simil-ar protest in Košice in front of
Paška’s house where around300 people gathered onNovember 11, according toTASR.
While Fico called Paška’sdecision the gesture of astatesman, which is rare inSlovakia, opposition MPDaniel Lipšic claims that theCT scandal must not end withresignations only, but it alsoshould continue at a level ofcriminal responsibility, TASRwrote. Paška has already suedLipšic for his claims on Paška’sinfluence over the health-caresector.
Nevertheless, Fico, whoclaims that Paška resigned toprotecthis family, doesnot seethe resignation of his right-hand man as his end in polit-ics.
“Pavol Paška is my friendand I view his decision verysensitively,” Fico has said,adding thathecountsonPaškacontinuingtocontribute to theSmer party.
The opposition had tried tooust Paška on November 10,citing what they say are histies to medical companies, es-pecially the Medical Group,whichwontheCTtender.Theyalso claimed that Paška didnotpublish his income from the
sales of shares in private com-panies but ultimately Paškadid not face a no-confidencevote after Smer MPs refused tosupport the programme of thespecial session initiated by theopposition.
TheCT scandal
The Piešťany hospital hadannounced a tender to pur-chase a CT Somatom Defini-tion AS produced by Siemensin 2012 for roughly €1 millionwith VAT; however, after offi-cials from the ruling Smerparty took control over thehospital, the managementcancelled the deal and an-nounced a new tender for amore expensive device, TVMarkíza reported on October30.
The winning bid by Med-ical Group SK at almost €1.6million for a Philips IngenuityCore 128 CT scanner was€600,000 higher than the CTdevice from the cancelledtender, the Sme daily repor-ted. At the time of the deal,Zmajkovičová headed the hos-pital’s supervisory board.
The leadership of the hos-pital announced on November6 that they are seekingways to
cancel the contract with Med-ical Group SK. Yet, director ofthe hospitalMária Domčekováin an interview with Sme onNovember 12, insisted that thepurchase came after a legitim-ate tender.
In an unexpected turn, theauthorised representative ofMedical Group SK, Juraj Koval,sacked its director Erika Biláfor what he called damagingthe company’s reputation. Thesupervisory board of the com-pany allegedly had not knownabout the €1.6 million deal,sealed in the summer. A fewdays earlier, the company hadsaid it was prepared to filelawsuits over the claims thatthe CT scanner was over-priced.
Medical Group SK was co-founded by Paška before heenteredpolitics.Thespeakerofparliament claims that heended his activities with Med-ical Group SK as a minorityshareholder 13 years ago.
Meanwhile, Paška admit-tedknowing the formerboss ofMedical Group SK, Bilá, ori-ginallyaphysicianfromSnina.According to daily Sme, Bilámanages additional firmswhere Paška appeared as co-owner.
People protestedagainst Paška inBratislava aswell. Photo: Sme
GDP: Economy toslow down
Continued from pg 4
“Household consump-tion most probably roseagain, although maybe at aslower pace, which is indic-ated by a cooling down inretail sales and a drop inimports,” J&T Bank analystStanislav Pánis said. “Nev-ertheless, overall consumerdemand is still sound, sinceconsumer confidence is atits highest level since theautumn of 2008. This devel-opment is being supportedby an improving situationon the labour market, accel-erated growth in real salar-ies with zero inflation, andfavourable conditions forloans.”
Analysts concur thatapart from household con-sumption, the GDP growthwas also positively influ-enced by a more intenseconsolidation of public fin-ances and growth in invest-ments by the public sectorand companies.
“[Companies] are carry-ing out hitherto postponedmodernisation projects andcapacity expansion, a de-velopment that is indicatedby a gradual recovery inlong-term loans provided tocompanies,” said Pánis.
Juraj Valachy, senioranalyst with Tatra Bankarecalled that monthly databased on which analysts es-timate the economic devel-opment, worsened comparedto the previous quarter.
“The most importantsector for our economy, in-dustry, grew only at half thepace compared with the firstand second quarters of thisyear,” Valachy wrote in hisanalysis. “Retail sales repor-ted during the third quarterthe slowest growth of thisyear while constructioneven deepened its fall.”
Slovakia’s automotiveindustry is also feeling alower demand of Russianclients, when European carsare becoming too expensivefor them due to the weak-
ening Russian currency, thePravda daily wrote. Whilethe Russian client paidRUB484,324 for a €10,000 carless than three months ago,now it is RUB580,382.
Employment grows
Employment also keptincreasing, by a seasonallyadjusted 0.3 percent com-pared to the previousquarter, while it grew by 1.4percent on an annualisedbasis.
“The economy continuedduring the third quarter toproduce work positions in alarger extent than used to behistorically common at sucha growth,” said Arady.
Over the last year therewere 25,800 new workingplaces generated, of which5,500 were created duringthe July-September period.
Outlooks
Slovakia’s economicperformance in the next fewmonths will be mainly in-fluenced by the slowdown inthe eurozone and the ongo-ing Ukrainian crisis. Basedon data thus far, SLSP es-timates the GDP growth for2014 at 2.2 percent. VÚB es-timates this year’s economicgrowth at 2.4 percent, whilenext year it may accelerateto 2.6 percent.
Valachy expects that theupcoming months will con-tinue to be under the influ-ence of the Russo-Ukrainianconflict, “which furthermeans an increasing rate ofrisk and uncertainty”. TatraBanka does not count in itsprognosis with a further es-calation of the conflict, andthus it does not predict anyfurther deceleration of thegrowth dynamics. But it willdecrease its prognosis of 2.7percent.
“Our basic scenario isthat it’s only a transitoryweakness, which might befollowed by reacceleration,”Pánis wrote.
Tatras mark 10th anniversary of windstormTEN years ago, onNovember 19, 2004, extremewindswithspeeds of up to 230 kmper hour levelled forests in the Tatramountains, toppling the nation’s pride alongwith them. Thedisaster left two people dead, billions of crowns in damagesand Slovakia’smost popular tourist destination badly scarred.After 10 years, all the damages have yet to be counted due tothe arrival of the bark beetlewhich has caused comparabledamages. Nevertheless, new forests are growing on affectedterritories,while only children of current generationswill liveto see proper forests here.
“At that timewindwas breaking trees, tearing off roofsand destroying everything that came into its path,” JánMokoš, themayor of Vysoké Tatrymunicipality, a clusteringof villages in theHigh Tatras, recalledwhat happened 10 yearsago for the Košice’s Korzár daily.
Thewind, called Tatra bora, blasted theHigh Tatras after15:00 and over the next nearly three hours, it toppled trees ona stretch three to four kilometreswide and 40 km long. Severedamagewas done also to other forests, including in the Low
Tatras, Orava, Kysuce and Slovenské RudohorieMountains.Damageswere calculated at almost €260million.
Thewindstormdamaged 12,600 hectares of forestswhen itlevelled about 3million cubicmetres of treeswithin the ter-ritory of the Tatras National Park (TANAP). Foresters haveplanted 5million trees over the last 10 years .
Part of the calamity deadwoodwas excavated,while fallentrees in themost protected parts of theNational Parkwere leftto nature to take care of. This has led to amassive outbreak ofbark beetles and spread of this insect into parts of Tatra forestsnot damaged by thewindstorm. The bark beetle damaged7,000 hectares of forests administered by the state forestcompany Štátne Lesy TANAP.
Whether to remove fallen trees and help nature recover byplanting young trees, or to leave fallen trees as they are and al-lownature to copewith the impact of thewindstorm remains atopic of dispute among foresters and environmental activists.
CompiledbySpectator staff
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BUSINESS / NEWS November 24 – 30, 2014 9www.spectator.sk
LEAVE: Scandalclaims senior heads
Continued frompg 1
The opposition had de-clared earlier in November themayoral election in Košice,Slovakia’s second biggest city,to be a referendum on Paškaclaiming that Smer’s candid-ate and former health minis-ter Richard Raši was merely aPaška stooge. Incumbent Rašidefeated his challenger RudolfBauer, who was backed by anumber of opposition parties.
The scandal surroundingthe CT device has claimed sev-eral senior heads already. Ficocalled on Smer nominee Zuz-ana Zvolenská to resign fromthepost of healthminister andRenáta Zmajkovičová, a keySmer official, who sat at thetop of the hospital’s supervis-ory board, stepped down asparliamentary deputy speak-er.
The Piešťany Hospital ofAlexander Winter purchasedearlier this year a CT scannerwith a price tag approxim-ately three times higher thansimilar devices purchased inthe Czech Republic. MedicalGroup SK won the criticisedtender after facing a singlecompetitor, the Nitra-basedfirmMeditecon,which offereda price €300 lower.
“The resignation of Paškawas certainly a surprise,” In-stitute for Public Affairs Pres-ident Grigorij Mesežnikov toldThe Slovak Spectator whenasked about the most noteddevelopment of the municipalelections, adding that the casemust be seen through the con-text of elections because theopposition was trying topresent the Košice vote as areferendum against Smer andPaška. “Even if the referen-dum did not work out, the op-position managed to stopPaška,” he added.
More than 1,000 peoplegathered in Bratislava to de-mand Paška’s resignation onNovember 14 during a rally or-ganised by independent MPAlojz Hlina, following a simil-ar protest in Košice in front of
Paška’s house where around300 people gathered onNovember 11, according toTASR.
While Fico called Paška’sdecision the gesture of astatesman, which is rare inSlovakia, opposition MPDaniel Lipšic claims that theCT scandal must not end withresignations only, but it alsoshould continue at a level ofcriminal responsibility, TASRwrote. Paška has already suedLipšic for his claims on Paška’sinfluence over the health-caresector.
Nevertheless, Fico, whoclaims that Paška resigned toprotecthis family, doesnot seethe resignation of his right-hand man as his end in polit-ics.
“Pavol Paška is my friendand I view his decision verysensitively,” Fico has said,adding thathecountsonPaškacontinuingtocontribute to theSmer party.
The opposition had tried tooust Paška on November 10,citing what they say are histies to medical companies, es-pecially the Medical Group,whichwontheCTtender.Theyalso claimed that Paška didnotpublish his income from the
sales of shares in private com-panies but ultimately Paškadid not face a no-confidencevote after Smer MPs refused tosupport the programme of thespecial session initiated by theopposition.
TheCT scandal
The Piešťany hospital hadannounced a tender to pur-chase a CT Somatom Defini-tion AS produced by Siemensin 2012 for roughly €1 millionwith VAT; however, after offi-cials from the ruling Smerparty took control over thehospital, the managementcancelled the deal and an-nounced a new tender for amore expensive device, TVMarkíza reported on October30.
The winning bid by Med-ical Group SK at almost €1.6million for a Philips IngenuityCore 128 CT scanner was€600,000 higher than the CTdevice from the cancelledtender, the Sme daily repor-ted. At the time of the deal,Zmajkovičová headed the hos-pital’s supervisory board.
The leadership of the hos-pital announced on November6 that they are seekingways to
cancel the contract with Med-ical Group SK. Yet, director ofthe hospitalMária Domčekováin an interview with Sme onNovember 12, insisted that thepurchase came after a legitim-ate tender.
In an unexpected turn, theauthorised representative ofMedical Group SK, Juraj Koval,sacked its director Erika Biláfor what he called damagingthe company’s reputation. Thesupervisory board of the com-pany allegedly had not knownabout the €1.6 million deal,sealed in the summer. A fewdays earlier, the company hadsaid it was prepared to filelawsuits over the claims thatthe CT scanner was over-priced.
Medical Group SK was co-founded by Paška before heenteredpolitics.Thespeakerofparliament claims that heended his activities with Med-ical Group SK as a minorityshareholder 13 years ago.
Meanwhile, Paška admit-tedknowing the formerboss ofMedical Group SK, Bilá, ori-ginallyaphysicianfromSnina.According to daily Sme, Bilámanages additional firmswhere Paška appeared as co-owner.
People protestedagainst Paška inBratislava aswell. Photo: Sme
GDP: Economy toslow down
Continued from pg 4
“Household consump-tion most probably roseagain, although maybe at aslower pace, which is indic-ated by a cooling down inretail sales and a drop inimports,” J&T Bank analystStanislav Pánis said. “Nev-ertheless, overall consumerdemand is still sound, sinceconsumer confidence is atits highest level since theautumn of 2008. This devel-opment is being supportedby an improving situationon the labour market, accel-erated growth in real salar-ies with zero inflation, andfavourable conditions forloans.”
Analysts concur thatapart from household con-sumption, the GDP growthwas also positively influ-enced by a more intenseconsolidation of public fin-ances and growth in invest-ments by the public sectorand companies.
“[Companies] are carry-ing out hitherto postponedmodernisation projects andcapacity expansion, a de-velopment that is indicatedby a gradual recovery inlong-term loans provided tocompanies,” said Pánis.
Juraj Valachy, senioranalyst with Tatra Bankarecalled that monthly databased on which analysts es-timate the economic devel-opment, worsened comparedto the previous quarter.
“The most importantsector for our economy, in-dustry, grew only at half thepace compared with the firstand second quarters of thisyear,” Valachy wrote in hisanalysis. “Retail sales repor-ted during the third quarterthe slowest growth of thisyear while constructioneven deepened its fall.”
Slovakia’s automotiveindustry is also feeling alower demand of Russianclients, when European carsare becoming too expensivefor them due to the weak-
ening Russian currency, thePravda daily wrote. Whilethe Russian client paidRUB484,324 for a €10,000 carless than three months ago,now it is RUB580,382.
Employment grows
Employment also keptincreasing, by a seasonallyadjusted 0.3 percent com-pared to the previousquarter, while it grew by 1.4percent on an annualisedbasis.
“The economy continuedduring the third quarter toproduce work positions in alarger extent than used to behistorically common at sucha growth,” said Arady.
Over the last year therewere 25,800 new workingplaces generated, of which5,500 were created duringthe July-September period.
Outlooks
Slovakia’s economicperformance in the next fewmonths will be mainly in-fluenced by the slowdown inthe eurozone and the ongo-ing Ukrainian crisis. Basedon data thus far, SLSP es-timates the GDP growth for2014 at 2.2 percent. VÚB es-timates this year’s economicgrowth at 2.4 percent, whilenext year it may accelerateto 2.6 percent.
Valachy expects that theupcoming months will con-tinue to be under the influ-ence of the Russo-Ukrainianconflict, “which furthermeans an increasing rate ofrisk and uncertainty”. TatraBanka does not count in itsprognosis with a further es-calation of the conflict, andthus it does not predict anyfurther deceleration of thegrowth dynamics. But it willdecrease its prognosis of 2.7percent.
“Our basic scenario isthat it’s only a transitoryweakness, which might befollowed by reacceleration,”Pánis wrote.
Tatras mark 10th anniversary of windstormTEN years ago, onNovember 19, 2004, extremewindswithspeeds of up to 230 kmper hour levelled forests in the Tatramountains, toppling the nation’s pride alongwith them. Thedisaster left two people dead, billions of crowns in damagesand Slovakia’smost popular tourist destination badly scarred.After 10 years, all the damages have yet to be counted due tothe arrival of the bark beetlewhich has caused comparabledamages. Nevertheless, new forests are growing on affectedterritories,while only children of current generationswill liveto see proper forests here.
“At that timewindwas breaking trees, tearing off roofsand destroying everything that came into its path,” JánMokoš, themayor of Vysoké Tatrymunicipality, a clusteringof villages in theHigh Tatras, recalledwhat happened 10 yearsago for the Košice’s Korzár daily.
Thewind, called Tatra bora, blasted theHigh Tatras after15:00 and over the next nearly three hours, it toppled trees ona stretch three to four kilometreswide and 40 km long. Severedamagewas done also to other forests, including in the Low
Tatras, Orava, Kysuce and Slovenské RudohorieMountains.Damageswere calculated at almost €260million.
Thewindstormdamaged 12,600 hectares of forestswhen itlevelled about 3million cubicmetres of treeswithin the ter-ritory of the Tatras National Park (TANAP). Foresters haveplanted 5million trees over the last 10 years .
Part of the calamity deadwoodwas excavated,while fallentrees in themost protected parts of theNational Parkwere leftto nature to take care of. This has led to amassive outbreak ofbark beetles and spread of this insect into parts of Tatra forestsnot damaged by thewindstorm. The bark beetle damaged7,000 hectares of forests administered by the state forestcompany Štátne Lesy TANAP.
Whether to remove fallen trees and help nature recover byplanting young trees, or to leave fallen trees as they are and al-lownature to copewith the impact of thewindstorm remains atopic of dispute among foresters and environmental activists.
CompiledbySpectator staff
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10 December 1 – 7, 2014 CULTURE / FOCUS
Connecting with the classics
IT IS difficult and challengingto evaluate art, but there arecompetitions thatdare to treadon this thin ice – with the goalof exhibiting and promotingcertain genres, styles or youngartists.
This year’s is the ninthversion of the Maľba/Paintingcompetition, and 20 artworksthat have made it to the fi-nals can be seen until Decem-ber 21 in the Nedbalka galleryin downtown Bratislava.
Juraj Florek won the con-test of this year. Jury mem-ber Jan Skřivánek told Sme hehad already put Florek’s workcalled Night TellerMachine onthe first place of a short listwhen selecting the 20 final-ists from among nearly 100contestants.
“If someonepaints likevanGogh did, it is very tricky, andthe result is usually kitsch,”one of the fourmembers of thePainting 2014 jury, JanSkřivánek told the Sme daily.“But with Florek, it all holdstogether. He works with thisform,buthis artworks are veryup-to-date. His painting of theteller machine is a very in-teresting testimony of ourworld.”
Florek, a graduate from theBanská Bystrica Art Academy,selects for his paintings un-attractive, ignored places andfinds certain poetry in them.
“He has acquired a tech-nique which is tricky, andcombines it with banal citycorners – a soda machine, thecornerof aparking lot, thewallof a department store,”Skřivánek continued. “Thepainting of the teller ma-chine, too, reminds me of thepainting of a chair by vanGogh; it is a similarly banalmotif, although it was a moreradical step at the end of the19th century to paint a chairthan to paint a teller machinetoday. But there is a certainsimilarity – who would like tohave a teller machine hangingon a wall today?”
It is a commoncityviewon
one hand, but Florek man-aged to shift it a bit further. “Itis rather an altar of an un-knowngod than the portrait ofa common routine of city en-vironment,” says exhibitioncurator Alexandra Kusá.
Runners-up
Secondplacewent toMatejFabian with a large-sized mo-tifof skiers–orare theyghosts?
“Thispaintingsurprisedusincloserview,”Skřiváneksaid.“It isverysculpted,pasty,evena relief painting. It is a verygood picture – already in howwell he has mastered such aformat.”
Nonetheless, the motif isimportant, according toSkřivánek. “It gives the view-er a disquieting, provokingimpression; forcing them toreact. And we were lookingexactly for paintings that canactivate people. With many ofthem, we said that they arewell-mastered but somewhatacademic: well-painted, butthe artists does not risk andprovoke.”
Third placewent to AndrásCséfalvay who usually workswith video, sound and music.This time, the music ispresent, but rather in a sym-bolic way. The painting showstwo men in period clothingbeating a third man, and thetext overhead says:“Wolfgang, the music in yourhead is superfluous for us!”
“This is a conceptual ap-proach towards painting thatworks with the important is-sueof the roleof art inour life,”Skřivánek said. The workcommunicates with the his-tory of modern painting, lim-its of the genre.
“The result is an intelli-gent picture that tests the lim-its of contemporary paint-ing,” Kusá commented.
Work and its background
The exhibition of indi-vidual artists can be slightlyconfusing for people. The jury
members also had at their dis-posal whole portfolios, so thatthey can evaluate if the com-peting painting is not a merestroke of luck.
“When looking at a paint-ing, it is always like this: oneneeds to put the work and itsauthor into context,”Skřivánek says. “The idea thatthe work speaks for itself andthat even a solitarily hangingoriginal can win the awe ofeverybody is illusory. It israther the other way round –strong artworks, expressive ata first sight, can absorb a per-son only for a brief moment,and then they get overlookedand ignored quickly. Good-quality art requires people toknow more about it, and it isbetter if they struggle with itfor awhile before deciding andappreciating its quality.”
The jury of the competi-tion was composed of PawelJarodzki (Poland), Jan Skři-vánek (Czech Republic), TiborSomorjassi Kiss (Hungary) andRudolf Sikora (Slovakia).
The exhibition, organisedby the VÚB Foundation, is freein the Nedbalka Gallery on Ned-balova Street daily from 13:00and 19:00, except Mondays,through December 21.
Compiled by ZuzanaVilikovská using Sme
report by Jana Németh
J. Florek:Night TellerMachine Photo: Courtesy of VÚBFound.
M.Fabian:GhostRiders. Photos: Courtesy of VÚVFoundation
Young Slovakpainters compete,
display works
JAZZ: Goes roundContinued frompg8
Currently, there are thefour already named,who areparticipating (with prospectsof one Vienna-based and oneMunich-based jazz club join-ing in).Musicians have a freehand in choosingwhat toplay; but this changes if abigger band gets involved.“The result is different everytime, of course, becausethere are different tempera-ments involved,” Torfssummedup.
But there is a changeplanned: next year, a bigbandwill be put together,with one artistic directorhired to arrange them.
As for selection of artists,he said that they just look foryoungmusicians, probablyunder 35, and in each coun-try, the due partner organ-isation –Music:LX in Lux-embourg,Music CentreSlovakia in Slovakia, JazzlabSeries in Belgiumand JazzusProductions in France – thenchooses one performer toparticipate,without dis-cussing the choicewith theothers. Torfs concluded thatthere are ongoing discus-sions betweenmusicians,and so the first concert isusually quite different thanthe last one.
This year, RubenMachtelinckx fromBelgium(guitar), Nikolaj Nikitin fromSlovakia (saxophone), CharlyVilmart fromFrance (doublebass) and Jeff Herr fromLuxembourg (drums) playedin Bratislava, in Ormes; nearReims, France inmid-October; in Abbaye deNeumünster in the capital ofLuxembourg and again inSlovakia, at the Jazz FOR Salefestival in Košice, at the be-ginning of November. Thelast concert took place onNovember 26 in Gent, Belgi-um.
“Iwas selected by the jazz
section of theMusic CentreSlovakia – due to the com-position of the band, theyneeded a saxophonist,”Nikitin said. “We rehearsedseven tunes in total: twocomposition fromeach of us,with the exception of thedrummer,who got one.” Heopined that for a small band,this is the bestmethod,while a biggermusical bodyneeds someone to coordinateand conduct them.
Nikitin said that eachconcertwas different, fromabig Slovak jazz festival inKošice, to a small jazz club inOrmes (which looked like aformer farming-cooperative-turned-cultural-venue). InLuxembourg, the concerttook place in a clubwherethere are Sunday concerts,and in Bratislava, it was in asmall studio of the SlovakRadio. The Slovakmusiciandeemed the first concert “themost cautious and tentative,unfortunately”, complainingalso about the long pausesbetween the concerts thatmakes jazzmen lose contactand the “commondrive”.
Askedwhatwas theproject’s ultimate asset forhim,Nikitin said that theinteresting thingwas to fine-tune the different styles andtemperaments of the parti-cipants, “butwe have found acommon language and Ithink thatwemanaged tocreate something new andinteresting”.
He added that they founda concord and understandingalso on the human level, inhumour andmentioned evenan ambition tomeet outsidethe project –which is ratherdemanding, though, espe-cially for him, as he lives1,500 kilometres away. “ButJeff Herr fromLuxembourgeven proposed two concertsfor next year, and Iwould beglad ifwe canmake it,”Nikitin concluded.
Puppet theatre awarded
BRATISLAVAPuppet Theatreplaced among 10 financiallyawarded pieces at the inter-national festival, HarmonyWorld Puppet Carnival, heldin Bangkok, Thailand,with itsplay called Aaahr!! performedin English.
Itwas the only Slovaktheatre to attend the festivalwhere 116 plays from64 coun-trieswere presented, the TASRnewswire reported.
The theatrewas nomin-ated in three categories: thebest artistic performance, thebest actress (where AdelaMojžišováwas nominated)and themost original per-formance. Itwon the last cat-egory, receiving $1,000.
The Aaahr!! performance
has already been awarded atseveral international compet-itions.
It is directed by IvanMar-tinka andAndrej Kalinka andtranslated by KatarínaJánošová.
The play, intended forchildren younger than 5 yearsof age, describes theworld of acreative childwho tries tocatchwhat is real andwhat isnot.
It gradually reveals therelations of an ordinary fam-ily, its problems and also joysconnectedwith searching foryour own self, as reported byTASR.
CompiledbySpectator staff from
press reports
SOZA prizes given
THESLOVAKPerformingandMechanical Rights So-ciety (SOZA), a non-profitassociation of authors andpublishers ofmusicalworkswhichprotects their copy-rights, granted for the 17thtime the awards to artistssuccessful in the Slovakmusical scenewho areforming the profile ofmusicculture. It awarded eightmusicians altogether,withtwo Slovak composers in-scribed into the SOZAgoldenbook, the SITAnewswire reported.
Musician IvanTásler,frontmanof IMT Smileband, received the award forthe composer of themostplayed songs in 2013,whilethe lyricswriter of themostplayed songs becameKamilPeteraj.
The award for themostplayed song for 2013went toPeter Bič Project for Thinkingabout You.
SOZA also awardedhip-
hop bandKontrafakt for themost sold soundtrackmedi-um for their Navždy (Forever)album. Themost sold audio-visual trackmedium for 2013became theDVDSpevankovo(the Song’sWorld) byMáriaPodhradská andRichardČanaky.
The award for the highestshare of Slovakmusic inbroadcastingwent to RadioModra, SITAwrote.
SOZA also granted threehonorary awards. Vašo Pate-jdl received the award forsignificant contribution tointroducing Slovakmusicabroad. Two composers of thelast centuryAlexanderAl-brecht and ŠtefanNémethŠamorínskywere inscribedinto the SOZAgolden book inmemoriam.
The award for lifetimeworkwent to Slovakwriter,lyricist and dramaturgeBorisFilan.
CompiledbySpectator staff
CLASSIFIEDS
Take yourchanceand place your
classified advertisementFor information call:
02 / 59 233 312,or e-mail:
REAL ESTATE
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For RENT:�APARTMENTS
- in Ružinov – Drotárska (Bôrik) – Karadžičova (center)
�FAMILY HOUSE– in castle area
www.madison.sk, 0905 - 659156,[email protected]
ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORSHIPBratislava International Church
Sundays, 10:00 at historic Small Lutheran Church(Malý evanjelický kostol) in central Bratislava(near Hodzovo namestie); on Lycejna at intersection with Panenska 26/28. Children's Sunday School provided.
Everyone Welcome.Information at 02-5443-3263 Web Site: www.bratislavainternationalchurch.org
SP013235/041
10 December 1 – 7, 2014 CULTURE / FOCUS
Connecting with the classics
IT IS difficult and challengingto evaluate art, but there arecompetitions thatdare to treadon this thin ice – with the goalof exhibiting and promotingcertain genres, styles or youngartists.
This year’s is the ninthversion of the Maľba/Paintingcompetition, and 20 artworksthat have made it to the fi-nals can be seen until Decem-ber 21 in the Nedbalka galleryin downtown Bratislava.
Juraj Florek won the con-test of this year. Jury mem-ber Jan Skřivánek told Sme hehad already put Florek’s workcalled Night TellerMachine onthe first place of a short listwhen selecting the 20 final-ists from among nearly 100contestants.
“If someonepaints likevanGogh did, it is very tricky, andthe result is usually kitsch,”one of the fourmembers of thePainting 2014 jury, JanSkřivánek told the Sme daily.“But with Florek, it all holdstogether. He works with thisform,buthis artworks are veryup-to-date. His painting of theteller machine is a very in-teresting testimony of ourworld.”
Florek, a graduate from theBanská Bystrica Art Academy,selects for his paintings un-attractive, ignored places andfinds certain poetry in them.
“He has acquired a tech-nique which is tricky, andcombines it with banal citycorners – a soda machine, thecornerof aparking lot, thewallof a department store,”Skřivánek continued. “Thepainting of the teller ma-chine, too, reminds me of thepainting of a chair by vanGogh; it is a similarly banalmotif, although it was a moreradical step at the end of the19th century to paint a chairthan to paint a teller machinetoday. But there is a certainsimilarity – who would like tohave a teller machine hangingon a wall today?”
It is a commoncityviewon
one hand, but Florek man-aged to shift it a bit further. “Itis rather an altar of an un-knowngod than the portrait ofa common routine of city en-vironment,” says exhibitioncurator Alexandra Kusá.
Runners-up
Secondplacewent toMatejFabian with a large-sized mo-tifof skiers–orare theyghosts?
“Thispaintingsurprisedusincloserview,”Skřiváneksaid.“It isverysculpted,pasty,evena relief painting. It is a verygood picture – already in howwell he has mastered such aformat.”
Nonetheless, the motif isimportant, according toSkřivánek. “It gives the view-er a disquieting, provokingimpression; forcing them toreact. And we were lookingexactly for paintings that canactivate people. With many ofthem, we said that they arewell-mastered but somewhatacademic: well-painted, butthe artists does not risk andprovoke.”
Third placewent to AndrásCséfalvay who usually workswith video, sound and music.This time, the music ispresent, but rather in a sym-bolic way. The painting showstwo men in period clothingbeating a third man, and thetext overhead says:“Wolfgang, the music in yourhead is superfluous for us!”
“This is a conceptual ap-proach towards painting thatworks with the important is-sueof the roleof art inour life,”Skřivánek said. The workcommunicates with the his-tory of modern painting, lim-its of the genre.
“The result is an intelli-gent picture that tests the lim-its of contemporary paint-ing,” Kusá commented.
Work and its background
The exhibition of indi-vidual artists can be slightlyconfusing for people. The jury
members also had at their dis-posal whole portfolios, so thatthey can evaluate if the com-peting painting is not a merestroke of luck.
“When looking at a paint-ing, it is always like this: oneneeds to put the work and itsauthor into context,”Skřivánek says. “The idea thatthe work speaks for itself andthat even a solitarily hangingoriginal can win the awe ofeverybody is illusory. It israther the other way round –strong artworks, expressive ata first sight, can absorb a per-son only for a brief moment,and then they get overlookedand ignored quickly. Good-quality art requires people toknow more about it, and it isbetter if they struggle with itfor awhile before deciding andappreciating its quality.”
The jury of the competi-tion was composed of PawelJarodzki (Poland), Jan Skři-vánek (Czech Republic), TiborSomorjassi Kiss (Hungary) andRudolf Sikora (Slovakia).
The exhibition, organisedby the VÚB Foundation, is freein the Nedbalka Gallery on Ned-balova Street daily from 13:00and 19:00, except Mondays,through December 21.
Compiled by ZuzanaVilikovská using Sme
report by Jana Németh
J. Florek:Night TellerMachine Photo: Courtesy of VÚBFound.
M.Fabian:GhostRiders. Photos: Courtesy of VÚVFoundation
Young Slovakpainters compete,
display works
JAZZ: Goes roundContinued frompg8
Currently, there are thefour already named,who areparticipating (with prospectsof one Vienna-based and oneMunich-based jazz club join-ing in).Musicians have a freehand in choosingwhat toplay; but this changes if abigger band gets involved.“The result is different everytime, of course, becausethere are different tempera-ments involved,” Torfssummedup.
But there is a changeplanned: next year, a bigbandwill be put together,with one artistic directorhired to arrange them.
As for selection of artists,he said that they just look foryoungmusicians, probablyunder 35, and in each coun-try, the due partner organ-isation –Music:LX in Lux-embourg,Music CentreSlovakia in Slovakia, JazzlabSeries in Belgiumand JazzusProductions in France – thenchooses one performer toparticipate,without dis-cussing the choicewith theothers. Torfs concluded thatthere are ongoing discus-sions betweenmusicians,and so the first concert isusually quite different thanthe last one.
This year, RubenMachtelinckx fromBelgium(guitar), Nikolaj Nikitin fromSlovakia (saxophone), CharlyVilmart fromFrance (doublebass) and Jeff Herr fromLuxembourg (drums) playedin Bratislava, in Ormes; nearReims, France inmid-October; in Abbaye deNeumünster in the capital ofLuxembourg and again inSlovakia, at the Jazz FOR Salefestival in Košice, at the be-ginning of November. Thelast concert took place onNovember 26 in Gent, Belgi-um.
“Iwas selected by the jazz
section of theMusic CentreSlovakia – due to the com-position of the band, theyneeded a saxophonist,”Nikitin said. “We rehearsedseven tunes in total: twocomposition fromeach of us,with the exception of thedrummer,who got one.” Heopined that for a small band,this is the bestmethod,while a biggermusical bodyneeds someone to coordinateand conduct them.
Nikitin said that eachconcertwas different, fromabig Slovak jazz festival inKošice, to a small jazz club inOrmes (which looked like aformer farming-cooperative-turned-cultural-venue). InLuxembourg, the concerttook place in a clubwherethere are Sunday concerts,and in Bratislava, it was in asmall studio of the SlovakRadio. The Slovakmusiciandeemed the first concert “themost cautious and tentative,unfortunately”, complainingalso about the long pausesbetween the concerts thatmakes jazzmen lose contactand the “commondrive”.
Askedwhatwas theproject’s ultimate asset forhim,Nikitin said that theinteresting thingwas to fine-tune the different styles andtemperaments of the parti-cipants, “butwe have found acommon language and Ithink thatwemanaged tocreate something new andinteresting”.
He added that they founda concord and understandingalso on the human level, inhumour andmentioned evenan ambition tomeet outsidethe project –which is ratherdemanding, though, espe-cially for him, as he lives1,500 kilometres away. “ButJeff Herr fromLuxembourgeven proposed two concertsfor next year, and Iwould beglad ifwe canmake it,”Nikitin concluded.
Puppet theatre awarded
BRATISLAVAPuppet Theatreplaced among 10 financiallyawarded pieces at the inter-national festival, HarmonyWorld Puppet Carnival, heldin Bangkok, Thailand,with itsplay called Aaahr!! performedin English.
Itwas the only Slovaktheatre to attend the festivalwhere 116 plays from64 coun-trieswere presented, the TASRnewswire reported.
The theatrewas nomin-ated in three categories: thebest artistic performance, thebest actress (where AdelaMojžišováwas nominated)and themost original per-formance. Itwon the last cat-egory, receiving $1,000.
The Aaahr!! performance
has already been awarded atseveral international compet-itions.
It is directed by IvanMar-tinka andAndrej Kalinka andtranslated by KatarínaJánošová.
The play, intended forchildren younger than 5 yearsof age, describes theworld of acreative childwho tries tocatchwhat is real andwhat isnot.
It gradually reveals therelations of an ordinary fam-ily, its problems and also joysconnectedwith searching foryour own self, as reported byTASR.
CompiledbySpectator staff from
press reports
SOZA prizes given
THESLOVAKPerformingandMechanical Rights So-ciety (SOZA), a non-profitassociation of authors andpublishers ofmusicalworkswhichprotects their copy-rights, granted for the 17thtime the awards to artistssuccessful in the Slovakmusical scenewho areforming the profile ofmusicculture. It awarded eightmusicians altogether,withtwo Slovak composers in-scribed into the SOZAgoldenbook, the SITAnewswire reported.
Musician IvanTásler,frontmanof IMT Smileband, received the award forthe composer of themostplayed songs in 2013,whilethe lyricswriter of themostplayed songs becameKamilPeteraj.
The award for themostplayed song for 2013went toPeter Bič Project for Thinkingabout You.
SOZA also awardedhip-
hop bandKontrafakt for themost sold soundtrackmedi-um for their Navždy (Forever)album. Themost sold audio-visual trackmedium for 2013became theDVDSpevankovo(the Song’sWorld) byMáriaPodhradská andRichardČanaky.
The award for the highestshare of Slovakmusic inbroadcastingwent to RadioModra, SITAwrote.
SOZA also granted threehonorary awards. Vašo Pate-jdl received the award forsignificant contribution tointroducing Slovakmusicabroad. Two composers of thelast centuryAlexanderAl-brecht and ŠtefanNémethŠamorínskywere inscribedinto the SOZAgolden book inmemoriam.
The award for lifetimeworkwent to Slovakwriter,lyricist and dramaturgeBorisFilan.
CompiledbySpectator staff
CLASSIFIEDS
Take yourchanceand place your
classified advertisementFor information call:
02 / 59 233 312,or e-mail:
REAL ESTATE
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For RENT:�APARTMENTS
- in Ružinov – Drotárska (Bôrik) – Karadžičova (center)
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORSHIPBratislava International Church
Sundays, 10:00 at historic Small Lutheran Church(Malý evanjelický kostol) in central Bratislava(near Hodzovo namestie); on Lycejna at intersection with Panenska 26/28. Children's Sunday School provided.
Everyone Welcome.Information at 02-5443-3263 Web Site: www.bratislavainternationalchurch.org
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Auparkwill undergo refurbishing. Photo: SmeSP015019/004
TRAIN: ‘Some weak points remain’Continued frompg4
“The law is, however, a step in therightdirection since it increases the shareof practical training in education, is fo-cused on demand and improves the co-operation between schools and compan-ies,” Ján Kokorák from the German-Slovak Chamber of Industry and Com-merce (SNOPK) told The Slovak Spectator.
Martina Krišková, project manager ofthe commerce department at the Austri-an Embassy to Slovakia, called the law a“compromise and an inevitable solution”.
Further discussionexpected
The new law is based on the experi-ences of countries which already use thedual education scheme, especially Ger-
many,Austria andSwitzerland, said JúliusHron, deputy chair of the Slovak Automot-ive Industry Association (ZAP) and co-ordinator for employers at the govern-ment’s council for vocational education.
The Education Ministry is now pre-paring the regulation, which should be is-sued in April. In June it will publish themodel curricula and syllabi for the pro-fessions in which the dual educationschemewill be implemented, andwill alsoupdate the state vocational education pro-grammes, Dupaľová Ksenzsighová said.
Employers’ representatives and for-eign chambers of commerce, however,point to some weak points of the new le-gislation, citing especially the lack ofmo-tivation for firms to join in. Though thelawcontainsseveralmotivational factors,like ways to decrease company tax bases,
it may not be enough for small compan-ies, Krišková said.
Kokorák added that some companieswould welcome a higher share of prac-tical training in education.
Moreover, Club 500, which unitescompanies with more than 500 employ-ees, criticised moving the competencesand responsibilities of the state to 12private organisations which will checkwhether employers are competent to of-fer practical training to students.
The law will bring more administrat-ive burden to all participants in the sys-tem, including businesses, schools andstudents, said Tibor Gregor, executivedirector of Club 500, as quoted by the SITAnewswire.
To read the whole story,please go to www.spectator.sk.
CULTURE March 23 – April 5, 2015 11www.spectator.sk
Protection, for a pot of goldEVERYDAYprayers inthe17thcentury included that went“…and protect us from kurucs(anti-Habsburg rebels) andfrom labanecs (imperial sol-diers), O Lord!”
It was quite understand-able that people said theseprayers, as both kurucs andlabanecs represented a hugeburden for most inhabitantsof what is now Slovakia. Sol-diers needed to eat, drink andstay somewhere. In mostcases, this burden fell to vil-lagersorburghers– thepeoplewho lived in the placeswheresoldiers happened to be.
The fact that the militiasharmedordinarypeoplemoreoften than those from whomthey were supposed to beprotecting them was wellknown by the people ofKežmarok. This town in theSpiš region was in a verycomplex situation in thecourse of the 17th century,because of the predominanceof Protestants among its pop-ulation. If it was threatened,the imperial Catholic armycame to help the town butwere not very friendly to-wards its Protestant resid-ents.
If the town was occupiedby Protestant rebels, thesituation was no better. Thiswas the casewhen in the firstdecade of the 17thcentury StephenBocskay and histroops appeared inKežmarok. Boc-skay, a rebelliousduke, took advant-age of his friendly termswiththe Kežmarok castle lord, Se-bastian Thököly, andwith hishelp enforced a special tax onthe citizens, amounting to1,000 guldens.
Kežmarok’s citizens thus
had to pay both to the em-peror and the rebels. AfterBocskay, another rebel no-bleman entered this town atthe foot of the Tatra moun-tains – Gabriel Bethlen. Thetown council decided, to pre-vent looting or some othertax, to donate a gilded potworth 127 guldens – the value
of two houses by that time.Moreover, they put 225guldens in the pot.
Kežmarok did not avoidthe rebellion of Juraj RákóczyI either, who came to thetown in 1644. Rákóczy
summoned the town repres-entatives before a specialcourt where he decided thatevery burgher would have toredeem their lives with aconsiderable amount ofmoney.
Slovakia was gloomy dur-ing the turbulent 17th cen-tury; no wonder the country
yearned for morepeaceful times.
In this postcardfrom the 1930s, wecan see the medi-aeval streetKostolná ulica. The
sign on the left announcesthat the house with thickwalls is the home of theKežmarok car club, amongothers.
ByBranislav Chovan
HISTORY TALKS
SND celebrates anniversarywith an exhibition
THE SLOVAK NationalTheatre celebrates its 95thanniversary in March. Tocommemorate it, the exhibi-tion called opäťminútsto (OneHundred in Five Minutes)opened in the Exhibition Hallof the new SND building inPribinova17 inBratislava.
The representative col-lection shows crucial per-formances, personalities andevents of all three depart-ments – drama, opera andballet – in their contemporaryculturalandsocial context.
The theatre began operat-ing onMarch 1, 1920, with thepremiere of Czech operaHubička / TheKiss, byBedřich
Smetana. This was no coin-cidence, as Czech artists werethe pillars of the SND’s begin-nings. The core of Slovakia’s“stage No 1” was the Eastern-Czech Theatre Company ledby Bedřich Jeřábek. He be-camethe firstheadofSNDandthe initial ensemble was infact an enclave of Czech pro-fessional performers in theSlovakcapital.
“This was caused by thefact that in Slovak society,there was a positive stancetowards amateur theatre, itwas tolerated,” one of thecurators, Martin Timko of theTheatre Institute, explainedfor the TASR newswire.
“However, professionaltheatre was perceived negat-ively. It was risky to makeone’s living as a ‘comedian’,evenmorally unacceptable. IfSlovak professional theatrehad had to exist based only onSlovak theatre-makers its ap-pearance would be postponedmaybe by several decades,”Timkoadded.
The exhibition, also cur-ated by his colleaguesKatarína Kunová and ZuzanaNemcová, can be seen aroundthe time of performances atthe new SND until the end ofthis theatreseason,June30.
CompiledbyZuzanaVilikovská
WesternSLOVAKIA
Bratislavan CLASSICAL MUSIC: MusicaCameralis 15 – The chambermusic cycle in the third part,Concert Spirituel III, offers aninsight into the trio-sonataphenomenon, with an expertcommentary and music byCima, Castello, Uccellini, Le-grenzi, Vitali, Bononcini andSchmelzer, performedbyPeterZajíček (violin), Peter Zelenka(violin), Michaela Čibová (cel-lo), Jana Zelenková (organ),JakubMitrík (teorba) andPeterZajíček – introductoryword.
Starts: March 21, 17:00;Pálffy Palace, Zámocká 47. Ad-mission: voluntary donation.More info: www.citylife.sk.
Bratislavan BIRD-WATCHING: Twoevents on this weekend willbring devoted birdwatchers tothe close vicinity of Bratis-lava, tohaveahalf-daytripandexplore raptors and waterbirds. Also in English; binocu-lars can be borrowed.
Starts: March 21 Devínskejazero (departure from MainTrain Station Bratislava at8:00), about five hours, easyterrain; March 22, DevínskaNová Ves, city bus station NaHriadkach, 9:00, about five-sixhours, easy terrain. Admis-sion: voluntary donation.More info: www.watching.sk.
Bratislavan FOLKLORE: 65th Anniver-sary of SĽUK – Traditional andmodern art are not always ab-horrent.Theprogrammeof the65th anniversary of the folk-lore troupe SĽUK is a mixtureof two artistic forms, offeringan overview of its past andpresent performances.
Starts: March 24, CityTheatre of P.O. Hviezdoslav,Laurinská 19. Admission: €10-€12. Tel: 02/5910-3107; www.mestskedivadlo.sk.
Bratislavan EXHIBITION/LECTURE: Ca-tarina Simao – The expositionof this Portuguese artist fo-cuses mainly on films, show-ing the phenomenon of colon-isation and liberation of na-tions, this time in Mozambi-que. The lecture onMarch 26 at18:00will be in English.
Open: Wed-Sat 14:00-19:00un-til May 16; Tranzit.sk,Besky-dská 12. Admission:free. More info, booking:sk.tranzit.org.
Bratislavan PARTY: Internations Brat-islavaMonthly clubbing event– New in the city? Or want tomeet fun people from all overthe world? Internations Brat-islava, is organising theirmonthly clubbing event at theAmundsen ICE Barwith a veryspecial DJ RobertOH, whereyou will enjoy top hits andLatinomusic.
Starts: ThursdayMarch 26,21:00. Amundsen Ice Bar, Du-najská 8. Admission: free. Mo-re info: www. facebook.com/InternationsBratislavaevent link: www.face-book.com/events/1788673768023476.
Bratislavan LIVE MUSIC: The FlorianHorwath Ensemble – The Flo-rian Horwath Ensemble (F.Horwath, Peter Lang, HansiRiener, Boris Fiala) plays a fu-sion of rock, pop and folk.
Starts: March 27, 20:00;Austrian Cultural Forum, As-toria Palace, Hodžovo Square1/A. Admission: free. Tel:02/5930-1500; www.rak-uskekulturneforum.sk.
Bratislava
n RUN: The ČSOB Bratislavamarathon enters its 10th year,offering a nice city marathonfor runners of all ages and bothsexes, leading through thecapital.
Starts: March 29, 10:00,Euro-vea. More info:www.bratislavamara-thon.com (it is also possible toregister on the day).
Central SLOVAKIA
Žilinan CLASSICAL MUSIC: EasterConcerts – The Slovak Sinfoni-etta, conducted by Oliver Doh-nány with a mixed musicalcouple, Henrich Tatár on viol-in and Junko Kinoshita on pi-ano, and Natalia Melnik (sop-rano, UK), Eva Garajová (mez-zosoprano, SK), Jiří Zouhar (te-nor, CZ), Martin Mikuš (bass-baritone, SK), and the Žilinamixed choir Cantica will per-form M.E. Chausson’s Concertfor violin, piano and strings,andMozart’s Requiem.
Starts: March 26, 19:00;Slovak Sinfonietta, House ofArt, Dolný Val 47. Admission:€8-€12. More info:www.skozilina.sk.
EasternSLOVAKIA
Prešovn CLASSICAL MUSIC: Two re-nowned musicians, violinistMilan Paľa and pianist LadislavFančovič, will perform sonatasby Beethoven and Brahms.Each of the two concerts in-cludes a different programme.
Starts: March 23-24, 19:00;Admission: €4-€7. More info:www.kamdomesta.sk.
Košicen LIVE MUSIC: The star trioAmerican Divas (NataschaWright, Dorothea LoreneFletcher alias Coco, and Del-lenorMiles aliasDela),whoarerocking stages worldwide,combining impressive singingwith a dance show and light-ing,will also appear in Košice.
Starts: March 26, 20:00,Infiniti Aréna, Košice. Admis-sion: 23-69€. More info:www.kamdomesta.sk.
By ZuzanaVilikovská
EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE
VITIS Aurea Modra is the 15th year of a gastronomy event and inter-national wine-tasting that offers a unique chance to get to knowSmall-Carpathian wines. Starting on March 27 at 14:00, it continuesat the samehour thenextday, planned to lastuntil 21:00, at theHotelSebastian, Dukelská 4, in Modra, a wine town close to Bratislava.More information can be found by calling 033/6407-766, or atwww.citylife.sk orwww.modra.sk/vitis-aurea-2015. Photo: Sme
CULTURE December 1 – 7, 2014 11www.spectator.sk
Postcard to the president
THIS nice colour postcard de-picting the town ofRužomberok in theLiptov region stemsfrom the times ofmonarchy; but ascan be seen here itssender(s) crossedout the Hungarian name andleft only the Slovak one.
Frequently, this used to bedone on postcards after thefirst Czechoslovak Republiccame into existence.
It would be interesting tolearn who sent this postcard,as it is addressed to none oth-er than the first president ofCzechoslovakia, Tomáš Gar-rigue Masaryk, at the Praguecastle. With all probability,they belonged to the presid-ent’s close circle.
What the image o�ers is amatter of the past. As can beseen,across theČebraťhill, onthe bend of the Váh River, nu-merous rafts used to stand
with workers. This is a fam-ous raft harbour called Polík.
Flat, gravelly areas lying closeto embankments were selec-ted for raft harbours. Carmenfrom valley stores used tobring wood meant for bind-ing together – lashing, i.e. themaking of rafts – and alsowood bound for further pro-cessing at lumbermills.
It is worth rememberingthatdue to theabsolute lackofpassable and safe roads, rivertransport was the only well-working means of movementin the Middle Ages. In Liptov,the first more or less passableroad was built in 1364, asordered by Louis the Great.Despite the e�ort of those inpower to secure roads for the
country, particularly wealth-ier people and merchants
used rafts fortransport until thebeginning of the20th century.
We know fromold records, for ex-
ample, that in 1656 Hungari-an palatineWesselényi sailedto a court session inPrešporok(today’s Bratislava) across theentire Liptov region all theway to Sereď, from where hecontinued on horseback. In1758, Ružomberok mayorJuraj Rosinský rafted for thesame purpose to Pest, usingfour rafts for transport. Evenrich farmers and petty nobil-ity from Liptov who particip-ated in the great battle nearTrenčín between the imperialarmy and Rákóczy’s rebellingunits got to the site of thebattle on rafts.
ByBranislavChovan
HISTORY TALKS
Festival courts US poetTHERE have been a host offestivals recently in Slovakia;sceptics claim that this is dueto the Slovak system of stategrants. Among all those, onestands out, as it is focused onan ancient art that has founditself somewhat on the mar-gin of public interestnowadays: theartofpoetry.
The international festivalArs Poetica 2014 is organisedbetween December 3 and 7 inculture centre A4 and strivesto bring a number of surprisesfor all staunch poetry ad-mirersandfans.
The headliner of the fest-ival’s 12thyear is RonPadgett,a US poet, co-founder of thefamous New York School andone of the prominent figuresof contemporary Americanpoetry,whohasbeenawarded
manyprizes.VisitorsofArsPoetica 2014
can choose from among morethan twenty poets and au-thors from 12 countries, or-ganisers informed The SlovakSpectator. The festival’s stagewill host a few first showingsof performances of interna-tional artists that connect po-etry and visual art: MarcAtkins, a poet, visual artistand photographer; MartínBakero, a surrealist Chileanpoet,AriadnaRadiCor, Italianpoetandperformancegraphicartist; and also a Krakow-based duo of digital poetry pi-oneers. Slovak poetry will berepresented by the leadingauthors of three generations:Ján Buzássy, Karol Chmel andJanaPácalová.
Ron Padgett, whose How
Long was a 2012 Pulitzer PrizeFinalist in Poetry, and whoseCollected Poems received the2014 Los Angeles Times BestBook of Poetry prize and theWilliamCarlosWilliamsPrizefrom the Poetry Society ofAmerica, will be present inperson on the Evening of Po-etry on December 5 at 19:00 inA4 Space of Independent Cul-ture on the corner of Šancová-Karpatská streets. Otherguests of that evening includeRodicaDraghincescu (RO/FR),Tomica Bajsić (CRO), AdamBorzič (CZ), Hilá Lahav (ISR),andKarolChmel (SK).
The full programme of thefestival can be found at arspo-etica.sk.
CompiledbyZuzanaVilikovská
WesternSLOVAKIA
BRATISLAVAn LIVE MUSIC: Take 6 – The 10-time Grammy laureate willplay in Bratislava with theSlovak a cappella band Fragile.
Starts: Dec 1, 19:00; Istro-polis, Trnavské Mýto 1. Ad-mission: €20-€40. Tel: 02/5293-3321;www.ticketportal.sk.
BRATISLAVAn CLASSICAL/LIVE MUSIC:Cross-over Organwith ElectricGuitar – The last concert of theBratislava Organ Festival wasmoved to December, combin-ing the performances of Slov-aks; organist Marek Štrbák,drummer Lenka Novosed-líková and young guitar playerMichal Bugala playing severalpieces, including a premiere ofa compositionbyLukášBorzík,and also improvisation.
Starts: Dec 4, 17:00; bigconcert studio of the SlovakRadio, Mýtna 1. Admission: €7(CD-LP bazár Mjuzik shop,Hummel Music shop,Klobučnícka 2, Music Forumshop, Na Vŕšku 1). More info:www.citylife.sk.
BRATISLAVAn LIVE MUSIC: Lamb – Britishduo (Lou Rhodes & Andy Bar-low) come to play, among oth-er songs, their recent albumBackspaceUnwind.
Starts: Dec 4, 20:00;Majestic Music Club,Karpatská 2. More info:www.majestic.sk.
BRATISLAVAn CLASSICAL MUSIC: AdventConcert – The concert of Aus-trian soprano Antonija Ko-vacevic and Slovak tenor andpianist Mairán Bango, focusesof the festive season.
Starts: Dec 4, 18:00; Austri-an Cultural Forum, HodžovoSqu-are 1/A. Admission: free.Tel: 02 /5930-1500; www.rak-uskekulturneforum.sk.
BRATISLAVAn WORLD MUSIC: Cuadro Fla-menco – Renowned Spanishdancer/choreographer JuanPolvillo will join forces withsinger Cheita and Slovak gui-taristMorenitodeTriana togivea special flamenco show cross-
ing the borders of countries,traditions and modernism, inAndalusian flair. On December7, theywill perform in the Nitratheatre of Andrej Bagar.
Starts: Dec 5, 19:15, ArénaTheatre, Viedenská Cesta 10.Admission: €15-€20. Tel:02/6720-2550 or www.divad-loarena.sk, www.ticket-portal.sk.
BRATISLAVAn FOLKLORE: 65th an-niversary of SĽUK – The le-gendary folklore ensembleSĽUK celebrates its 65th birth-day with a show that com-bines old traditions as well asmodernist ideas, directed byJuraj Hamar.
Starts: Dec 4, 19:00; DPOHCity Theatre, Laurinská 19.Admission: €10-€12. Tel:02/5910-3107; www.mest-skedivadlo.sk.
BRATISLAVAn CHRISTMAS MUSIC: 9th In-ternational Festival of Christ-mas Music – The festival ofChristmas music featureschoirs from Slovakia, theCzech Republic, Russia, TheUK, Ireland, Lithuania, Po-land, South Africa, andUkraine, at Bratislava MainSquare and in churches/musichalls downtown.
Starts: Dec 4-7, varioustimes and venues. Admission:free. More info: www.cityl-ife.sk.
BRATISLAVAn ART HAPPENING: AshleyBell Clark, “Known and Un-known Is All The Same Land” –The US artist will present inthe capital her personifica-tions of plants, nature andlandscape symbolising hu-man ambitions, and also fea-tures video-installations andotherworks.
Starts: Dec 2, 18:00; A4Priestor Súčasnej Kultúry,Karpatská 2. Admission: free.More info:www.citylife.sk.
Central SLOVAKIA
ŽILINAn FOLKLORE:Čarovianoc–TheChristmas Magic – A folkloreperformance taps into the oldSlovak music, dances, tradi-tions surrounding Christmas.
Starts: Dec 7, 19:00; CityThea-tre, Horný Val 3. Moreinfo:www.kamdomesta.sk.
BANSKÁ BYSTRICAn MODERN DANCE: Horúčava/ Heat – The Laban AtelierBrati-slava, choreographedand directed by MartaPoláková, performs the dance-theatre piece about friction,communication and tensionsbetween a man and a woman,to themusic ofMartin Polák.
Starts:Dec 1, 19:00;TheatreStudio of Dance (DŠT), NaKačici, Komenského 12. Ad-mission: €7-8. Tel: 048/4146-540;www.studiotanca.sk.
EasternSLOVAKIA
PREŠOVn LIVE MUSIC:Beatles Vianoce2014 – Backwards – One of themost respected bands cover-ing the music of legendary UKband, the Beatles, gives a Chri-stmas concert at home, other-wise playingmostly abroad.
Starts: Dec 6, 19:00; PKOČierny orol, Hlavná 50. Ad-mission: €13. Tel: 051/7723-741;www. pkopresov.sk.
By ZuzanaVilikovská
EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE
RENOWNED countertenor MaxEmanuel Cenčic is considered oneof the greatest singers in theworld in his category; he receivedthe Best Singer 2003 award fromthe German musical magazineOpernwelt. He performs famousarias, as well as pieces from less-known or undiscovered operas inprestigious opera houses, atfestivals and on tours. OnDecember 6 at 19:30, he will givea performance in the concert hallof Reduta, Slovak Philharmonicbuilding, in Eugena SuchoňaSquare 1 in Bratislava. Ticketscost €22-€30 and can be boughtvia navstevnik.sk or in the Re-duta ticket-office.
Photo: Courtesy of BHS
ST NICOLAS is the saint who in Slovakia gives presents on December6 to children who are well-behaved. On that day, the Košice Chil-dren’s Historical Railway organises a special train ride, the last in 2014.Starting at Alpinka station in the Čermeľ borough of Košice at 10:00and 12:00, the train will be awaited by St Nicolas and his entourage inthe terminal station. Tickets - €3 (children)-€5 (adults) can be boughton the spot. More information at www.detskazeleznica.sk.
Photo: Courtesy of Children’s Railway
W eather u ates and fore asts from across Slovakiaca e fou d at www.spec ator.sk /w eather .
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 gsuch as chocolates or flowers, and to wish them Všetko najlepšie k meninám (Happy name day)
N A M E D A Y J A N U A R Y - F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 3
M onday
Alfonz
January 28
Tuesday
Ga‰par
January 29
W ednesday
Em a
January 30
Thursday
Em il
January 31
Friday
Tatiana
February 1
Saturday
Eri k, Eri ka
February 2
Sunday
Bl aÏej
February
Kal_02:Kal19 24.1.2013 16:31 Stránka 1
CULTURE December 1 – 7, 2014 11www.spectator.sk
Postcard to the president
THIS nice colour postcard de-picting the town ofRužomberok in theLiptov region stemsfrom the times ofmonarchy; but ascan be seen here itssender(s) crossedout the Hungarian name andleft only the Slovak one.
Frequently, this used to bedone on postcards after thefirst Czechoslovak Republiccame into existence.
It would be interesting tolearn who sent this postcard,as it is addressed to none oth-er than the first president ofCzechoslovakia, Tomáš Gar-rigue Masaryk, at the Praguecastle. With all probability,they belonged to the presid-ent’s close circle.
What the image o�ers is amatter of the past. As can beseen,across theČebraťhill, onthe bend of the Váh River, nu-merous rafts used to stand
with workers. This is a fam-ous raft harbour called Polík.
Flat, gravelly areas lying closeto embankments were selec-ted for raft harbours. Carmenfrom valley stores used tobring wood meant for bind-ing together – lashing, i.e. themaking of rafts – and alsowood bound for further pro-cessing at lumbermills.
It is worth rememberingthatdue to theabsolute lackofpassable and safe roads, rivertransport was the only well-working means of movementin the Middle Ages. In Liptov,the first more or less passableroad was built in 1364, asordered by Louis the Great.Despite the e�ort of those inpower to secure roads for the
country, particularly wealth-ier people and merchants
used rafts fortransport until thebeginning of the20th century.
We know fromold records, for ex-
ample, that in 1656 Hungari-an palatineWesselényi sailedto a court session inPrešporok(today’s Bratislava) across theentire Liptov region all theway to Sereď, from where hecontinued on horseback. In1758, Ružomberok mayorJuraj Rosinský rafted for thesame purpose to Pest, usingfour rafts for transport. Evenrich farmers and petty nobil-ity from Liptov who particip-ated in the great battle nearTrenčín between the imperialarmy and Rákóczy’s rebellingunits got to the site of thebattle on rafts.
ByBranislavChovan
HISTORY TALKS
Festival courts US poetTHERE have been a host offestivals recently in Slovakia;sceptics claim that this is dueto the Slovak system of stategrants. Among all those, onestands out, as it is focused onan ancient art that has founditself somewhat on the mar-gin of public interestnowadays: theartofpoetry.
The international festivalArs Poetica 2014 is organisedbetween December 3 and 7 inculture centre A4 and strivesto bring a number of surprisesfor all staunch poetry ad-mirersandfans.
The headliner of the fest-ival’s 12thyear is RonPadgett,a US poet, co-founder of thefamous New York School andone of the prominent figuresof contemporary Americanpoetry,whohasbeenawarded
manyprizes.VisitorsofArsPoetica 2014
can choose from among morethan twenty poets and au-thors from 12 countries, or-ganisers informed The SlovakSpectator. The festival’s stagewill host a few first showingsof performances of interna-tional artists that connect po-etry and visual art: MarcAtkins, a poet, visual artistand photographer; MartínBakero, a surrealist Chileanpoet,AriadnaRadiCor, Italianpoetandperformancegraphicartist; and also a Krakow-based duo of digital poetry pi-oneers. Slovak poetry will berepresented by the leadingauthors of three generations:Ján Buzássy, Karol Chmel andJanaPácalová.
Ron Padgett, whose How
Long was a 2012 Pulitzer PrizeFinalist in Poetry, and whoseCollected Poems received the2014 Los Angeles Times BestBook of Poetry prize and theWilliamCarlosWilliamsPrizefrom the Poetry Society ofAmerica, will be present inperson on the Evening of Po-etry on December 5 at 19:00 inA4 Space of Independent Cul-ture on the corner of Šancová-Karpatská streets. Otherguests of that evening includeRodicaDraghincescu (RO/FR),Tomica Bajsić (CRO), AdamBorzič (CZ), Hilá Lahav (ISR),andKarolChmel (SK).
The full programme of thefestival can be found at arspo-etica.sk.
CompiledbyZuzanaVilikovská
WesternSLOVAKIA
BRATISLAVAn LIVE MUSIC: Take 6 – The 10-time Grammy laureate willplay in Bratislava with theSlovak a cappella band Fragile.
Starts: Dec 1, 19:00; Istro-polis, Trnavské Mýto 1. Ad-mission: €20-€40. Tel: 02/5293-3321;www.ticketportal.sk.
BRATISLAVAn CLASSICAL/LIVE MUSIC:Cross-over Organwith ElectricGuitar – The last concert of theBratislava Organ Festival wasmoved to December, combin-ing the performances of Slov-aks; organist Marek Štrbák,drummer Lenka Novosed-líková and young guitar playerMichal Bugala playing severalpieces, including a premiere ofa compositionbyLukášBorzík,and also improvisation.
Starts: Dec 4, 17:00; bigconcert studio of the SlovakRadio, Mýtna 1. Admission: €7(CD-LP bazár Mjuzik shop,Hummel Music shop,Klobučnícka 2, Music Forumshop, Na Vŕšku 1). More info:www.citylife.sk.
BRATISLAVAn LIVE MUSIC: Lamb – Britishduo (Lou Rhodes & Andy Bar-low) come to play, among oth-er songs, their recent albumBackspaceUnwind.
Starts: Dec 4, 20:00;Majestic Music Club,Karpatská 2. More info:www.majestic.sk.
BRATISLAVAn CLASSICAL MUSIC: AdventConcert – The concert of Aus-trian soprano Antonija Ko-vacevic and Slovak tenor andpianist Mairán Bango, focusesof the festive season.
Starts: Dec 4, 18:00; Austri-an Cultural Forum, HodžovoSqu-are 1/A. Admission: free.Tel: 02 /5930-1500; www.rak-uskekulturneforum.sk.
BRATISLAVAn WORLD MUSIC: Cuadro Fla-menco – Renowned Spanishdancer/choreographer JuanPolvillo will join forces withsinger Cheita and Slovak gui-taristMorenitodeTriana togivea special flamenco show cross-
ing the borders of countries,traditions and modernism, inAndalusian flair. On December7, theywill perform in the Nitratheatre of Andrej Bagar.
Starts: Dec 5, 19:15, ArénaTheatre, Viedenská Cesta 10.Admission: €15-€20. Tel:02/6720-2550 or www.divad-loarena.sk, www.ticket-portal.sk.
BRATISLAVAn FOLKLORE: 65th an-niversary of SĽUK – The le-gendary folklore ensembleSĽUK celebrates its 65th birth-day with a show that com-bines old traditions as well asmodernist ideas, directed byJuraj Hamar.
Starts: Dec 4, 19:00; DPOHCity Theatre, Laurinská 19.Admission: €10-€12. Tel:02/5910-3107; www.mest-skedivadlo.sk.
BRATISLAVAn CHRISTMAS MUSIC: 9th In-ternational Festival of Christ-mas Music – The festival ofChristmas music featureschoirs from Slovakia, theCzech Republic, Russia, TheUK, Ireland, Lithuania, Po-land, South Africa, andUkraine, at Bratislava MainSquare and in churches/musichalls downtown.
Starts: Dec 4-7, varioustimes and venues. Admission:free. More info: www.cityl-ife.sk.
BRATISLAVAn ART HAPPENING: AshleyBell Clark, “Known and Un-known Is All The Same Land” –The US artist will present inthe capital her personifica-tions of plants, nature andlandscape symbolising hu-man ambitions, and also fea-tures video-installations andotherworks.
Starts: Dec 2, 18:00; A4Priestor Súčasnej Kultúry,Karpatská 2. Admission: free.More info:www.citylife.sk.
Central SLOVAKIA
ŽILINAn FOLKLORE:Čarovianoc–TheChristmas Magic – A folkloreperformance taps into the oldSlovak music, dances, tradi-tions surrounding Christmas.
Starts: Dec 7, 19:00; CityThea-tre, Horný Val 3. Moreinfo:www.kamdomesta.sk.
BANSKÁ BYSTRICAn MODERN DANCE: Horúčava/ Heat – The Laban AtelierBrati-slava, choreographedand directed by MartaPoláková, performs the dance-theatre piece about friction,communication and tensionsbetween a man and a woman,to themusic ofMartin Polák.
Starts:Dec 1, 19:00;TheatreStudio of Dance (DŠT), NaKačici, Komenského 12. Ad-mission: €7-8. Tel: 048/4146-540;www.studiotanca.sk.
EasternSLOVAKIA
PREŠOVn LIVE MUSIC:Beatles Vianoce2014 – Backwards – One of themost respected bands cover-ing the music of legendary UKband, the Beatles, gives a Chri-stmas concert at home, other-wise playingmostly abroad.
Starts: Dec 6, 19:00; PKOČierny orol, Hlavná 50. Ad-mission: €13. Tel: 051/7723-741;www. pkopresov.sk.
By ZuzanaVilikovská
EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE
RENOWNED countertenor MaxEmanuel Cenčic is considered oneof the greatest singers in theworld in his category; he receivedthe Best Singer 2003 award fromthe German musical magazineOpernwelt. He performs famousarias, as well as pieces from less-known or undiscovered operas inprestigious opera houses, atfestivals and on tours. OnDecember 6 at 19:30, he will givea performance in the concert hallof Reduta, Slovak Philharmonicbuilding, in Eugena SuchoňaSquare 1 in Bratislava. Ticketscost €22-€30 and can be boughtvia navstevnik.sk or in the Re-duta ticket-office.
Photo: Courtesy of BHS
ST NICOLAS is the saint who in Slovakia gives presents on December6 to children who are well-behaved. On that day, the Košice Chil-dren’s Historical Railway organises a special train ride, the last in 2014.Starting at Alpinka station in the Čermeľ borough of Košice at 10:00and 12:00, the train will be awaited by St Nicolas and his entourage inthe terminal station. Tickets - €3 (children)-€5 (adults) can be boughton the spot. More information at www.detskazeleznica.sk.
Photo: Courtesy of Children’s Railway
W eather u ates and fore asts from across Slovakiaca e fou d at www.spec ator.sk /w eather .
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 gsuch as chocolates or flowers, and to wish them Všetko najlepšie k meninám (Happy name day)
N A M E D A Y J A N U A R Y - F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 3
M onday
Alfonz
January 28
Tuesday
Ga‰par
January 29
W ednesday
Em a
January 30
Thursday
Em il
January 31
Friday
Tatiana
February 1
Saturday
Eri k, Eri ka
February 2
Sunday
Bl aÏej
February
Kal_02:Kal19 24.1.2013 16:31 Stránka 1
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
March 30 March 31 April 1 April 2 April 3 April 4 April 5
Vieroslava Benjamín Hugo Zita Richard Izidor Miroslava
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
March 23 March 24 March 25 March 26 March 27 March 28 March 29
Adrián Gabriel Marián Emanuel Alena Soňa Miroslav
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 fl owers, and to wish them všetko najlepšie k meninám (Happy name day).
NAME DAY MARCH / APRIL 2015
MARIA Stuarda is an opera by Gaetano Donizetti that has never beenplayed before in Slovakia. Now, it premieres at the State Opera inBanská Bystrica, Národná 11. This staging is directed by famous Itali-an director Gianfarnco de Bosios (films: Terrorist, Moses, Tosca withPlacido Domingo) and conducted by Igor Bulla, with the cast includ-ing Adriana Kohútková/Dana Pěnkava Koklesová, CristinaBaggio/Jolana Fogašová, Luciano Mastro, Ondrej Šaling, IvanZvarík/Ondrej Mráz and others. Tickets cost €10 and can be boughtat 048/2457-123 orwww.stateopera.sk. Photo: Jozef Lomnický
12 March 23 – April 5, 2015 FEATURE
Glossary
accommodation – bývanieaffect – ovplyvniťaffordable – dostupnýand the like – a podobneappropriate – primeranýboard of directors – pred-stavenstvoburden – záťažbustle – ruchcease to exist – zaniknúťcomfortable – pohodlnýcommunity amenities –občianska vybavenosťcomparable – porovnateľnýcontribution – príspevokdraw – ťahaťduty – povinnosťemphasise – zdôrazňovaťexpansion – rozmachfee – poplatokflat – bytgap – rozdiel,medzerahousing – bývanieimpact – ovplyvniťincome – príjemincome tax – daň z príjmuinhabitant – obyvateľinsufficient – nedostatočnýinterest rate – úrokovásadzbalease – nájomná zmluvalifestyle – životný štýlliving – život, bývanielocal authority –miestnyúradlong for – túžiťmaintain – udržiavaťmortgage – hypotéka
municipality – obecnewbuilding – novostavbanotice period – výpovednálehotaoffer – ponukaowner – vlastníkpeak – vrcholperceive – vnímaťpermanent residency – trvalýpobytplot – pozemokpopulate – obývaťproperty –majetokreal estate – nehnuteľnosťregional capital – krajskémestorent – prenajať (si); nájomrental – prenájomresident –miestny obyvateľrural – vidieckysewer system – kanalizáciashare – podielshort-term – krátkodobýschoolchild – školáksignificantly – významnesolution – riešeniespread – rozšíriť sasufficient – dostatočnýsurrounding – okolietemporary – dočasnýtenant – nájomníktension – napätieterminate – ukončiťterraced house – domvradovej zástavbetraffic jam – dopravná zápchawane – slabnúťworking trip – pracovná cesta
Rentals perceived as temporary solution for the young
SLOVAKIAhasoneof thehighest shares ofprivatelyownedhousing,and fewer than 10 percent of people live in rental properties. Mostpeople consider this kind of accommodation a short-term solution,accordingtorealestateexperts.
“This means that mostly young people use this possibility astheir first housing or temporary accommodation during a workingtrip and the like,” Filip Žoldák of Herrys real estate agency told theTASRnewswire.
Onebiggroup living inrentedhousing is students.“We expect that the interest in rentals will increase shortly
before the summer holidays and especially during the thirdquarterwhen the statistics are significantly affected by themove-ment of students,” said Lexxus analyst Michal Zajíček, as quotedbyTASR.
Tenants, as compared to owners, have the advantage of flexibil-
ityandcanterminate leasesquickly inacasewhere theychange jobsor face changing accommodation needs, said head of the NationalAssociation of Real Estate Agencies in Slovakia (NARKS) JánPalenčár.Moreover, theydonothaveasmanydutiesasowners.
Experts emphasise that the lease needs to contain the time ofrenting the flat, the price of rent, the way and notice period for ter-minating the agreement and the responsibility for possible repairs,TASRwrote.
The most frequent factors impacting the decision to buy a flatare a stable job, enough money and the desire to have a family.Moreover, people are motivated to have their own housing also byhistorically low interest rates onmortgages, goodprices and the suf-ficientofferofnewbuildings,TASRreported.
CompiledbySpectatorstaff
Slovaks still drawn to satellite townsTHOUGH the experts say in-terest in moving to satellitetowns in rural areas near bigcitieshaswaned, there are stillpeople longing for their ownhouse with a garden, close tonature and for an affordableprice.
“The advantage [of thiskind of housing] is that wehave a family house which of-fers more comfortable living,”Jana Jakubíková, 32, told TheSlovak Spectator. She lives inthe satellite town ofKalinkovo, some 20 kilometresfromBratislava’s city centre.
Typical inhabitants ofsatellite towns were oncepeople with higher incomes,but statistics show that atpresent they are mostly pop-ulated by people with second-ary school education aged 30-50, and especially familieswith children, said ImrichBéreš, chair of the board of dir-ectors of the Prvá StavebnáSporiteľňa company.
“Better prices play a signi-ficant rolecomparedto thecityand a higher quality flat orhouse for the price,” Béreš toldThe Slovak Spectator.
Andrea Michalcová, 44,who lives in Bernolákovo (22kilometres from Bratislava),says it was mostly the pricewhich attracted her family tomove to a satellite town. Ac-cording to her, eight years agothe price of a house with asmall plot of landwas compar-able with the price of a flat inBratislava.
Another reason for mov-ing to the satellite towns isthat people are closer tonatureand have better possibilitiesfor sports or free time, saidRobert Longauer, 34, who livesinHainburg in Austria.
Changing lifestyles
The first satellite townsappeared in Slovakia in the1990s. They were built close toBratislava, but later spread tothe surroundings of regionalcapitals as well. Since 1996 the
towns lost some 132,000 inhab-itants, most of who moved tothe satellite towns, Béreš said.
The peak came in 2000when several developers star-ted to buy agricultural landsclose to themunicipalities andtransform them into com-plexes of houses and flats.
“The first decade after 2000was typical also for the expan-sion of the terraced houses inseveral regions of Slovakia,”Béreš said.
According to him, the de-velopment of the satellitetowns also impacted the num-ber of inhabitants in the vil-lages near which they stand.For example in Rovinka, loc-ated just outside Bratislava,the number of inhabitantsdoubled to 2,873 in 2014, theTrend economic weekly wroteon itswebsite.
Béreš, however, warnsthat the new inhabitants of-ten do not ask for permanentresidency in the municipalit-ies, meaning they do not paytheir share of income taxes tothe local authorities.
“Then they [municipalit-ies] are not able to finance thenecessary infrastructurewhich the developers do notalways build and certainly donotmaintain,” Béreš added.
Rovinka Mayor MilanBombala confirmed this prob-lem to Trend in August 2014.His village however agreedwith some of the new inhab-itants that they will pay some
kind of contribution whichequals their share of incometax. He also persuaded two de-velopers who have built thehouses in the local satellitetowntomakeacontribution toextension of the primaryschool, Trendwrote.
The townplanners say thata fee for investment activitiesmaybeoneof theways to solvethe problems with financingthe infrastructure in satellitetowns.
In summer 2014, severalmedia outlets illustrated theproblem of missing infrastruc-ture in Čierna Voda, a satellitetown belonging to ChorvátskyGrob (24 kilometres from Brat-islava). Among the problemswas the insufficient sewer sys-tem, the gap between the newand old parts of the town andconflicts which resulted intensions between the old andnew inhabitants, according tothe reports.
Areturn to cities
People addressed by TheSlovak Spectator consider thecommunity amenities in thesatellites they live in appro-priate, though often less de-veloped as in the bigger cities.Often there is a small shop,post office, kindergarten,school and a doctor. On theother hand there are few pos-sibilities for cultural life andresidents must often travel tothe nearby bigger town or city.
“Most people also keepdoctors in the city centre,though they move to thesatellites,” Longauer said.
The main problem cited byboth Jakubíková andMichalcová is the resultingtraffic. Though they live relat-ively close to Bratislava, theystill spendhours in traffic jams.
“Eight years ago commut-ingwas one of the advantages,but since then the situationhas radically worsened as thenumber of people moving tosatellite towns increased,”Michalcová said. “The roads,however, have been neitherwidened nor enlarged, so theircapacity remains the same.”
The problematic transportand the fact that children stillgo to schools in bigger townsand have other activities thereis seeing some families withschoolchildren move back tothe bigger cities, Béreš said.
However, he does not ex-pect that satellite towns willcease toexist, rather thatpeoplewill be more careful when ana-lysing the reasons to stay in themain city or town or move to asatellite town, Béreš said.
Since there are still peoplewhoprefer the ruralway of liferather than the bustle of thecity, the trend of moving tosatellite towns may continuefor 10-15 years, he added. Oneof the reasons is that Slovakslive in their own accommod-ation rather than in rentedflats or houses.
“If municipalities will careabout observing and develop-ing their land plan, and willapproach it effectively so thesatellite is not a burden for in-habitants, then this way ofhousing and lifestyle shouldnot experience major prob-lems in the coming years,”Béreš concluded.
Nevertheless Bombalastressed to Trend that everyvillageneeds tocontrol growthin order to secure the servicesresidents need.
ByRadkaMinarechová
Terracedhouseswere built also inDunajská Lužná. Photo: Sme
SPECTATOR COLLEGELesson 14
Housing
Spectator College is a programme tosupport the study and teaching ofEnglish in Slovakia, as well as to in-spire interest in important publicissues among young people. Theproject was created by The SlovakSpectator and the Petit AcademyFoundation. Please see our onlineSpectator College section atwww.spectator.sk for articles,glossaries and tips for exerciseswhich can be used in English les-sons.
People prefer their ownhousing rather than rentals. Photo: Sme
For exercises linkedto the Spectator Collegeprogramme please visitwww.spectator.sk
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