Archive of articles - June 2002, page 16

Slovaks annually drink 89 litres of beer each

EC knocks Internet prices, public connections

Army reform continues

MPs keep office perks

Mikloš calm after NBS warning

Little interest in joint venture on bad loans

Refugees free to come and go

GABČÍKOVO: ARSALAN, a 36-year-old Afghan singer, and his family of nine children requested asylum in Slovakia six months ago, after three months of travelling across Asia and eastern Europe in tough conditions and cold weather."The guides we hired to smuggle us through dropped us off somewhere in Slovakia at night and said all we had to do was follow a light in the darkness for 10 minutes to the nearest police station and ask for asylum. But it took us all night to reach the nearest village," he said.Today housed in a refugee camp in southern Slovakia's Gabčíkovo, near the Hungarian border, the family say they are enjoying Slovakia, although they will not say if the country is their final destination.

Reader feedback: Domestic suppliers should be more self-reliant

MPs approve first step in major pension reform

PARLIAMENT passed a major change to the rules governing Slovakia's pension system on May 29, tying pensions in future more closely to how much a contributor earns, raising the retirement age of women and stripping politicians of the power to decide annual pension increases.In one of the first steps towards pension reform the Dzurinda government has taken, the legislature agreed that people who contribute more to the pension fund because of higher earnings should have a right to higher retirement earnings. The changes are expected to take effect as of the beginning of next year.The changes also pave the way for 30 per cent of contributions to go into a special account that will collect interest - called a 'capitalisation pillar' - but which will continue to be administered by the state Sociálna poiszovoa insurance house.

IMF repeats deficit warnings

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a stern warning that the Slovak government needs to tighten its fiscal belt to avoid currency pressures and interest rate rises, as well as damage to its ambition to join the European Union.The mission released preliminary findings on May 22 from its regular mission to Slovakia that predict growth in gross domestic product (GDP) of four per cent this year, up from 3.3 per cent in 2001, but also urge key fiscal reforms, without which the county's current account deficit could reach $2 billion, or nine per cent of GDP in 2002."There is a risk that the deficit will remain at an unsustainable level, or may even increase, because of excessive domestic demand pressures, which reflect too expansive a fiscal policy.

Slapped: Media take criticism from politicians

PRIME Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda recently attacked Slovak journalists for being unethical and for what he suggested was an absence of professionalism in their work.The PM's criticism was bracketed by two court rulings awarding politicians damages for newspaper libel (see article this page), raising the stakes, as fall elections approach, in relations between the two camps.Dzurinda, whose SDKÚ party is well under 10 per cent in the polls and has been savaged by the media for corruption and broken promises by his government, addressed his criticism to the Slovak media in general.

Topoľčianky: Presidential treatment!

AMERICAN presidents holiday at Camp David, British royalty at the Balmoral castle retreat in Scotland. Normal people like you and me are not allowed to vacation there. We are not permitted to walk in the footsteps of world leaders like 'Dubya' or Prince Charles.But in Slovakia it's different. Since President Schuster spends his summers stalking panthers and getting kidnapped by natives in the Brazilian Amazon, the former Czechoslovak presidential summer retreat is available for other guests. Consequently, anyone with Sk2,000 ($40) to spare can sleep in the very bed that presidents of the first Czechoslovak state slept in, at the Topoľčianky manor house.

Secret service wants more money

Reader feedback: Compensation only token

FNM to launch ZSNP sale

Papers to pay libel damages

TWO Slovak papers are to pay millions of crowns in penalties for libeling Ján Slota, head of the opposition Real Slovak National Party (PSNS), and Miroslav Kotian from the opposition Slovak National Party (SNS).A court in the northern Slovak city of Žilina has ruled that the daily Nový čas, a top-selling tabloid, has to pay Sk5 million to Slota for a story the paper wrote in 2001 saying that Slota had urinated from the terrace of a Bratislava restaurant. Slota said he would use the money to get himself "a nice car".

Countrywide Events

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Reader feedback: In Slovak blue cheese we trust

EU stats say Slovaks among worst paid