Tax legislation agreed by cabinet

THE CABINET of Iveta Radičová hasapproved the broad outlines of anoverhaul of what it calls deforma-tions in the country’s income taxand payroll levy legislation. Ob-servers are saying that pushing the

concept through the cabinet wasthe easy part as the initiative hasbeen accompanied by fiery discus-sion since its very inception andwill likely face a rather rocky ridein parliament, as certain aspects ofthe plan face opposition evenamong MPs from the ruling coali-tion.

While the philosophy of bring-ing more transparency to the in-

come tax and payroll levy systemsappeals to all parties of the coali-tion, MPs from the Civic Conservat-ive Party (OKS), who sit within theMost-Híd parliamentary caucus,say that true reform should be ac-complished in a way that it does nothave a negative impact on certaingroups in society.

See TAX pg 9SSELECT FOREX RATES€ benchmark as of May 26

CANADA CAD 1.39CZECH REP. CZK 24.62RUSSIA RUB 39.98GREAT BRITAIN GBP 0.87

HUNGARY HUF 269.02JAPAN JPY 115.95POLAND PLN 3.97USA USD 1.42

NEWS

'Most wanted' is freeKarol Mello, an alleged mobboss accused of a 2004double murder who hadbeen on the run for severalyears before his arrest in Po-land, has now been releasedfrom custody by a court.

pg 2

Minorities law passedA new law will lower thethreshold for official use ofminority languages in Slov-akia – but it will not comeinto full effect for another10 years.

pg 3

OPINION

Now fill in this formState institutions shouldhave done a much bettercensus job – only then couldthey have expected resid-ents in return to have donea better job of filling out thecensus forms.

pg 5

BUSINESS FOCUS

More pension changesDespite the solidity impliedby their name, the secondand third pillars of the pen-sion system in Slovakiahave seen multiple changesin the past few years andnow they face even more.

pg 6

Credit managementThe rise of secondary in-solvency during the finan-cial crisis taught manycompanies a hard lessonabout the value of man-aging receivables, but nowexperts are asking whetherthe lesson has really beenlearned.

pg 7

CULTURE

Trouble in TrnavaThe future of Trnava’s JánKoniarek Gallery is uncer-tain following the dismissalof its director, the suspen-sion of all its exhibitions for2011 and the recent cancel-lation of a major festival.

pg 11

Residents of Slovakia were asked to start filling out census forms in late May but concerns about the anonymity ofpersonal data have led to controversy and some residents are even refusing to speak to census-takers. Photo: ČTK

Anonymity of censusdata questioned

SOME citizens are refusing to fill outcensus forms or are returning com-pleted forms without their numer-ical identifier, arguing that the pro-cedures of the 2011 census violatetheir right to privacy. Critics alsocharge that residents are poorly in-formed about the census proced-ures. These were at least some of thereasons why 40 census-takers inBratislava’s Old Town districtresigned from their jobs mid-waythrough the census while another100 were reported to have quit inthe Petržalka district of the capital.Concerns about anonymity seem tobe the biggest source of controversyin the Slovakia's census.

Census-takers had already star-

ted circulating through their as-signed areas, seeking to make an ac-curate count of residents and resid-encies in the decennial census,when questions surfaced about theanonymity and security of the per-sonal data, amplified by a state pri-vacy agency, and causing a largeoutcry of concern among Slovaks.

Sociologists, statisticians andeven politicians rushed to soothethe anxieties of residents, many ofwhom now seem unsure whether tosubmit their personal information

for the census – and some who havecertainly decided not to participate.

Privacy concerns

Slovakia’s Statistics Office (ŠÚ),the primary organiser of the census,had been stressing that it is everyresident's duty to take part in the2011 census as well as provide ac-curate information as of the meas-urement point for the census – mid-night between May 20 and May 21.At the same time, the ŠÚ had as-sured residents that personal datacollected by the census-takerswould be anonymous.

See COUNT pg 2

Vol. 17, No. 21 Monday, May 30, 2011 - Sunday, June 5, 2011

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PRIVATE& CORPORATE FINANCE

The €45m‘crime’ with

no perps

THE AMORPHOUS Interblue Group, and itsinfamous purchase of Slovakia’s carbon-di-oxide emissions quotas, continues to hauntthe country. Though the state is believed tohave lost tens of millions of euros in a dealstruck in 2008 between the EnvironmentMinistry, then controlled by the Slovak Na-tional Party (SNS), and Interblue Group,those responsible for the affair – which thecurrent management of the ministry hasdescribed as a crime – are yet to face prosec-ution. The Special Prosecutor’s Office hasrejected a criminal complaint lodged bythe Environment Ministry under MinisterJózsef Nagy, a nominee of Most-Híd,against unnamed representatives of Inter-blue Group on suspicion of fraud, theministry’s spokeswoman BeatriceHudáková confirmed in a memo.

See BLUE pg 4

Anti-fraudoffice targetsairport deals

SLOVAKIA is learning to its cost that poorpublic procurement practices can lead tothe European Union cash-tap being turnedoff. A recently completed European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) investigation into aproject to reconstruct Bratislava’s state-owned Milan Rastislav Štefánik Interna-tional Airport between 2005 and 2008found faulty procurement and unjustifiedexpenditures. OLAF’s findings are likely toscotch Slovakia’s chances of getting €3.9million of the project costs covered by theEU and, as a result, Slovak taxpayers willhave to pick up the bill.

Shortly after the Sme daily broke thestory, Prime Minister Iveta Radičová saidthat OLAF had discovered the first incid-ence of unjustified expenditure during theinitial part of the project in 2005, duringthe Mikuláš Dzurinda government, butthat more such irregularities occurred un-der the subsequent government of RobertFico, which took office in 2006.

See OLAF pg 4

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff

BY MICHAELA TERENZANISpectator staff

Find your property atSP90550/32

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff

Proxy: Roma were illegally evicted

ROMA living in the vicinityof Ťahanovce, a district ofKošice, were forced to leavetheir houses on May 17 whenmunicipal authorities de-cided to demolish an illegalwaste dump and illegalshanties that had been builtaround it.

“Firstly because therewas a danger of fire and shortcircuit since there were il-legal electrical connections,”Martina Viktorínová, thespokesperson for Košicetown hall told the TASRnewswire, adding that pub-lic health experts had alsoreported that there was adanger of an epidemic.

The government’s pleni-potentiary for Roma com-munities, Miroslav Pollák,responded, however, thatthe Košice authorities viol-

ated Slovak as well as inter-national law by their con-duct, TASR wrote. He saidthat municipalities, whentrying to solve problems sim-ilar to this one, would do bet-ter to contact his office forconsultation.

The Roma were origin-ally slated to be relocated tothe Lunik IX neighbourhoodbut refused to go and werethen placed in a military tenterected close to their originalshanties where they wereexpected to stay until theyreturned to the place of theirpermanent address.

The Roma, however, leftthe military tent and movedinto their own smaller tents,TASR reported. Viktorínovásaid the local authoritiesview that act as an organisedprovocation.

SaS and mayors clash over new law

SALARIES of mayors of Slov-ak cities, towns and villageswill be reduced by 10 percentas early as June, according toa law passed by parliamenton May 17 that was sub-sequently signed by Presid-ent Ivan Gašparovič.

In addition to the 10 per-cent pay cut, the law govern-ing a mayor’s legal positionand remuneration allows amunicipal council to in-crease a mayor’s basic salaryby no more than 70 percentand no longer permits may-ors to get bonuses.

The Association of SlovakTowns and Villages (ZMOS) isunhappy with the new lawand in protest some mem-bers booed Prime MinisterIveta Radičová when she at-tended its annual congress inmid May. Richard Sulík, theSpeaker of Parliament andhead of Freedom and Solidar-ity (SaS) party, which initi-ated the salary cuts for may-ors, accused ZMOS of

“extorting” the governmentand his party.

“I do not see how theygot to [the conclusion] thatthey will make laws,” Sulíktold journalists, as quoted bythe SITA newswire. Sulíkalso urged that Slovakiashould adopt a one-mandaterule, meaning that an MPcould not simultaneouslyhold the post of mayor.

Sulík added that a fewmayors harmed the reputa-tion of all mayors by grant-ing themselves maximumsalaries and argued that nomayors should have highersalaries than the prime min-ister. He also called uponZMOS representatives to dis-close mayoral salaries.

Former ZMOS ChairmanMichal Sýkora stated that SaShad deliberately attackedlocal and regional govern-ments, harmed their reputa-tion, created tension andcast doubt on their repres-entatives, SITA reported.

Malinová 'blood disorder' discounted

THE EXTENSIVE bleeding ofHedviga Žáková, néeMalinová, whom ministersof the previous governmentaccused of making up a storyabout being attacked forspeaking Hungarian in pub-lic, was not caused by anyblood disorder, the Sme dailyreported, contradicting anearlier report by Peter Labaš,the dean of the Medical Fac-ulty of Comenius University.

Malinová’s lawyer Ro-man Kvasnica said thatMalinová has no blood dis-orders, referring to tests thatwere conducted after Labašhad submitted his expertmedical report, Sme repor-ted. The most recent medicaltests question a theoryoffered by Labaš thatMalinová's extensive bleed-

ing from bruises and a lip la-ceration were caused by poorblood coagulation in 2006.

Malinová was accused byformer interior ministerRobert Kaliňák of lying aboutbeing attacked in Nitra be-cause her assailants heardher speaking Hungarian. Shehas been officially accused oflying to police but the casehas not yet gone before acourt.

Kaliňák repeated in a midMay interview with the Smedaily that he believesMalinová is a “pathologicalliar” and that there is noevidence in the case speak-ing in her favour, stressingthat he would never apolo-gise to her.

Compiled by Spectator staff

Reputed underworldboss freed again

UNTIL recently Karol Mellohad been Slovakia’s mostwanted person, an allegedmob boss accused of a doublemurder in Most pri Bratislavein 2004. He was arrested at theend of 2010 in Krakow, Po-land, but now has been re-leased from custody in Slov-akia for the second time.

Mello was first releasedon May 9 based on a court er-ror but he was immediatelyre-arrested by a special policeunit and charged with a dif-ferent crime. The BratislavaRegional Court then releasedMello on May 19 for thesecond time in a month.

“The [Regional] Court de-cided that the legal conditionsdefined under the CriminalCode for the District Court torepeatedly deprive the ac-cused of his personal freedomwere not met, as he hadalready been released with re-spect to the same case once,”the Regional Court’s spokes-person, Pavol Adamčiak, toldthe TASR newswire.

The head of the SpecialDepartment in the GeneralProsecutor’s office, PeterŠufliarsky, told a press con-ference on May 24 that mis-takes had been made by the

district court as well as by aprosecutor in his office. Heexplained that after Mello wasescorted from Poland on April29, 2011, his custody was de-cided upon by a single judgefrom the Bratislava I DistrictCourt while under the lawthat decision was supposed tobe made by a senate of threejudges from the court.

“This was the momentwhen the unlawfulness of thewhole proceeding started,”Šufliarsky said, as quoted byTASR, adding that the prosec-

utor dealing with the casealso then made a mistake bynot pointing out that fact.

Šufliarsky did not men-tion the name of the prosec-utor who made the error injudgment but media reportedit was his deputy, EvaMišíková, who was the gov-erning coalition’s initial can-didate for general prosecutorlast year.

On May 24 the Cas.sknews portal reported that apolice investigator from theOffice for the Fight against

Organised Crime had initiateda motion to issue another ar-rest warrant for Mello butthat this can only be doneafter the prosecution acceptsthe motion and files such aproposal with the court. Thecourt then decides whether toissue an arrest warrant.

After his release from cus-tody Mello said he was inno-cent of the charges againsthim and that he was not in-tending to flee the country.

See FREE pg 5

COUNT: Census-takers bear the bruntContinued from pg 1

Many Slovaks were thus quite sur-prised when they received a numericalcode that was associated with theircensus form – used either as a login forcompleting the electronic version of theform or as an identifier on the hard-copyform – and that census takers recordedthe person’s name and address to matchwith the numerical code.

Concerns among citizens about po-tential misuse of their data were thenmagnified by some media outlets andbloggers. An article that circulatedwidely on the Slovak internet was en-titled “Improved ŠtB practices – census ofresidents and residencies 2011” with theŠtB referring to the communist-erasecret police. Written by ĽubomírKopáček, who described himself as secur-ity consultant, he wrote that “practicesworthy of organised crime” have beenput in place by the state to “invade theprivacy of a citizen”.

A day after publishing the article, onMay 17, Kopáček filed a complaint withSlovakia’s Office for Personal Data Pro-tection (ÚOOÚ), which in turn issued astatement on May 20, only hours beforeresidents were supposed to start fillingout their census forms, asking the ŠÚ toimmediately and fully inform the resid-ents of Slovakia that the data collectedfor the 2011 census is not anonymous andto cancel residents’ obligation to placethe numerical code on their respectivecensus form.

ÚOOÚ stated that a resident can bedirectly identified after attaching thenumerical code to the census form andthe data is no longer anonymous.

“There is a big difference between astatement that the provider will secure

the anonymity of the gathered personaldata and a statement that the gathereddata is anonymous,” ÚOOÚ wrote in itsrelease sent to the media and publishedon its website.

Statistics Office responds

The head of the Statistics Office,Ľudmila Benkovičová, reacted to thestatements of the ÚOOÚ by saying theywere manipulative and that the ÚOOÚwas endangering the results of thecensus.

She added that legislation governingthe 2011 census had been passed threeyears earlier and the ÚOOÚ had never ob-jected to any of its provisions during in-terdepartmental or parliamentary re-view of the draft law or after the legisla-tion was signed into law.

The ŠÚ wrote in its media release thatby casting doubt on the use of the numer-ical code the ÚOOÚ was scaring Slovakresidents who then were hesitant toprovide data for the census.

The use of a numerical identifier isdefined in the law on the 2011 censusand, according to the ŠÚ, the numericalcodes serve to prevent duplication in thecensus and ensure that each residentgets counted only once.

The ŠÚ explained that is why it needsto have each form identified in this wayfor a limited period of time and that onlya restricted circle of ŠÚ staff and stafffrom the census’s technical supportcompany have access to the forms withthe numerical code.

“The data is protected, we have neverleaked any data,” Benkovičová said, asquoted by the TASR newswire, addingthat the ŠÚ maintains that the forms willremain anonymous.

Worries are out of place

While the two state-run offices werecriticising each other, the heaviest im-pact of public concern and residents’ re-fusal to participate in the census was be-ing felt by the census-takers who visitpeople’s homes and by the local authorit-ies responsible for the smooth executionof the census in each municipality.

Meanwhile, politicians and expertsstressed that the amount of data reques-ted in Slovakia’s census is much lessthan what is collected in some othercountries.

“In comparison with other Europeancountries, the census gathers altogetherless information and also includes fewerpersonal or other sensitive questions,”the Institute of Sociology of the SlovakAcademy of Sciences wrote in a state-ment it released to support the censuseffort, asking residents not to be dis-couraged from filling out the forms.

The country’s leading sociologistsstressed that the census provides stat-istical information that cannot be ob-tained any other way and that, historic-ally, it has been a common practice.

After meeting Benkovičová at herrequest, Prime Minister Iveta Radičová,a sociologist by profession, called onstate organisations and municipal au-thorities to cooperate with the StatisticsOffice. The prime minister also filled outher census forms during the meeting.

“In Slovakia every citizen is given asingle-purpose code, the so-called iden-tifier, while in other countries thecensus forms directly contain the nameand surname, or even the personal[identification] number of the citizen,”the prime minister stated after themeeting.

Karol Mello leaving custody. Photo: Sme - G. Kuchta

2 NEWSMay 30 – June 5 , 2011

Most-Híd passeskey minorities law

THE THRESHOLD for using aminority language in officialcommunication – which alsoincludes displaying thenames of villages and publicinstitutions in both the stateand the minority language –will drop from the current 20to 15 percent – but no soonerthan in ten years’ time. Untilthen, the current status quowill be preserved.

Parliament passed thelong-awaited Act on the Use ofMinority Languages, draftedby the deputy prime ministerfor national minorities andhuman rights, Rudolf Chmel,on May 25, after a long debateon the pros and cons of allow-ing members of Slovakia’s na-tional minorities wider use oftheir mother tongues in pub-lic communication, with amajority of 78 MPs – all ofthem coalition deputies – vot-ing in favour of the law.

The law will become ef-fective on July 1 if signed bythe president. The changes itintroduces include, most not-ably, lowering of thethreshold for official use ofminority languages, but alsothe right to file verbal or writ-ten motions and submit writ-ten decrees and evidence in aminority language, and theright to receive responsesfrom public bodies in a minor-ity language as well.

According to the law,Slovakia recognises Hungari-an, Bulgarian, Czech, Croa-tian, German, Polish, Roma,Ruthenian and Ukrainian asminority languages.

Chmel’s amendment alsointroduced bilingualismacross the whole bureaucraticagenda, including records,rulings, statistics, evidence,and the agenda of churches –but not for the public registry,which will remain in the statelanguage only.

Change agreed,

but effects delayed

The original draft of thelaw was watered down bymany changes proposed byOrdinary People faction leaderIgor Matovič, who said in theparliamentary debate that hewanted to make sure thatminority rights were notbroadened at the expense ofthe majority.

According to the lawpassed by parliament, citizens

have the right to use a minor-ity language when interactingwith public officials only inthose municipalities whichconform to the threshold setfor using that minority lan-guage. Chmel had wanted towiden the right to cover thewhole territory of Slovakia.

Another change deman-ded by Matovič was the re-quirement to obtain the con-sent of members of a muni-cipal council as well as that ofthe mayor before conductinga local council session in aminority language. Chmel’sversion only required thecouncil’s consent. Matovičalso succeeded in deleting arequirement for health-carefacilities to have an interpret-er or an employee who speaksthe minority tongue.

A bone of contentionamong the ruling coalitionparties was the level of thethreshold required to triggeruse of a minority language ina municipality. Most-Híd, amember of the four-partygoverning coalition whichcampaigns bilingually inSlovak and Hungarian, pro-posed 15 percent instead ofthe current 20 percent ofminority citizens living in amunicipality, but the partywas not able to get the sup-port of some coalition part-ners, notably the ChristianDemocratic Movement (KDH)and Matovič’s faction.

In the end, postponementof a reduction in thethreshold was accepted as acompromise by all theparties. According to the law,15 percent will be required fora municipality to become bi-lingual, but such a thresholdmust be achieved in two con-secutive censuses – that is, inthe census currently takingplace and in the next one,most likely in 2021. There willbe no change in the numberof bilingual municipalities forthe next 10 years, whichmeans that the 20-percentthreshold applied based on

the results of the 1991 censuswill remain in use.

However, a municipalitywill only lose its bilingualstatus if it records the numberof minority inhabitants lowerthan 15 percent in three con-secutive censuses – which inpractice means that the num-ber of bilingual municipalitieswill not drop before at least2031 (if the decennial period-icity of censuses is observed).

Bugár satisfied

For Chmel’s Most-Híd thelaw on minority languageswas one of its key objectivesfor the current parliament.This was partly because it wasnecessary to amend the lawon minority languages in or-der to make it compatiblewith the recently changed lawon the state language (the twolaws must be compatible), andpartly because the party alsoset as one its aims what itcalled a more comprehensiveconcept of minority policy inlegal terms, Chmel explainedin an earlier interview withThe Slovak Spectator.

“I am sincerely glad thislaw was passed,” said partyleader Béla Bugár, calling it areasonable compromise thathelps stabilise the legal systemof Slovakia as directed towardsminorities, and thus contrib-utes to the stability of thedemocratic system in the coun-try. He called the norm one ofthe most important steps takenby the current government.

Heated debate

accompanied the bill

Passage of the lawthrough parliament was pre-ceded by long negotiationswithin the ruling coalitionand then marked by an out-spoken debate in the cham-ber. The parliamentary dis-cussion lasted almost twodays, and until the last mo-ment the KDH remained splitover the vote. Finally, only

Martin Fronc of the KDH didnot vote in favour.

The opposition parties,Smer and the Slovak NationalParty (SNS), criticised the lawand repeatedly accused thegovernment of collaboratingwith the Hungarian govern-ment of Viktor Orbán.

“I see it as a purely Hun-garian agenda directedagainst Slovaks and other na-tionalities living in the SlovakRepublic,” Smer’s DušanČaplovič said, as quoted by theSITA newswire.

Chmel argued that, on thecontrary, the minorities whowould benefit most from hisversion of the amendmentwere the Ruthenian andRoma minorities, not theHungarian minority.

Despite a proposal by On-drej Dostál, a member of theMost-Híd parliamentarycaucus, to drop fines fromboth the law on minority lan-guages as well as the StateLanguage Act, the law re-tained the option of fines,ranging from €50 to €2,500,for violations of the law.

“The right wing [parties]loudly criticised the fines dur-ing the Fico government’sterm, but despite that theydon’t want to cancel them, forreasons unknown to me,”Dostál said in an interviewwith the Sme daily.

Chmel has also objected tothe fines. In an interviewwith The Slovak Spectator hesaid that the term ‘sanction’or ‘fine’ in relation to use ofone’s language is “a drastic in-tervention into society, aslanguage is a very intimateissue.” Despite that, he saidthe fines are necessary in theamendment so that the lawon minority languages ex-actly matches the State Lan-guage Act, which introducedfines after being amended bythe Fico government in 2009,something which prompted awave of criticism at home aswell as from internationalminority rights watchdogs.

BY MICHAELATERENZANISpectator staff

All villages that are now bilingual will remain so until at least 2031. Photo: Jana Liptáková

EU commissionervisits Lunik IX

LUNIK IX, the complex ofbuildings in Košice wherethousands of Roma live inpoor conditions, received aprominent visitor from theEU when László Andor, theEuropean commissioner foremployment, social affairsand inclusion, stopped thereon May 25 as part of his visitto Slovakia. He promisedthat EU assistance will bedirected to the communityand when leaving said hewould return in three years’time to see whether the helpwas effective.

“We had a discussionwith leaders of the com-munity and also represent-atives of the city and Istrongly believe that if thereis a continued dialoguethere will be common un-derstanding and commonaction,” Andor said, asquoted by the Sme daily.

Andor said the measuresshould be directed at a wholerange of issues, including, inthe first place, better educa-tion and ensuring that chil-dren from the neighbour-hood complete the compuls-ory grades of education.

Andor admitted that co-operation between theEuropean Commission andmunicipal authorities needsto improve and said he be-lieved EU funds would behelpful in efforts to improveliving conditions for thosewho live in Lunik IX.

“But one cannot expectchanges to happenovernight,” he said, asquoted by Sme.

Prior to his visit to LunikIX, Andor attended a confer-ence in Košice focusing onRoma integration, accom-panied by one of the EC's vicepresidents, Maroš Šefčovič.

Šefčovič said at the con-ference that Slovakia hasearmarked approximately€200 million from EU Struc-tural Funds for programmesand projects to advance theintegration of its Roma cit-izens but admitted that thedrawing down of these re-sources has been ratherslow, ascribing this primar-ily to complicated adminis-trative processes, the SITAnewswire reported.

Andor confirmed thatRoma face problems acrossEurope and said the EU wasquite late in starting to dealwith them. He added thatexperience in implementing

various projects so far ismixed but that there havebeen some negative experi-ences.

“We are currently re-assessing the use of alloc-ated sources. The confer-ence should help us find abetter understanding of thesituation on the locallevel,” Andor said, asquoted by SITA.

Andor also spoke aboutthe Framework for Nation-al Roma IntegrationStrategies to 2020 that wasadopted by the EuropeanCommission on April 5.

That framework calls onEU member states to presentnational strategies by theend of 2011 in the crucialareas of education, employ-ment, health care and hous-ing, including specific tar-geted measures with addi-tional financing from na-tional and EU sources. Andorunderscored that the actualstrategy should not be pre-pared at a clerical desk butthat responsible partners –Roma citizens, municipalit-ies and NGOs – must alsoparticipate, SITA wrote.

In addition to the €200million earmarked in Slov-akia for projects for Romaemployment and social in-tegration during the2007-2013 programmingperiod, the European Par-liament has allocated anoth-er €5 million for pilotprojects focused on social in-tegration of Roma.

At the conference, suc-cessful projects implemen-ted by the Directorate Gen-eral for Regional Policieswere presented, includingthe Good Start project, sup-porting early-age education,that is targeted at 5,000Roma children up to age sixin Slovakia, Hungary, Mace-donia and Romania.

Another project using EUfunds involves the village ofSpišský Hrhov in Prešov Re-gion, which prepared astrategy focused on multipleareas, including reconstruc-tion of a primary school,training of municipal em-ployees, improvement inhealth-care and social ser-vices and promotion of tour-ism. The village also parti-cipated in a project aimed atsupporting community so-cial work, SITA reported.

Compiled by Spectator staff

Commissioner Andor (right) at Lunik IX. Photo: SITA

3May 30 – June 5, 2011NEWS

But onlywatered-downversion clears

parliament

Bratislava-Schwechat pipeline drafts

A NEW pipeline designed toconnect oil transmissionsystems in Slovakia and Aus-tria will cross either the en-virons of Bratislava or theSmall Carpathians mountainrange.

The Economy Ministryunveiled 10 potential routesfor the interconnection,planned as part of either theso-called Carpathian Cor-ridor or the City Corridor,the SITA newswire reported.

The Slovak pipeline oper-ator, Transpetrol, plans toconstruct the pipeline in co-operation with its Austrianpartner, OMV, through ajoint venture called JV BSPBratislava-SchwechatPipeline GmbH.

Experts in both countrieshave agreed to several pos-sible routes that will be fur-ther examined through im-pact studies and analyses,

the Economy Ministry wrotein an information paper re-porting on the progress ofthe interconnection of theDruzhba pipeline with theAustrian refinery inSchwechat.

If the companies pickthe Carpathian Corridor,the pipelines would be con-nected somewhere betweenMarchegg and ZáhorskáVes.

The City Corridor pro-poses a connection in thesurroundings of Jarovce-Kittsee or Petržalka-Kittsee,near Veľký Biel. The latterroute would transit the Slov-ak capital.

The length of thepipeline will range between81 and 152 kilometres de-pending on the exact routechosen and the ministry es-timated the cost will rangefrom €70 to €112 million.

Young Slovaks suffer work stress

NEARLY half of young Slov-aks complained about stressthey say they face at work, 11percent more than the globalaverage, according to a re-cent survey conducted byGfK Custom Research pollingagency, the TASR newswirereported.

About 38 percent ofyoung workers in Slovakiasaid they are concernedabout their work-life balanceand 28 percent are worriedthat their pace of work orstress at work is having anegative impact on theirhealth.

A fear of job loss was ex-pressed by 32 percent of Slov-aks in the survey while 27percent perceived theiremployer’s pressure to workovertime as problematic.

The survey revealed thatonly 14 percent of Slovak em-ployees feel as if they are

“highly engaged”. Almostone quarter of young Slovakssaid they had to accept a jobthey are not happy with forfinancial reasons and 27 per-cent said they had com-pletely redirected their ca-reer for financial reasons.

“Low engagementamong young Slovak em-ployees results in a phe-nomenon similar to else-where in the world,” thestudy stated, as quoted byTASR.

“Half of the young em-ployees are actively lookingfor another job while work-ing in their present job or areplanning to do so in the nextsix months.”

The survey also foundthat 34 percent of Slovaks arewilling to search for workabroad.

Compiled by Spectator staff

OLAF: Irregularities found in contractsContinued from pg 1

“OLAF can confirm that ithas completed its investiga-tion into this matter and onthe basis of its findings in re-lation to certain irregularitiesfound in the public procure-ment processes adopted andfollowed it has recommendeda financial recovery of €3.9million of the EU fundinginvolved,” OLAF spokespersonPavel Bořkovec told The Slov-ak Spectator on May 25.

The OLAF Final Case Re-port on the matter was sent tothe European Commissionand to the Slovak authoritiesin March 2011, Bořkovec said.

“As the matter will now bethe subject of a specific recov-ery process between theEuropean Commission andSlovakia, OLAF will make nofurther comment in thematter,” he added.

Radičová, after meetingthe EU commissioner for re-gional policy, Johanes Hahn,on May 23, confirmed thatSlovakia cannot expect any ofthe costs it incurred to be re-imbursed by the EU, the TASRnewswire reported.

Slovakia undertook workat the airport prior to joiningthe Schengen zone in late 2007,in order to effectively separateSchengen from non-Schengenpassengers. The country hadhoped to have the bill coveredby the Schengen fund.

The basic project was drawnup in 2005 with an estimatedprice tag of Sk23 million (ap-proximately €760,000); a yearlater it was submitted to theSchengen Commission, whichapproved the plan. However,

the airport managementchanged following the 2006election and the new managersscrapped the original plan at theend of 2006 and picked a newcontractor, Ikores Slovakia.

Ikores – then owned byJozef Kopecký, who in 2001had donated Sk200,000 toSmer, the leading party in the2006 government – was pickedfor the job without any publictender, but instead accordingto what was referred to as‘market research’.

Independent politicalwatchdog Transparency Inter-national warned at the timethat the airport contract onlyadded to concerns that Ikoreswas profiting from Kopecký’sclose relationship with Smer.

According to Sme, approx-imately €1.7 million of the €3.9million in expenses ques-tioned by OLAF should havegone to Ikores and the remain-ing €2.2 million to anotherfirm, Stabil, which was sup-posed to rebuild the airport in2005. The daily, citingRadičová, also reported that

the failings from 2005 weremainly linked to invoicing ofunjustified expenses. Stabilwas given the work after nego-tiation, without a public callfor tenders. Milan Kajan, whomanaged the airport between2002 and 2006, has denied anymalpractice and said that theproblems pertain to invoicing,Sme reported.

Kajan’s successor Stolárikargued after taking over thatthe new management hadbeen forced to turn to Ikoresdirectly without calling fortenders because the previousgovernment had ignored pre-parations for Schengen so longthat Slovakia was in danger ofnot meeting its entry deadline.The Ministry of Transport wasat the time led by Smer nom-inee, Ľubomír Vážny.

Vážny, now a Smer MP,responded to OLAF’s findingsby saying that while he wasminister the airport was notmanaged in line with his ex-pectations, and that as a res-ult he had recalled its generaldirector. Vážny told TASR that

he did so without any pres-sure either from the media orthe-then opposition.

The current minister oftransport, Ján Figeľ, describedthe controversy over the air-port as part of the legacy from aperiod when procurement wasoften conducted in a non-transparent manner incompat-ible with European Union lawsand practices. He also said thatit was important to explainwho was and who remains re-sponsible for the failings.

While noting that OLAFhad recommended that theEuropean Commission recover€3.9 million of the EU fundinginvolved, Figeľ, in an interviewwith The Slovak Spectator, saidthat “it is up to the commis-sion how it decides, but OLAFis an institution with highcredibility and its reports arevery sensitively perceived”.

However, Figeľ also addedthat he is convinced Slovakianeeds modernisation to ensurethat the country’s air trans-port, and its transport infra-structure in general, remainssafe and comfortable, and thathis department would contin-ue with existing work to com-plete a new terminal while“learning the lesson that thework needs to be done withstrict observance of qualityand well as compatibility withthe law. Today we are assess-ing investment intentions andthe use of EU funds in a muchstricter way so that later on wedo not face the suspicion offraud or other doubts,” Figeľadded. He suggested the newterminal would be finished byJune 2012, thereby boostingthe airport’s capacity.

Milan Rastislav Štefánik Airport in Bratislava. Photo: SITA

BLUE: None accused in emissions dealContinued from pg 1

The prosecutor’s office argued thatSlovakia had signed a highly disadvant-ageous contract but that this did not meanthat the intention of Interblue Group wasto defraud Slovakia, Hudáková reported.

In a highly disadvantageous deal inlate 2008, the Environment Ministry soldSlovakia’s quotas to emit 15 million tonnesof carbon dioxide to US-based InterblueGroup at a price of €5.05 per tonne. It waslater revealed that Interblue Group hadbeen established just before the contractwas signed and that its registered addresswas an unattended lock-up garage in theState of Washington. The identities of thecompany’s owners and beneficiaries havenever been confirmed. What is known isthat immediately after the sale, Interbluesold on the quotas for €8 or more pertonne, netting an instant profit of at least€45 million. Critics of the deal said that atthe time of the sale other countries such asHungary, the Czech Republic and evenUkraine had obtained much higher pricesfor their national quotas.

A clause in the sale contract stipu-lated that if Slovakia spent the proceedsfrom the original sale of quotas withinthe ‘Green Investment Scheme’ (GIS) forenvironmental projects, the countrywould be eligible for a bonus payment of€1 per tonne, or €15 million in total, fromInterblue. However, despite spendingmillions of euros on a scheme to improvethe thermal insulation of apartment

blocks, no further money has been re-ceived to date.

Meanwhile, the US-based firm wasdissolved and re-established as InterblueGroup Europe, registered in Switzerland.

According to Hudáková, the prosec-utor found that Interblue had not used the“unacceptable nature of thermal insula-tion [as a GIS]” simply to avoid paying thebonus; nor, the prosecutor decided, wasthe company’s sudden dissolution inten-ded to serve a specific purpose, she added.

Last December, Nagy said that Slov-akia would not try to force InterblueGroup to pay the €15-million bonus.

“We will not act from the viewpointof commercial law since we don’t see anychance of getting the money paid,” Nagysaid on December 15, as quoted by theTASR newswire.

However, Nagy did file a criminal com-plaint against Interblue, without specifyingnames, on December 21, 2010. It is this com-plaint which the prosecutor has now rejected.

“The ministry is of the opinion that In-terblue representatives committed acrime,” Nagy said, according to a state-ment provided by Hudáková to The SlovakSpectator. “Probably, it is not possible toprove it [the crime] based on the concludedcontract in the way the prosecution states,but based on the ill-willed conduct of therepresentatives of Interblue Group.”

The Environment Ministry will con-sult with criminal law experts on its nextsteps so that a court can decide on guilt orinnocence, Nagy added.

Former environment minister JánChrbet was sacked for signing the deal,while his short-lived successor ViliamTurský was recalled for his failure toterminate it.

In 2010, Czech hotelier Milan Ružičkaemerged to claim that he was the newowner of Interblue, which he said he hadbought from another Czech business-man, Marek Pleyer, as a private invest-ment. However, Ružička has not beenable to provide documentation provingthat Interblue Group Europe is the legalsuccessor of the US-based firm.

Jozef Medveď, the Smer party nom-inee who replaced Turský as environ-ment minister, had declared the originalcontract void, but Ružička insisted that itwas still valid and even suggested he had€15 million with which to pay the green-scheme bonus to Slovakia under theterms of the original contract.

However, the contract also includedan option for Interblue to buy furtherSlovak quotas, to emit 35 million tonnesof carbon dioxide, at the original price of€5.05 per tonne.

Lucia Žitňanská, who is now justiceminister, in August 2009 filed a criminalcomplaint related to the Interblue dealcase, against an unnamed offender. InSeptember 2009, she and other SlovakDemocratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ)deputies handed over to the general pro-secutor an appeal to cancel a contract tosell a further 50 million tonnes of emis-sion quotas.

4 BUSINESS / NEWSMay 30 – June 5 , 2011

2017 completion date for D1 floated

THE D1 highway connectingBratislava and Košice couldbe finished by 2017, statedJán Figeľ, the Minister ofTransport, Construction andRegional Development dur-ing a presentation on thegovernment’s plans forhighway and dual carriage-way construction betweennow and 2014, with the min-ister saying this deadline isrealistic, the SITA newswirereported.

The Višňové tunnel nearŽilina, regarded as the mostdifficult and expensive partof the D1 highway, must becompleted and the ministersaid it could be built by2016-2017 and that a tenderfor the tunnel constructionis expected to be announcedin autumn 2011.

Figeľ also reported that

130 kilometres of highwaysand dual carriageways wouldbe opened in Slovakia in theupcoming four years.

“It is a considerable fig-ure, a great challenge. I con-sider it realistic,” he stated,as quoted by SITA.

By the end of this year,57.5km of highways and dualcarriageways should becompleted, with another5.7km of highways and dualcarriageways planned for2012 and 21km planned for2013. In 2014, 46.2km ofhighways and dual car-riageways are supposed toopen. The minister said thegovernment plans to financethe new road infrastructurefrom multiple sources andestimated the sum requiredover the next four yearswould be about €5 billion.

Identifikátor

FORGET the Terminator. A dif-ferent threat roams the streetsof Slovak cities: theIdentifikátor. The use of aunique ID number attached toall census questionnaires hasbecome a key factor in theheated public debate about theongoing national census,which focuses on three key is-sues:

1. The necessity of thecensus. The law on census 2011was passed way back in 2008but it has started receivingwider attention only now,when little can be changed.Still, the key argumentsagainst a census sound com-pelling – the state already hasmost of the information aboutreal estate, car ownership anddemographic structure in itsvarious databases and compil-ing their data would be bothmore accurate and probablycheaper. The information thestate lacks, such as religious

affiliation or mobile phoneuse, could be gained throughselective polls.

2. The quality of prepara-tion. Municipal councils re-sponsible for collecting thedata have been complainingfor months that they receivedinadequate support from theStatistics Office – in some cit-ies entire blocks were missingin their documents and maps.There has been no campaign toensure that the results reflectthe actual size of the Roma

population – the estimate isbetween 250,000 and 400,000but the last census showedtheir numbers to be under100,000. And the Statistics Of-fice is terrible at explaining itsmethods.

3. Anonymity. At first,census organisers presentedthe entire enterprise as an-onymous. But, thanks to the“Identifikátor” it is not, whichthe Statistics Office later ad-mitted.

These are not the onlyreasons why this census hasstirred more controversy thanprevious ones. This time therewas also a massive clash ofstate institutions. The InteriorMinistry accused the StatisticsOffice of mishandling theproject and the Data Protec-tion Office issued a warningagainst the lack of anonymity.Statistics Office boss ĽudmilaBenkovičová, appointed by theprevious government, saysthat she has done no wrong.

The cabinet is keeping heruntil the end of the census. Butafter that she is likely to hear, ala The Terminator: “Hasta lavista, baby”.

Please allow us to count youTHE MASSIVE machinery ofthe state has been set in mo-tion to siphon sensitive per-sonal information out of itsresidents in order to store ituntil those driven by an insa-tiable thirst to control demo-graphic trends find some wayto use it – at least, this is howsome Slovaks are interpret-ing the nationwide census.

The fact over 100 peoplerecently gave up their jobs ascensus-takers in Bratislavasignals that the discourseover what critics call a lack ofany guarantee of anonymity,has in part turned into hys-teria.

Those who have given upserving the state’s ambitionto count its citizens, housesand apartments said thatthey were discouraged bypeople’s distrust, findingthem unwilling to opentheir doors or even talk tothem. Residents have alsobeen returning census formswithout their numericalidentifier, apparently fearfulof a loss of privacy.

Before anyone interpretsthis as a sign of a formercommunist nation’s hyper-sensitivity to loss of privacy,it is worth noting that vari-ous state institutionsalready have almost all theinformation they are seek-ing in the census.

Slovakia’s statistics au-thority did not invent thecensus and Slovakia did noteven exist as an independentcountry when other nationshad already begun diligentlycounting their citizens, sol-diers, land and buildings.

Yet the concerned cit-izens should not be blamed.The costly campaign aheadof the census was a ratherlame underestimation ofpeople’s concerns about pri-vacy issues, disseminatingthe message: let yourself becounted; it is important foryour future. When concernsover the multi-million-europroject mounted, politiciansrushed to make last-minutescalls on people to submittheir census data.

Ľubomír Kopáček, whodescribes himself as a securityconsultant, poured fuel on thefire by describing the censusas the “improved practices ofthe ŠtB”, a reference to thecommunist-era secret police,and suggested that “practicesworthy of organised crime”

have been put in place by thestate to “invade the privacy ofthe citizen”. He also filed acomplaint with the country’spersonal data protection au-thority and briefly became amedia darling.

The Office for PersonalData Protection (ÚOOÚ) un-expectedly agreed and calledon the Statistics Office (ŠÚ) toimmediately inform residentsthat the data collected for thecensus would not be an-onymous – in direct contra-diction to the ŠÚ’s previousdeclarations – and to cancelthe obligation to place a nu-merical code on the censusform. The ÚOOÚ stated that aresident can be directly iden-tified after attaching the nu-merical code to the censusform and this means the datais no longer anonymous.

This is in fact a typicalcase of state institutionssimply not doing their job.Why had the ÚOOÚ not taken

any preventive measures tosee whether the mega-collec-tion of data was in line withthe principles it is expectedto guard? The privacy watch-dog in fact suggested that itbelieved the statistics au-thority when it said it wouldcollect nothing more thanstatistical data. One wonderswhat type of data collectionwould attract the full atten-tion of the ÚOOÚ if not a na-tionwide census.

The idea of a numericalidentification code obviouslydid not emerge until just be-fore the launch of data collec-tion and the statistics au-thority did not treat the in-formation as top secret.

Nevertheless, the ŠÚobviously did not present afull picture of the census tocitizens: it did not explainthat for a certain time, for alimited number of people,the data will not be fullyanonymous, even if in itsfinal form the data will notbe attached to anyone'sspecific name.

In the age of Facebookand social networking sites,people share all kinds of in-formation; one can track thenumber of their children,where they go on holiday andeven their negative com-ments about their bosses atclearly identifiable work-places. Thus it might seemstrange that suddenly theypanic over having to tell thegovernment whether theyhave an internet connectionor a computer.

In principle, state insti-tutions should have done amuch better census job –perhaps then they could haveexpected residents to havedone a better job of filling outthe forms in return, thushelping the state to get aclearer snapshot of demo-graphic trends, and more.

But if the state had done abetter job of using the data italready possesses, it couldhave avoided the wholedrama, saved money and nothad to face accusations of us-ing practices of the ŠtB.

5OPINION / NEWS

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Never ever in my life have I attacked minorities;I am only attacking the draft law.”

Smer MP Marek Maďarič, speaking during theparliamentary debate on the law on use of minority languages.

SLOVAK WORDOF THE WEEK

EDITORIAL

BY BEATA BALOGOVÁSpectator staff

BY LUKÁŠ FILASpecial to the Spectator

May 30 – June 5, 2011

FREE: Justice minister considers appealContinued from pg 2

Detained in Poland

Mello was detained onOctober 27, 2010 in Krakow,Poland in an apartmentwhere he was living with hispartner, a well-known Slovakactress, and their son.

Mello is reportedly one ofthe most dangerous mem-bers of the Slovak under-world. He is accused of order-ing the murder of a busi-nessman from Most pri Brat-islave in 2004.

The gunman, however,shot and killed thebusinessman’s partner andhis small son while firing atthe businessman’s car. Fol-lowing the shooting, Mellofled abroad.

In 2006 an internationalwarrant for Mello’s arrestwas issued but he was neverdetained, even after the Slov-ak weekly Plus 7 Dní pub-lished pictures of Mello, hispartner and their child inAlicante, Spain, in August2007.

At that time, media spec-ulated that Mello had protec-ted testimony status in crim-inal proceedings against oth-er mob bosses, the Sme dailyreported.

Slap in the face, Lipšic says

The court decisions in-volving Mello represent aslap in the face to justice anda mockery of victims, Interi-or Minister Daniel Lipšic, amember of the Christian

Democratic Movement(KDH), said at a press brief-ing on May 20 followingMello’s release, calling thedecision absurd.

“It is absurd of the Re-gional Court to render thecustody null and void first,and subsequently rule thatthe second custody repres-ents a repeated custody,when the first one was actu-ally nullified,” he said. “Howlong will we tolerate such un-lawful rulings by the courts?”

Lipšic said that Mello’scase was a textbook exampleof one in which the accusedmust remain in custody, ashe is charged with an ex-tremely brutal crime and hadpreviously been on the runfor several years.

Justice Minister Lucia

Žitňanská requested theMello case files from thecourt to evaluate whetherthere are reasons to file a spe-cial appeal.

“At this point our priorityis to see whether there arejustified reasons to file a spe-cial appeal,” her spokesper-son Peter Bubla told the TASRnewswire. “After that we willdecide in a standard proceed-ing the issue of the potentialresponsibility of the judgeswho were dealing with thecase.”

Mello’s attorney, PeterSchmidl, told the SITAnewswire that the RegionalCourt had ruled based on amotion made by the defence.

By Michaela Terenzaniwith press reports

One of the census questions: How long does your daily trip to work take? Photo: SITA

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Pension fund managementcompanies in Slovakia

-Association of Pension Funds ManagementCompanies (ADSS), www.adss.sk-Aegon Dôchodková Správcovská Spoločnosť (DSS),www.aegon.sk-Allianz-Slovenská DSS, www.asdss.sk-AXA DSS, www.axa.sk-ČSOB DSS, www.csob.sk/sporenie-dochodok-ING DSS, www.ingdss.sk-VÚB Generali DSS, www.vubgenerali.sk

Some financial service providers

-OVB AllFinanz Slovensko, www.ovb.sk-Salve Finance, www.salvegroup.com-Partners Group SK, www.partnersgroup.sk

Firms active in credit managementand collection of receivables

-Association of Slovak Collection Agencies (ASINS),www.asins.sk-Atradius, www.atradius.sk-Coface Slovakia Credit Management Services,www.coface.sk-Creditreform, www.creditreform.sk-EOS KSI Slovensko, www.eos-ksi.sk-Euler Hermes, www.sk.eulerhermes.com-Exekučná, www.exekucna.sk-General Factoring, www.generalfactoring.sk-Intrum Justitia Slovakia, www.intrum.sk-Profidebt Slovakia, www.profidebt.sk-Transcom Worldwide Slovakia, www.transcom.com

Second pension pillarmay change again

SAVING for old-age pensions isinevitably a long-term under-taking; this is especially trueon the national scale. In thepast, the state pension contri-butions of economically activeSlovaks were used to fund thepensions of those who hadalready retired. But this ap-proach is no longer able togenerate sufficient funds tomeet the needs of future liabil-ities, due to Slovakia’s unfa-vourable demographic devel-opments. To address this issueSlovakia extended its pay-as-you-go scheme, now known asthe first pillar, by adding twofurther saving pillars, inwhich people can save for theirretirement. But even though

these are called pillars, sug-gesting solidity and perman-ence, they have been shakenwith each change of govern-ment since they were set up.

From the beginning of2005, under the secondMikuláš Dzurinda govern-ment, Slovaks were given theoption to start saving for theirpensions through newly estab-lished pension fund adminis-

tration companies known asthe second – or capitalisation –pillar, while voluntary sup-plementary saving was madepossible even earlier. AfterRobert Fico took power in2006, he initiated extensivechanges to the second pillar.Under these changes, thesecond pillar became volun-tary and young people enter-ing the labour market could

choose to save for their pen-sions in the second pillar butwere not required to do so.

Later, in 2009, the Ficogovernment changed the feestructure for private pensionfund management companiesand introduced guarantees forpension savers preventingtheir accounts from falling be-low the principal sums theyhad invested. Pension fundmanagement companies ob-jected to the change, statingthat it would endanger theiroperations as well as reducethe long-term value of futurepensions for individuals sav-ing via Slovakia’s second pen-sion pillar.

The introduction of guar-antees has caused the pensionfund management companiesto stop investing in equityshares, meaning that all threefunds in which pensioners cansave, i.e. growth, balanced andconservative funds, all nowgenerate similar yields.

See PENSION pg 8

BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁSpectator staff

Slovakia's pension pillars keep changing. Photo: Jana Liptáková

Financing business expansions

THE ECONOMIC crisis diminished com-panies’ appetite for expansion and thatwas subsequently reflected in a reduceddemand for external financing throughloans or equity. The recovery inSlovakia’s economy has encouragedsome companies, which are again be-ginning to look for financing to executetheir business growth plans. Slovakia’sleasing sector reports an upward trend,commercial banks have seen a modestincrease in their loans, and other meth-ods of financing are finding their nichein the market, as well.

According to commercial bankers,demand for loans from businesses re-mains lower than the bankers had ex-pected at this point in the economicrecovery.

“I expected much faster growth ofloans,” Igor Vida, director general ofTatra Banka, said at a Financial Man-agement conference held earlier in May,as quoted by the SITA newswire, addingthat while banks cannot expect in-creases in the range of 10 percent thisyear, this may occur within five yearsbecause the potential for economicgrowth in Slovakia is huge.

The growth in business loans has notreached the pace by which retail loansare increasing, according to Jozef Barta,director general of UniCredit Bank Slov-akia, who said firms are thinking overevery new investment as well as hiringnew staff very carefully because they arenot totally sure whether the crisis isover. Other bank representatives sharedthis opinion at the conference.

Vida believes that the current supplyof money in the market exceeds demandand Patrik Mozola, the head of HSBCBank in Slovakia, said that there are nosignificant projects which banks arewilling to invest in and that is a reasonwhy there is excess money supply.

The interest of businesses in takingbank loans for financing needs increaseddue to the improving economic situationduring the final quarter of 2010, the Fin-ance Ministry and the National Bank ofSlovakia (NBS) wrote in a report releasedin March, but the report also noted thatthe banks remained cautious in theirloan conditions and the growing de-mand clashed against tightened termsby banks. The SITA newswire furtherquoted the report as saying that it isthus of little surprise that more generalgrowth in bank loans to companies hasnot been recorded.

Last year the total volume of bankloans to companies grew by only 0.4 per-cent according to the report.

During the last two months of 2010several banks in Slovakia began clearingtheir loan portfolios of bad loans. Theywere especially selling failed loans andto a smaller extent writing off failed

loans. This trend occurred for loanstaken by businesses in most economicsectors but particularly those in trans-port, the chemical industry, in whole-sale and in real estate. Hotels were thebusiness sector with the highest rate oftroubled loans but surprisingly this wasnot where significant loans sales orwrite-offs of failed loans occurred.

Leasing, another way for businessesto arrange financing for various kinds ofequipment, has recorded significantgrowth thus far in 2011. Companiesclustered in the Association of LeasingCompanies of Slovakia (ALS) signed newdeals worth €399.88 million during thefirst quarter of 2011, representing a20-percent increase from the same peri-od of 2010. The number of contractsgrew by as much as 12 percent from theprevious year. The main driving forces,in line with the leasing industry’s ex-pectations, were new deals for cargo andpassenger vehicles, machines and tech-nology.

Discussing the development of theSlovak market in mid February, JurajEbringer, president of ALS, said thatleasing is a way for businesses to getfunding when they do not qualify for abank loan. Ebringer added that the re-cent growth in leasing activity confirmsthat business in Slovakia has revivedand that companies are becoming morecourageous and optimistic as reflected inan upward trend for leasing – eventhough actual levels remain below thoseof the pre-crisis period.

See LOANS pg 8

BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁSpectator staff

6

Bank terms remain tightso other financing

methods now appeal

Analysts call formore discussion

May 30 – June 5 , 2011

Association of collectionagencies launched in Slovakia

FIVE international collection agencies operating inSlovakia founded the Association of Slovak CollectionAgencies (ASINS) in mid October 2010. Its primary goal isto represent the interests of professional companiesactive in collection of receivables and secure their properoperation in the market. The founding members ofASINS are EOS KSI Slovensko, Intrum Justitia Slovakia,Coface Slovakia Credit Management Services, Creditreform and Transcom Worldwide Slovakia, ASINS wrote inits press release.ASINS further wrote that its main aim is to representand protect the interests of its members, pursue theprotection of legal norms related to collection ofreceivables and build a good reputation for professionalcompanies engaged in collection of receivables.Martin Šoltes, ASINS president, said that vaguelyformulated legal conditions for operation of collectionagencies in the market leads some collection agencies touse unfair practices when collecting receivables."ASINS wants to make the situation in the market forreceivables more transparent and especially preventoperation of unqualified companies using such unfairpractices," said Šoltes.The five founding members account for about 80 percentof the Slovak receivables market. In 2009 they managed525,499 receivable accounts worth €396.84 million intotal, which was almost 45 percent more than in 2008. Ofthat total, receivables from companies and businessesamounted to €53.64 million and receivables from privateindividuals were €158.1 million. Foreign receivables accounted for €22.3 million and the remaining €162.8million represented receivables that individualmembers of ASINS acquired and now administer.The ambition of ASINS is also to represent the Slovakbusinesses active in the collection of receivables at theinternational level and become a member of theFederation of European National Collection Associations(FENCA).

Compiled by Spectator staff

from press reports

CORPORATERESPONSIBILITY

Next issue:BUSINESS FOCUS

PRIVATE & CORPORATE FINANCESecondary insolvency was aregular term during the crisis

Moves to ease personalbankruptcy are in the pipeline

Some households ignore budgeting

ABOUT two-thirds of Slovakhouseholds have a goodsense of their monthly in-come and expenses and regu-larly monitor their budgetwhile the other third do notbother to keep track of abudget in any way. These aremain results of a survey con-ducted by the Factum In-venio agency for ProvidentFinancial at the beginning ofApril among a sample of 1,075Slovak respondents aged 15and older. The survey also

found that 7 percent of Slov-ak households are living ondebt over the long term, theSITA newswire wrote.

“The results prove thewell-known principle thatpeople who have their budgetunder control can managetheir income better and are inthe red less frequently,” saidDiana Priechodská Brodni-anska, spokeswoman forProvident Financial.

Compiled by Spectator staff

Business bankruptcies jump in 2010

THE NUMBER of bankruptcyproceedings increased inSlovakia last year. Districtcourts initiated 814 bank-ruptcy proceedings in 2010,36 percent more than in2009. Based on statistics ofthe Justice Ministry, thenumber of declared bank-ruptcies increased too, up 25percent to 344.

According to AndrejGlézl, external restructur-ing manager at KPMG inSlovakia, last year manycompanies fully experi-enced the impact of second-ary insolvency, the situ-ation when a company isnot able to collect its ownreceivables and because ofthis is late in meeting its ob-ligations to its own credit-ors, the SITA newswirewrote in early April.

As Glézl pointed out,even though the companieswere able to cover their ob-ligations from their own as-sets last year, these re-sources are now drying upand many companies aregetting into serious troublethat can lead to insolvencyproceedings.

Last year the districtcourts received 1,248 bank-ruptcy declarations, an18-percent increase. Glézladmitted that the number ofinsolvency proceedings maygrow further this year andthat this trend may continueuntil the economy com-pletely stabilises.

Last year the number ofcompanies seeking to solvetheir financial problems viarestructuring increased too.While in 2009 courts re-gistered 78 restructuringproposals, in 2010 that num-ber had increased to 129. Intotal, the courts greenlighted87 restructurings comparedto 58 in 2009.

Ivan Lužica, the head ofthe consulting departmentat Deloitte Slovakia, ascribesthis development to the im-pact of the crisis, which isstill stinging. Another factorbehind the increase is, ac-cording to Lužica, a betterlegal understanding of therestructuring process.

“It is also possible to ex-pect an increased number ofbankruptcies and restructur-ings this year,” said Lužica.

Companies and creditmanagement

THE ECONOMIC crisisbrought the term secondaryinsolvency back into thevocabulary of many busi-nesses operating in Slovakia– a vicious, almost endlesscircle in which companiesstop paying their vendors orcontractors because theyhave not received paymentsfor their own products orservices. Bad experiencesduring the economic down-turn increased the interestof many companies in bettercredit management butsince the sting of the reces-sion has lessened some-what, some companies ap-pear to have forgotten thehard lessons of 2009 and2010.

“Secondary insolvencypeaked in the second half of2009 and this peak took placeacross all economic sectors,”Tomáš Mezírka, represent-ing Atradius Credit Insur-ance N.V. in Slovakia, toldThe Slovak Spectator, basedon the company’s statistics.“Apart from some sectors,for example construction,the payment ability of com-panies has visibly increasedand only rather under-capit-alised companies remainendangered by any delay inreceiving their payments.”

The financial difficultiesor potential bankruptcy ofcompanies with these kinds ofproblems are predictable, butMezírka pointed out that “of-ten these are companies thathave been able to lure largevolumes of goods from suppli-ers and their downfall thencauses a domino effect”.

Companies in construc-tion and businesses closelylinked to it were most prob-lematic during the crisis, forexample steel production andalso the transport industry.Mezírka said the financialsituation in steel productionand transport is now stabil-ised but the construction sec-tor remains weak.

“Construction continuesto combat large problems be-cause of fewer orders and itwill be possible to say moreabout this sector only after theconstruction season is over,”Mezírka said.

Mezírka stated that com-pany restructurings have be-

come a significant burden, say-ing that problems in the re-structuring process are endan-gering many other companiesbecause these often surfacequickly, almost overnight.

He said that unsecuredcreditors are collecting only 5percent of their receivablesand secured creditors are col-lecting only 35 percent oftheir receivables in restruc-turings, often after waitingfor several years, and charac-terised the process as morelike “a legalised fraud oncreditors” than salvation for atroubled company.

Were lessons learned

in the crisis?

Even though uncollected oruncollectable receivables maybring down an otherwisehealthy company, experts saythat recent experiences withsecondary insolvency have notpushed many more companiesinto undertaking better or

more extensive credit man-agement. While more interestwas shown in external profes-sional credit management for ashort while, experts say thatcompanies are again becomingless cautious.

“In my opinion interesthas been decreasing again andonly bigger companies havelearned from the crisis,” ĽuborJenis, managing director ofCoface Slovakia Credit Man-agement Services, told TheSlovak Spectator.

“These [companies] haveset up their internal processesbetter than smaller companies,which are afraid of assigningreceivables for collection. Theyare afraid that in doing thisthey would spoil their goodprivate relations and would notget new orders. Thus, they areactually only ballooning re-ceivables since they are con-tinuing to deliver goods or ser-vices also to bad payers.”

Mezírka said that it is un-fortunate that very often inSlovakia external credit man-agement continues to be per-ceived as a solution only afterproblems arise.

“Prevention, for examplevia credit insurance, is re-quired more often and evenafter the experiences of thelast two years when thisproduct saved the existence ofmany companies, we are stilltalking about a much differentinterest [in credit insurancehere] than in countries west-wards from our borders,”Mezírka stated.

Experts describe a numberof common mistakes made bySlovak businesses when man-aging their receivables andtheir credit relationships.

See CREDIT pg 8

BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁSpectator staff

Secondary insolvency is a problem in construction. Photo: TASR

7BUSINESS FOCUS

FOCUS shorts

The crisistaught firms a

lesson - but havethey alreadyforgotten it?

May 30 – June 5, 2011

SP90566/1

LOANS: In searchof alternatives

Continued from pg 6

Mezzanine financing

Another way businessescan get financing is calledmezzanine financing, a hy-brid of debt and equity fin-ancing typically used to fin-ance the expansion of exist-ing companies. Mezzaninefinancing involves a long-term subordinated loanwith its total cost and termsof payment dependentmostly on the success of theexpansion project.

Mezzanine financing isrelatively unused in this re-gion, according to BorisProcik, the head of theboard of directors and CEOof RMS Mezzanine, who toldThe Slovak Spectator lastOctober, that this was thecase in Slovakia becausethere were no specialisedinstitutions dealing withthis method of financing.

“During the pre-crisisperiod banks had expansivegoals and business loans

were relatively easilyaccessible,” said Procik.“Thus, there was no need foralternative or supplement-ary forms of financing. Dur-ing the crisis banks started tore-assess their loan portfoliosand required higher guaran-tees from their clients, bettersecurity, and early settle-ment of their loans.”

This was the time, ac-cording to Procik, when sup-plementary financing viasubordinated debt was wel-comed by businesses as wellas by banks. But Martin Par-dupa, investment director ofRMS Mezzanine, explainedthat mezzanine financingcan be used at other times aswell, most often when thereis a need for developmentcapital, changes in the struc-ture of existing financing,during acquisitions as an ad-ditional source of financing,or when there is a need forequity for investments of aproject nature, for examplewith projects co-financedfrom EU funds.

Moves to ease personal bankruptcy

IT IS NOT only companiesthat can file for bankruptcy:individuals can do the samewhen they are no longer ableto settle their debts. But eventhough this is possible inSlovakia, this way of resolv-ing indebtedness is not oftenused here because of too-tight rules, says one expert.While in the neighbouringCzech Republic hundreds ofindividuals have filed forpersonal bankruptcy, onlyslightly more than 100 Slov-aks did so in 2009, the Smedaily wrote last November.The Justice Ministry has an-nounced plans to soften thelegal rules to make it a littlebit easier for those who needthis option.

Experts say that the pro-cess of personal bankruptcyis something that should beavailable to any citizen – adebtor – as a way of resolvingone’s inability to settle debts.

“The current legal normdoes not provide protectionof property and does not se-cure the possibility of a newstart,” Juraj Alexander fromSalans Europe stated, asquoted by Sme.

A person cannot begin tocope with personal bank-ruptcy without the help offamily members because un-der the current Slovak bank-ruptcy rules a person losesnearly all his or her personalproperty, which often meanshe or she has nowhere tolive. After petitioning forbankruptcy, they must re-quest the termination of

their debts and may thenhave to wait for three yearsand pay annual instalmentsset by the court, which canbe as high as 70 percent oftheir annual net income.

“This is why personalbankruptcy is impossible formost people,” said Alexan-der.

The statistics in Slovakiaconfirm this near impossibil-ity. There were only 104 per-sonal bankruptcy filings in2009 and only 21 people ap-plied for termination of theirdebts.

The first half of 2010showed some higher num-bers but these were far fromhundreds of people. By theend of June, 63 people hadfiled for bankruptcy and only17 had applied for termina-tion of their debts. For com-parison, as many as 915people applied for termina-tion of their debts in themonth of September in theCzech Republic.

Alexander suggests thatSlovakia should adopt the USor Czech system of personalbankruptcy.

“Thus, debtors could getrid of their debts and simul-taneously they could choosewhether they would giveover their current propertyand keep their future incomeor the opposite, to give overfuture income and keep theircurrent property,” Alexandersaid, as quoted by Sme.

Compiled by Spectator staff

from press reports

PENSION: Third pillar already changedContinued from pg 6

This is because pensionssaving companies have to re-port and compare the value ofthe assets in their funds on asix-month basis and as a resultare investing in a very conser-vative way and not risking anylosses. But this safe investmentstrategy brings lower yields.

The Iveta Radičová gov-ernment, which took officelast, summer declared a desireto fix the second pillar. TheMinistry of Labour, Social Af-fairs and Family has elaboratedand submitted for interde-partmental review a draft revi-sion to the old-age pension sav-ing law. However, the draft re-vision still faces a long paththrough the legislative processbefore becoming law.

In the draft revision theministry proposes to scrap theguarantees in the balanced andgrowth funds while preservingit in the conservative fund.Meanwhile, a new type of fundwill emerge – the so-called in-dex fund – while the names ofthe other funds will alsochange. The conservative fundis to be renamed the bond fundwhile the balanced fund be-comes the mixed fund and thegrowth fund will be called thestock fund.

“Our aim is to generatehigher pensions for people andthat’s why we’re makingchanges in the pension-savingslaw and the second pillar,” La-bour Minister Jozef Mihál saidon May 6, as quoted by the TASRnewswire.

Under the newly-proposedrules, savers will be allowed toput their investments into twodifferent funds, one of whichwill be guaranteed. Theamendment will also obligeyoung savers who enter em-ployment to join the second pil-lar. There will be an option toleave the pillar within twoyears of entry.

If passed as drafted, theamendment will become effect-ive as of October 1. However,stipulations concerning guar-antees and other substantialchanges would become effect-ive on January 1, 2012.

While the opinion of pen-sion management companiesand market watchers is divided

over the proposed changesthey are all calling for more ex-tensive discussion. Pensionmanagement companies arepredominantly calling for sta-bility and continuity.

“We believe that what thesecond pillar needs most isstability and continuity,which can be reached onlyunder the precondition thatchanges to the second pillarwill be a result of wide con-sensus, will be sound, convin-cing and will keep all the con-stitutional rights that legisla-tion to date has offered savers,“Jozef Paška, the head of theboard of directors of Allianz-Slovenská DôchodkováSprávcovská Spoločnosť (Alli-anz-Slovenská DSS), one ofpension fund managementcompanies operating in Slov-akia, told The Slovak Spectat-or. “We are afraid that many ofthe proposed changes, for ex-ample cancellation of guaran-tees or introduction of com-pulsory entry for young peoplewill lead to polarisation of so-ciety, which in the futurecould lead to other interven-tions in the system.”

Apart from articulatingthis fundamental reservation,Paška pointed out that thewording of the draft revisionis in many place terminolo-gically inaccurate, cannot beimplemented and is some-times not even comprehens-ible. On the other hand, hiscompany regards the effort tooptimise conditions for in-vesting in the guaranteedschemes as a positive move.

Allianz-Slovenská DSSdoes not regard the introduc-

tion of guarantees by the pre-vious government, with re-gards to the conservative riskprofile of most savers, to be anegative phenomenon. In-stead, it regards the mainproblem as having been theaggressive style of its commu-nication and the failure, at thetime the guarantees were in-troduced, to create an optionfor savers who want to investpart of their money without aguarantee, Paška said.

According to Viktor Kouřil,director general of VÚB Gener-ali DSS, another pension fundmanagement company, saversperceive the introduction ofguarantees positively.

“The problem was the in-troduction of the six-monthperformance assessment peri-od for the funds and,moreover, the unreasonableapproach in applying this toall funds,” Kouřil told TheSlovak Spectator.

Kouřil praised the optionto save in two funds, one ofwhich should follow a conser-vative strategy, and supportedthe launch of the index fund.But he said that cancelling theguarantees could prove to be aproblem because about 17,000savers entered the schemewhile the guarantees werestill being offered, meaningthat cancelling them couldconstitute a violation ofsavers’ legal rights.

Radovan Ďurana of INESS,an economics think tank, alsoconsiders discussion beforenow of the purpose and im-portance of the funds, a pro-cess which might encouragegeneral support for the second

pillar to spread across thewhole political spectrum, tohave been insufficient.

With respect to the draftrevision itself, Ďurana saidthat it returns to the originalobjectives of the second pillar.

“The current system ofguarantees which, however,guarantee zero yields, shouldbe cancelled as an inevitableprecondition for fulfilment ofthe original goals of thesecond pillar,” Ďurana toldThe Slovak Spectator.

Ďurana also welcomed there-naming of the funds,which in his opinion will in-crease transparency; he alsopraised the introduction ofthe index fund for wideninginvestors’ options.

Third pillar became

less attractive

The current cabinet hasalready altered the so-calledthird pillar of the old-age pen-sion scheme. This pillar, with-in which people save for theirretirement via voluntary sup-plementary payments, re-cently lost its tax advantages.Changes to the third pillarwere part of the austeritypackage designed to consolid-ate public finances adopted bythe cabinet last year. To in-crease government revenue,the opportunity for savers inthe third pillar to deduct al-most €400 per year from theirtax base – resulting in an in-come tax reduction of €76 –was terminated.

Speaking in mid May onpublic broadcaster Slovak Ra-dio, Labour Minister Miháladmitted that this had been amistake and that voluntaryforms of saving for pensionsshould be given an advantageand made more attractive, thePravda daily reported.

“The cabinet should an-nounce clearly that the firstpillar will not be able to gen-erate sufficiently high pen-sions, and should call onpeople to secure [their pen-sions] via other means,”Ďurana said, as quoted byPravda. He added that it is notpossible to say that the thirdpillar is the best way, as thebest form of saving for retire-ment differs for each person.

Saving for retirement can often be difficult. Photo: Sme

CREDIT: Firms 'make several mistakes'Continued from pg 7

“If companies have set up an internalprocess of claiming receivables, then it ismostly too long and loses effectiveness,”said Jenis. “Receivables should be as-signed to a collection agency 60 to 90 daysafter the due date. If they do not have anyestablished system, it often happens thatreceivables assigned to a collectionagency are already too old, more than 180days after the due date, and this greatlydecreases their collectability.”

Mezírka said several of the biggestmistakes he sees are a company’s viola-tion of its own internal directives aboutcredit management, in the event theyeven have such directives, as well as anexcessive focus only on the amount ofturnover.

“Only after getting into really difficultfinancial trouble do many companies real-ise that only real turnover, which isturnover that has been paid for, is goodturnover,” Mezírka said.

These experts also think that Slovakcompanies are not using all opportunitiesto better protect themselves from the im-pacts of secondary insolvency.

“The current usage of various meansof protection, either credit insurance oranother product is, alas, still at a low levelin Slovakia,” said Mezírka. “In my opinioneconomising on protection of credits iseconomising in the wrong place becauseunsettled receivables are exactly whatmay bring down any sound company. Buteach manager or owner of a company hasto reach this conclusion on his or her own;we can only wish that this happens earlier

rather than after it is too late.”Jenis also sees several other crucial

areas in which Slovak businesses can im-prove.

“Firms are entering into unverifiedcommercial relations, the contractualbasis of deals is weak, documents aboutdelivery are often missing and so on,”Jenis said, adding that this magnifies apurchaser’s unwillingness to pay. “Wealso often hear statements from debtorssuch as ‘I have not received paymentseither, I have a big unsettled receivableand I am just waiting for money’. Whenwe offer them debt collection, then theysay they will wait a bit longer and theywill try themselves once again. But lateris usually too late. Or they act to solve thisimmediately via a lawyer and that is atime-consuming and expensive solution.”

8 BUSINESS FOCUSMay 30 – June 5 , 2011

FOCUS short

TAX: Self-employed brace for likely fall in take-home payContinued from pg 1

At the same time,Slovakia’s trade unions haveprepared an alternative pro-posal to overhaul the tax sys-tems and strongly reject someof the key elements of the re-form advocated by FinanceMinister Ivan Mikloš.

Some observers believethat the government’s pro-posed changes may discouragethose with higher incomesfrom switching from standardemployment to self-employ-ment and observers also notedthat the changes might en-courage self-employed per-sons to engage in variousforms of creative accounting,including declaring fictitiousbusiness expenses to lowertheir taxable income.

Mikloš, a nominee of theSlovak Democratic and Chris-tian Union (SDKÚ) has saidthat it is impossible to removewhat he calls multiple de-formations in Slovakia’s rev-enue system without harmingsome groups of people.

Based on calculations madeby the Ministry of Finance, theproposed changes will meanthat many self-employed indi-viduals and people working onso-called limited work agree-ments (“na dohodu” in Slovak)will pay more in payroll leviesand income taxes.

But the ministry also saidthat 99.5 percent of personswith standard employmentcontracts will be better off afterthe reforms are adopted, addingthat the same is true for personswho are self-employed if theyhave annual incomes of lessthan €4,823, before income taxand payroll levies. Mikloš said116,600 self-employed indi-viduals have business incomeless than that amount, theTASR newswire wrote.

But Mikloš said the self-employed with “high earningsand negligible expenses” willsee their net income drop dueto the proposed changes in thelump-sum allowance that cur-rently is deducted from aperson’s gross self-employedincome before income taxesare calculated. The ministerhas argued that these high-earning, self-employed indi-viduals include large numbersof those who only have pro-forma self-employed statusand without what he calls this“deformation” they would beincluded in the payroll levysystem as standard employees.

Some specific changes

The government’s propos-al will introduce a so-calledsuper-gross wage and the ratesof the payroll levies for socialinsurance and health insur-ance will be reduced for somepersons. The mandatoryhealth insurance levy was ap-proved by the cabinet at a rateof 9 percent, except for dis-abled persons who will payhalf that rate. The proposedlevy for the various compon-ents of Slovakia’s social insur-ance programme (old-age anddisability pensions as well as

sickness, accident and unem-ployment insurance) is 19 per-cent for employees, 13 percentfor self-employed people and10 percent for those workingvia “na dohodu” agreements,TASR wrote.

The tax-exempt base, theamount on which no taxes arepaid, will be decreased from itscurrent level of 19.2 times thecountry’s minimum subsist-ence level to 18 times. Projec-ted into annual income, theamount of tax-free incomewill drop by €200 in 2012.However, TASR wrote that thistax-exempt base will not bereduced as incomes rise andthis will effectively scrap whatis now called Slovakia’s‘millionaire’s tax’.

The Finance Ministry alsosaid that its package of meas-ures will have an unfavourableimpact on the state budget,with a loss in revenue of €59.9million projected in 2012.

The proposal will also es-tablish an overall maximuminsurance levy, which in 2012will be set at €8,965 for socialinsurance contributions and€4,246 for health insurancecontributions. The FinanceMinistry said this will replacethe maximum income basecurrently used when calculat-ing these levies.

The 40 percent allowancethat self-employed persons cancurrently deduct from theirannual income to representtheir self-employment ex-penses will have a monthly capof about €200 per month in thefuture, as it will be pegged toSlovakia’s monthly subsistencelevel under the cabinet propos-al. Also, payroll levies going tosocial insurance and health in-surance will no longer be de-ductible from a taxpayer’s in-come before calculation of per-sonal income tax liability.

Some of the objections

MPs from the OKS andsome MPs from the ChristianDemocratic Movement (KDH)have made critical commentsabout the proposal. OKS MPOndrej Dostál organised aFacebook press conference andstated that he would stop shav-ing his face until his concernsabout the treatment of self-employed persons and thoseworking via “na dohodu” workagreements are dealt with.

“OKS has long been sayingthat it would not support in-creasing the [income] tax-payroll tax burden for the self-employed or those with ‘na do-hodu’ work agreements,”Dostál said, calling on citizenswho disagree with the cabinet’stax proposals to join in his sym-bolic protest, with men nolonger shaving and womenpainting their nails black.

Ján Figeľ, the chairman ofKDH who also serves as theminister of transport, con-struction and regional devel-opment, said that the cabinetproposal could be modified inparliament.

“Simplification, unifica-tion and bringing more trans-parency to the system cer-

tainly has wider support thansome of the partial solutions,”Figeľ said, as quoted by theSITA newswire.

One economist’s reaction

Radovan Ďurana of the In-stitute for Economic and SocialStudies (INESS) views the ideaof a super-gross wage as themost appealing part of the re-form proposals.

“The current state of in-forming employees about theirpayroll taxes is non-transpar-ent and hard to understand,”Ďurana told The Slovak Spec-tator. “Greater transparency iswelcomed and necessary.”

Ďurana added that themoderate overall decrease inthe payroll levies for employ-ees is also a positive step. Henoted that if the changes alsoaccomplish the goal of simpli-fying regularly submittedpayroll levy reports it will savetime and costs for all contrib-utors to the social insurancesystem.

“The reform also meansshifting the burden from[payroll] contributions to in-come taxes,” Ďurana said.“This shift should be reflectedas well on the expenditure sideof the social system, since the[payroll] levies aren’t of a re-ward character.”

Regarding risks that hesees in the reforms approvedby the cabinet, Ďurana saidthat the changes will impactsome groups of self-employedpersons as well as personsworking on “na dohodu” workagreements who are usingthese work agreements along-side their standard employ-ment.

“The increased payroll taxburden might lead to changesin people’s form of employ-ment or efforts to circumventthis burden,” Ďurana said.

Ďurana said the proposedchange in the 40-percentlump-sum allowance that self-employed persons can cur-rently use is a problematicpoint.

“It is unclear what the cur-rent role [of the 40-percent al-lowance] is, while the duty toreport actual expenses could

hardly be understood as an im-proper requirement for theself-employed,” Ďurana said.“But the cancellation of thisitem will impact self-em-ployed who have an extensiverange of expenses and who willthus see their administrativeburden significantlyincreased.”

Ďurana added that thisgroup of self-employed per-sons, however, will not have ahigher income tax calculationbase as a consequence of the re-form, except for the payrolllevies for social insurance andhealth insurance, which willno longer be deductible itemsfrom income for income taxpurposes.

“Financially, this step willaffect those self-employed per-sons who do not have actualexpenses at 40 percent [ofincome],” Ďurana told TheSlovak Spectator. “It is unclear,however, what the real effectof this approach will be andwhether the self-employedwill report a higher tax base orthey will devote their energytoward securing high enough[actual] expenses.”

Ďurana suggested that theSlovak government could takesome inspiration from othercountries where he said thelump sum allowance rangesfrom 40 to 80 percent.

Ďurana also noted that thegovernment’s reform is notdirectly aimed at reducing theburden of payroll levies but isinstead intended to simplifythe payroll levy collection sys-tem and that reduction of thepayroll levies should come inthe upcoming period.

“I think, however, that thegovernment could havereached for a reduction ofpayroll taxes already thisyear,” Ďurana said.

Impacts on the self-employed

In response to the most de-bated part of the reform, the IN-EKO (Institute for Economic andSocial Reforms) think tank incooperation with the BusinessAlliance of Slovakia (PAS) calcu-lated some of the expected im-pacts of the proposed changeson self-employed persons.

According to the figurespublished on the INEKO blog atEtrend.sk, self-employed per-sons with monthly incomes lessthan €329, with no expenses,who will no longer be requiredto make social insurance con-tributions, will still see their in-come reduced by €9 per monthdue to increases in their contri-bution for health insurance.

Self-employed personswith a gross monthly incomeover €605 with actual expensesfrom zero to 20 percent, thoseearning €675 with actual em-ployment expenses of 40 per-cent of their income, and thosewith gross monthly incomesover €1,010 with actual ex-penses of 60 percent of their in-come will all see their monthlytake-home pay fall, accordingto INEKO, which added thatthe higher the income, the lar-ger the loss in spendable earn-ings will be.

Self-employed people withhigher incomes and low em-ployment expenses will losethe most from the proposedchanges, INEKO said, explain-ing that these include self-em-ployed persons who performdemanding intellectual workas well as the so-called pro-forma self-employed, a cat-egory of people who trans-ferred from standard employ-ment to self-employment inorder to reduce their incometaxes and payroll levies.

INEKO offered the ex-ample of self-employed per-sons with gross monthly in-comes of €3,000 with actualemployment expenses at 20percent of their income, whoit calculates will see theirafter-tax income drop by €367per month, equivalent to a lossof 20 percent.

INEKO expects that theimpact of the changes will be

somewhat softer on self-em-ployed persons with higherlevels of actual employmentexpenses, for example a self-employed person with a€3,000 gross monthly incomewith actual expenses of 40percent of income will lose€121 per month, equivalent toabout 10 percent of income.

“As a consequence of thereduction of the lump sum forexpenses and cancellation ofthe deduction of payroll leviesfrom the [income] tax base,the number of self-employedwho will be paying theirpayroll levies from the min-imum calculation base willmost probably drop,” PeterGoliaš of INEKO wrote in ablog entry.

INEKO also noted that itexpects the changes will re-duce the incentive for peoplewith higher incomes to switchfrom standard employment toself-employment.

“This fact, along with thefactors that the proposal sim-plifies the payroll tax systemand offers a [future] reductionof payroll levy rates for em-ployees are the main reasonsthat INEKO, in principle, sup-ports the reform,” Goliašwrote.

However, Goliaš wrotethat an impact could also bethat self-employed personswith higher incomes who cur-rently use the lump sum de-duction for their expenseswill have stronger motivationto switch to actual accountingof their expenses and couldpotentially seek to reducetheir tax base by recording fic-titious expenses, as well asbearing a greater administrat-ive burden.

For a longer version of thisstory, go to www.spectator.sk

Some household movers are self-employed. Photo: Sme

9BUSINESS / NEWS May 30 – June 5, 2011

CCLASSIFIEDS

RELIGIOUS SERVICES

ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORSHIPBratislava International Church

Sundays, 9:30 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

C 3573

C 3673

REAL ESTATE

NEW.....for..... RENT:• 1-2-room apartments – Vajnorská,

Ružinov, Karlova Ves...• 3-4-room apartments – Drotárska,

downtown, Ružinov,Koliba, Bôrik...• family houses – Koliba, Bôrik

area, Polus area, Horský park,Ružinov...

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Ružinov, Karlova Ves...• 3-4-room apartments – Drotárska,

downtown, Ružinov,Koliba, Bôrik...• family houses – Koliba, Bôrik

area, Polus area, Horský park,Ružinov...

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C 3675

Spišský Štiavnik mansion

THE ABBEY of the Cistercianscan be found in the municip-ality of Spišský Štiavnik loc-ated southeast of Poprad. TheCistercian orderwas founded in1098 in a secludedarea of Burgundy.

The Cister-cians, known fortheir rigorous dis-cipline, originally dividedtheir lives between liturgicalritual and manual labour.Thanks to the efficient cul-tivation of their lands, theirskill at shepherding and theirconstruction of a profitable

ironworks, they quickly grewrich and just as quickly aban-doned their religious ideals.

In 1531, as a result of

battles between Levoča andKežmarok, the monasterywas burned to the ground. Inits place, the presiding lord ofKežmarok, Hieroným Laski,built an ostentatious man-sion that was successively

inhabited by several promin-ent families: the Thurzas, theThökölys and the Eszter-goms. Archbishop Szelepcsé-

nyi later gave thebuilding to the Je-suits, who added achapel to the man-sion. The buildingwas originally de-signed in Renais-

sance style but adaptationsin the 19th century altered itsoriginal facade.

This postcard of the man-sion dates from 1901.

By Branislav Chovan

HISTORY TALKS

Western SLOVAKIA

Bratislaval LIVE MUSIC: E.ON JazzNight 2011 – The third jazznight in Design Factory willbring DJ C.O.D.E, YvonneSanchez from Cuba, PedroTagliani and Luis Ribeiro fromBrazil, Nicola Conte JazzCombo from Italy and en.druand Jirka Vidasov from theCzech Republic; as well asDJane Lady Smiles (Austria) atthe after-party.

Starts: June 3, 19:00-4:00;Design Factory, Bottova 2.Admission: €15 (in advance),€20 (at the door). Tel: 02/5020-1717; www.designfactory.sk.

Bratislaval FOREIGN TALKS: LanguageCafé – A chit-chat in “your fa-vourite language” while sip-ping coffee, this time high-lighting Japanese. The eventis organised by the BratislavaCultural and InformationCentre and the cultural insti-tutes of the embassies of Ja-pan, Germany, Hungary, Aus-tria, UK, Spain, France, Italy,Portugal. The meetings areheld on the first Wednesdayin each month.

Starts: June 1, 17:30; CaféStudio, Laurinská 13. Admis-sion: free. More info: www.sk.emb-japan.go.jp/event_language_cafe.html.

Bratislaval LIVE MUSIC: Joe Cocker –The legendary rock musicianwith the husky voice returnsto Slovakia to perform his re-cent songs as well as all-timefavourites.

Starts: May 31, 20:00; NTCSibamac Arena, Príkopova 6.Admission: €50-€80. Moreinfo: www.eventim.sk.

Bratislaval EXHIBITION: All Inclusive -Marcin Mierzicki – The youngPolish artist works with ob-jects and installations in away that involves the activeperception of the visitor. Eachof his exhibitions is createdindividually for the specificspace.

Open: Mon-Thur 10:00-17:00, Fri 9:00-15:00 untilJune 17; Polish Cultural Insti-tute, SNP Square 27. Admis-sion: free. Tel: 02/5443-2014;www.polinst.sk.

Trnaval LIVE MUSIC: Sólo - IvaBittová – The Czech (Moravi-an) singer, composer, violin-ist and actress, an outstand-ing representative of theCzech alternative scene, givesa solo concert in Slovakia.

Starts: June 5, 19:00;Synagóga – Centre of Contem-porary Art, Halenárska 2. Ad-mission: €10 (in advance), €12(on the door). Tel: 033/5341-261, or 02/5293-3321; www.ticketportal.sk.

Štúrovol HAPPENING: AquaPhone –This event combines books,music, puppets, an art exhib-ition, local delicacies anddrinks, and the documentarymovie “Hranica” by Jaro Vo-jtek. The performance, or-ganised by the town ofŠtúrovo and supported by theSwiss Embassy, commemor-ates the time before theMaria Valeria Bridge con-necting Štúrovo and theHungarian town of Eszter-gom had been built – whentrans-Danube communica-tion was much harder.

Starts: June 4, 11:00-22:00;several venues in Štúrovo.

Admission: free. More info:www.sturovo.com.

Central SLOVAKIA

Banská Bystrical CHILDREN’S OPERA: FerdoMravec – A popular characterfrom children’s books, an ad-venturous ant, has been madeinto an opera for children byJiří Pauer, directed by DanaDinková and conducted by Ig-or Bulla.

Starts: June 1, 17:00, StateOpera, Národná 11. Admis-sion: €3-€5. Tel: 048/2457-120;www.stateopera.sk.

Lučenecl LIVE MUSIC: IMT Smile -After a tour of acoustic con-certs, one of Slovakia’s mostpopular bands makes its onlysolo performance in Lučenec.

Starts: June 4, 19:00;Sports Hall. Admission: €12.Tel: 02/5293-3321; www.ticketportal.sk.

Eastern SLOVAKIA

Košicel LIVE MUSIC: Hrana Tour2011 Oskar Rózsa - Tribute toMarek Brezovský – Hrana (TheEdge) is the project of versatilemusician, composer, con-ductor and producer OskarRózsa that commemorates thetalented Slovak musicianMarek Brezovský, who diedtragically young. It will visitsix Slovak cities and towns.

Starts: June 2, 20:00; Ka-sárne / Kulturpark, Kukučíno-va 2. Admission: €15. Tel: 055/6854-299; www.kulturpark.sk,www.eventim.sk.

Prešovl ASTRONOMY/MUSIC: Hud-ba pod hviezdnou oblohou J.M. Jarre / Music Under theStarry Sky – The music of fam-ous French artist Jean-MichelJarre, under an (artificial)night sky.

Starts: June 2, 18:00; Ob-servatory, Dilongova 17. Ad-mission: €2. Tel: 051/7722-065;www. astropresov.sk.

By Zuzana Vilikovská

EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE

The Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava begins a new pro-gramme on June 2 at 18:00 when it offers in-depth artistic in-sights and experience in the English language. The sessions willintroduce permanent and current exhibitions and will be fol-lowed by informal discussions. The first Thursday Art Talk isfocused on The Last Classic / Ernest Zmeták, Artist and Collect-or – one of the most significant Slovak painters of the secondhalf of the 20th century. It takes place at the SNG, EsterházyPalace, Ľ. Štúr Square (2nd floor). Admission is €4.70; for moreinformation call 02/2047-6270, go to www.sng.sk, or emailmarcela.lukacova @sng.sk. Photo: Courtesy of SNG

THE 20TH year of Zlaté stuhy (Gold Ribbons) / Concourse d’Elégance, a parade of more than 40 antique autos will takeplace on Piešťany’s Spa Island between June 2 and 4. There willbe competitions for best car from before 1918, best car after 1919as well as best matching historical garb by a crew. Admission isfree. The parade of historical vehicles will begin on June 4 at10:00 as part of the "Opening of the Spa Season", offering a col-ourful and varied cultural and entertainment programme. Formore information, visit www.spapiestany.sk. Photo: ČTK

10 CULTURE

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

Weather updates and forecasts from across Slovakiacan now be found at www.spectator.sk.

A Slovak’s name day (meniny) is as important as his or her birthday. It is traditional to present friends or co-workers with a small gift, such as chocolates or flowers, and to wish them Všetko najlepšie k meninám (Happy name day)

N A M E D A Y M A Y - J U N E 2 0 1 1

Monday

Ferdinand

May 30

Tuesday

PetronelaPetrana

May 31

Wednesday

Îaneta

June 1

Thursday

XéniaOxana

June 2

Friday

Karolína

June 3

Saturday

Lenka

June 3

Sunday

Laura

June 4

Slovaks are introduced tocontemporary circus acts

WHEN YOU think circus youprobably conjure up images ofhuge striped tents withparades of ponies and mon-keys followed by acrobats,clowns and jugglers all lead-ing up to a dramatic con-frontation between man andbeast, the face-off between anenraged African lion and afearless lion tamer.

But a new theory of what acircus should be is spreadingaround the world, a concept,the Nouveau Cirque, that es-pouses the idea that animalsdo not belong in a circus. Thiscontemporary kind of circusmade its first appearance inSlovakia in mid-May at theCirkul’Art festival inBratislava’s Medical Garden.

It featured performersfrom 15 countries and organ-isers estimated that it attrac-ted some 3,500 visitors.

The main event featuredsome names already knownto Slovaks, such as therenowned Czech clown BolekPolívka and the T.E.J.P.theatre. Also on hand wereNouveau Cirque artists fromSpain (Theater Yllana), Japan(Unicycling Cirkus), Belgium(Paki Paya), Denmark(Theatro Glimt), and Italy andSwitzerland (Circocentrique).Other performances and

activities were offeredthroughout the gardenwithout charge.

“We are happy to bringcontemporary circus toSlovakia,” the festival’s or-ganiser, Pavol Kelley, told theSme daily. “It’s been knownin advanced countries foryears,” Kelley added, sayingthat there even is a universityof contemporary circus. “Ourfeeling is that animals don’tbelong under a circus tent,”he said.

Nouveau Cirque is one of

the newest genres of the per-forming arts according to thefestival’s website. Theconcept originated in Francein the 1970s out of independ-ent theatre's need to explorenew forms by reviving forgot-ten rituals and dramatic tra-ditions as well as circus andstreet theatre skills.

Contemporary circus canbe characterised as narrativestorytelling as it uses meta-phors, themes, theatrical im-ages and stories alongsidetraditional circus skills.

May 30 – June 5 , 2011

Cirkul'Art in Bratislava. Photo: Tomáš Medelský

Turbulent times at Trnava gallery

THE FUTURE of Trnava’s Ján Koni-arek Gallery (GJK) remains uncer-tain following the dismissal of itsdirector and the suspension of itsprogramme of exhibitions for 2011.Though it has been several monthssince Vladimír Beskid left his posi-tion, the interest of the media in thegallery’s fate has recently been re-newed after a major festival wascancelled only days before it wassupposed to start at the GJK.

Vladimír Beskid was dismissedby the Trnava Regional Parliamenton February 9 over what officialscalled repeated breaches of discip-line, which included a late submis-sion of the property declaration andseveral instances where violation ofsafety procedures occurred, such asinsufficient training of cleaningpersonnel working on ladders.

“I hold Mr Beskid to be an irre-sponsible person, acting without re-spect for the institution he presidedover, for his co-workers and for ourcultural heritage,” Tibor Mikuš, pres-ident of the Trnava Self-GoverningRegion and the author of the propos-al to dismiss Beskid, told the TASRnewswire after the council session.

At the time, Beskid’s dismissalprompted widespread protests fromthe public. Over 700 artists, curat-ors and students from Slovakia andthe Czech Republic signed an online

petition objecting to the decisionand a group of protesters gatheredoutside the council office on the dayof the session.

Three months later, JakubSlobodník was appointed provi-sional director of the GJK. On April27, only a day after his appoint-ment, Slobodník announced thatthe gallery’s 2011 programme of ex-hibitions had been cancelled untilfurther notice “due to changes inthe management team of the gal-lery and the dissolution of the Gal-lery Council”.

The GJK Gallery Council servesas an advisory board to the directorand annually approves GJK’s pro-gramme of exhibitions. AfterBeskid’s dismissal it was dissolvedby the Trnava Regional Council.Slobodník added in an officialstatement that GJK’s permanentcollection remains accessible tothe public.

Among the cancelled events wasMultiplace, a festival of the new me-dia, planned to be held at the GJKbetween May 2 and 6. Founded in2002, Multiplace takes place everyyear simultaneously in differentEuropean countries. The 2011 editionwas held in several townsthroughout Slovakia, Romania,France, Iceland, Hungary and theCzech Republic. The announcementof the festival’s cancellation imme-diately sparked new protests.

“The provisional cancellation ofthe programme of exhibitions is un-justified and unprecedented; it re-minds me of the practices of theformer regime, which used to pre-vent underground artists from freelyexhibiting their works,” MagdalénaKlobučníková, president of theCouncil of Slovak Galleries, wrote inan open letter to Slobodník. Organ-isations such as Trnava Forum 89,East of Paradise and the Slovak sec-

tion of the International Associationof Art Critics (AICA) sent similar let-ters to the gallery's management.

The artists who were supposed totake part in the May festival pro-tested against the decision by show-casing their works on a fence outsidethe GJK. One of the videos screened,an animated short film by ViliamSlaminka entitled Who’s the BossHere? is an allegorical reaction toBeskid’s dismissal. According to JanaKapelová, a visual artist who alsotook part in Multiplace with a seriesof video-lectures, this particularmovie – and especially its title –might have been among the reasonsthe festival had been cancelled.

“We obviously touched upon asensitive issue,” she told The SlovakSpectator. “We did not expect thatthis playful, slightly ironic video,which nobody had actually seen be-fore, could lead to such a reaction,which is clearly an instance ofcensorship.”

Juraj Čarný, chairman of theSlovak section of AICA, agreed, stat-ing that “it is now a public secretthat there were political reasons be-hind this measure”.

When contacted by The SlovakSpectator, Slobodník refused to ex-plain his decision to cancel Multi-place along with other events sched-uled for 2011, stating only that“Trnava Region is the only authoritycompetent to provide information ofthis kind”. He likewise refrainedfrom commenting on GJK’s future.

“Being only a provisional director,I am not in the position to talk about

the future of the gallery,” he said.“Once a new director has been appoin-ted, he or she will decide about whatkind of events will be held at the GJK.”

Patrik Velšic, spokesperson forthe Trnava Self-Governing Region,confirmed that a new programme ofexhibitions will only be approvedafter the appointment of a new dir-ector. The selection process is cur-rently ongoing and should be com-pleted by the end of June, he added.As for the cancellation of Multiplace,Velšic said “it was not even listed onthe approved programme of exhibi-tions planned for 2011, as was thecase with many other events organ-ised by the GJK both in its premisesand even abroad”.

Beskid confirmed that Multi-place had not been included in theschedule but said this did not justifyits cancellation.

“The programme of exhibitions,as its name suggests, features onlyexhibitions, and not festivals or oth-er kinds of events; in addition, theGJK has taken part in Multiplaceevery year since 2002 and was one ofits founders, so our participation in2011 was certainly not a secretmatter,” the former director told TheSlovak Spectator.

Beskid said he viewed his dis-missal “as yet another instance ofrepeated incompetent interventionsand efforts to assert power over thegallery’s activity, with the objectiveto put forward mainstream andkitsch. I find this unacceptable, bar-barous, and strongly reminiscent ofthe earlier times.”

BY DOMINIKA UHRÍKOVÁSpectator staff

Multiplace was staged outside the GJK in protest. Photo: Sme - Roman Gajdoš

11CULTURE May 30 – June 5, 2011

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For more information visit www.spectator.sk/productswrite to circulation@spectator.sk or call +421 2 5923 3300

www.spectator.sk

Porsches inshort supply

THE FIRSTSlovak rally ofPorsche carswas held onApril 22 inSNP Square in

Banská Bystrica, but was at-tended by fewer than adozen cars.

Nevertheless, the eventis new and its organiser,Radovan Drtil, told the TASRnewswire he would like totry again in future years.

“On that day, a paradethrough the city took placeand on the next day the carscontinued towards the HighTatras, Poprad andKežmarok, where we con-cluded our event,” Drtil said.

He added that Porschereunions have a ten-yeartradition in the Czech Re-public where several dozenof these luxury cars, oftenincluding rare vehicles,gather every year.

A Porsche rally in the Czech Republic. Photo: ČTK

Colour handprintssupport forests

ORGANISERSof an event inZvolen calledForestry Dayscollected 1,280handprints for

an initiative called Ruky preles (Hands for Forests), theTASR newswire wrote. Thecoloured prints of people’shands were collected atZvolen's Main Square oversix hours on April 14. It wasthe first attempt at a Slovakrecord of this type, said IgorSvitok from SlovenskéRekordy, which keeps trackof such efforts in Slovakia.

“The central idea of theinitiative was to expresssupport for the message ofthe 2011 International Yearof Forests and each hand-print expressed agreement

with the message [of protect-ing forests],” Svitok said.“Among the 1,280 hand-prints was one by Slovakia'spop idol, Peter Cmorík, whoeven autographed it.”

As in many other effortsof this type, the number ofhandprints is expected torise as others seek to beat therecord. The National ForestryCentre in Zvolen organisedthe April event.

The abandoned Lomnica Hotel in Tatranská Lomnica. Photo: TASR

‘Tatra Trash’ website shouldprovoke lively discussion

THE TATRASBeautifying As-sociation hasdecided to pro-voke some livelydiscussion and

make people think about thecondition of some of the HighTatras’ buildings, calling itsproject Tatranské haraburdy(Tatra Trash) and displayingmountain buildings on its web-site that are in particularly poorcondition.

One example of a Tatra har-aburda featured on the websiteis the Lomnica Hotel, which isin the centre of Tatranská Lom-nica, and has been in a dilapid-ated condition for more thanten years. Apart from a photoand basic data about each build-ing, the website includes in-formation about the current

owner of the building, based ondata from the land registry.

“Haraburda representssomething unnecessary,something thrown away.However, we don’t want thebuildings to become unwantedobjects and to be put aside asdiscarded toys. The buildingsform one consistent whole withthe surrounding green,” saidJakub Staško of the TatrasBeautifying Association at apress conference, as quoted bythe SITA newswire.

According to the www.tatranske-haraburdy.sk websiteother similar “trash” includesthe observation tower MonteMóry, Vila Limba, Vila Marína,the spa house Liečebný domLimba, Kúpeľný dom (anotherspa house), the WeszterheimHotel, as well as others.

Currently, the websitefeatures 12 buildings that theassociation calls culturalmonuments and that it saysare not being properly caredfor by their owners.

The general public canhave a say about these build-ings in the Tatras in an onlinepoll and Staško believes thiscould be a form of pressure onthe owners to do somethingabout the current state oftheir buildings.

The Tatranské haraburdyproject is not just about de-teriorating buildings in theHigh Tatras, since part of thewebsite also shows culturalmonuments in the moun-tains as well as memorials.The website will graduallyadd other buildings and issuessuggested by site visitors.

Bratislava’s ‘Lost City’ project gets fundsBRATISLAVA’s regionalself-government willprovide €12,000 to supportthe project known asStratené mesto (Lost City)which will construct a rep-

lica of a synagogue on the site where theoriginal building stood at Bratislava’s his-toric Rybné námestie (Fish Square) withthe goal to revive, virtually, a part of Slov-ak capital that was destroyed in the past,complete with its ancient name ofPodhradie (Settlement Round the Castle).

Pavol Frešo, president of the BratislavaSelf-Governing Region, told the TASRnewswire that it is important to com-memorate important buildings within theboundaries of Bratislava, like the demol-ished synagogue, that were an essentialpart of city life in the past.

The project was initiated by the Is-raeli Chamber of Commerce in Slovakiawith the hope to show – particularly foryounger people – at least a virtual imageof how that part of the city looked beforeit was torn down in the 1960s. The re-gional government will attempt to soli-cit donations from other sources so thatit is not the only source of funds for theproject. Bratislava Mayor Milan Ftáčniksaid that he also supports the project,the SITA newswire wrote.

The project, officially called“Stratené mesto: Bratislava PozsonyPressburg”, seeks to motivate Bratis-lavans to look at their past and com-memorate certain traditions that werepractically erased over the course of the20th century. Bratislava has been usingits current name only since the early

20th century; before then was called byits Hungarian name, Pozsony, or by itsGerman name, Pressburg, as both theselanguages were spoken in Bratislava andthe city had multicultural traditions be-cause of its proximity to the Austrianand Hungarian borders.

Another idea presented as part of thethe project is to feature key events andlocales in the interior of a tram that hasinitially been dubbed "The Tram of His-torical Memory” which will travel over aroute with the symbolic name “The Ringof Historical Memory”.

At the midpoint of the ring the vir-tual silhouette of the synagogue will ap-pear in the form of a coulisse in Rybnénámestie, where the original 25-metre-tall synagogue, completed in 1893, wassituated.

Golf atTále

THE LADIESEuropeanTour (LET)will stop atthe Gray Beargolf course in

Tále over the weekend ofMay 26-29 for the AllianzLadies Slovak Open. It willmark the second timeSlovakia’s first champion-ship course has hosted oneof the prestigious LETevents.

“The LET enjoys huge in-terest worldwide; thus weare glad to have the chanceto organise this leg of thetour for the second time inSlovakia,” the promoter ofthe event, Jozef Soták, toldthe TASR newswire. Onehundred and twenty-sixprofessional golfers from 29countries are due to competeover four rounds. The Slovakevent has prize money of€350,000; the winner gets€52,000.

The only previous Slovakwinner of a LET event, Zuz-ana Kamasová, plans to par-ticipate in the event. “I havealways dreamt of the chanceto play professional golfwith top rivals at home.After my victory at the LallaMeriem Cup in Morocco, Ifeel like I could be successfulat my home course at Tále,”she announced before thetournament. Slovakia is alsorepresented by a new talent,Natália Hečková, who is 16years old.

The biggest stars of thetour include the first fourplayers on the chart fornomination to the autumnEurope-versus-US SolheimCup: Laura Davies andMelissa Reid (UK), ChristelBoeljon (Netherlands), andVirginie Lagoutte-Clement(France). This year, the LETcovers 27 events in 20 coun-tries, including visits toChina and Australia.

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AROUND SLOVAKIAcompiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports

12 FEATUREMay 30 – June 5 , 2011

A handprint. Photo: SITA