Archive of articles - March 2006, page 6

FNM halts ongoing privatization tenders

Mesežnikov: Candidates lists not surprising

AS POLITICAL parties finalized their lists of candidates ahead of the June 17 national elections, The Slovak Spectator spoke to Grigorij Mesežnikov, the head of the Institute for Public Affairs think tank, about the composition of the lists and the implications of the nominations.

Candidates lists betray different electoral strategies

BY MID-March, most of Slovakia's political parties had announced lists of candidates they would be fielding in June's general elections. While some parties rewarded loyalty by stacking their lineups with well-known faces, others seemed almost in an experimental mood, naming celebrities and sports figures to top spots on their election cards.

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Reader feedback: The Slovenian example

Deputy PM proposes council for gender equality

Čičmany

SLOVAKIA lacks bustling cities with sprawling Old Towns filled with historical buildings. In fact, many of the country's historical Old Towns were significantly demolished during Communism.

Green report urges country not to rest on laurels

GOOD WORK, but much remains to be done, was the message of a recent European report on Slovak environmental policy.The European Environment Agency (EEA) included Slovakia for the first time in its recent report on the European environment, "State and Outlook 2005", saying the country had made progress under the current Dzurinda administration, particularly on emissions and waste disposal, but that in the longer term it had little to be proud of.

Biofuels are coming

BIOFUELS are becoming increasingly popular across Europe and it seems it will not take long until they reach Slovakia as well. Although Slovakia already has biocomponent and biofuel producers you will not find biofuels at the filling stations yet, because the state still lacks the legislation to define the parameters and conditions of the biofuel market.The Slovak refinery Slovnaft began producing biodiesel, its first biofuel, last year. Currently, all biodiesel produced is exported. Slovnaft is now preparing to launch the production of biogasoline.Slovnaft's main supplier of biocomponent for its biogasoline is a Slovak company Enviral, which produces bioethanol. The company, located in Leopoldov, won the tender to be a biocomponent supplier for the whole group of MOL, to which Slovnaft belongs. As a consequence, Enviral has already decided to extend its production capacities. The overall investments should reach about Sk3 billion (€80 million) and the project should be completed by 2007.

White House visit yields no visa thaw

PRIME Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda returned virtually empty-handed from his first official trip to the White House on March 14. His visit brought no US concession on the most important issue in bilateral relations for Slovakia - the US visa requirement - but offered the Slovak leader a chance to again highlight the friendly relations between the two countries, and squeeze some electoral capital out of being photographed with President George W Bush.

Right wing group against Fico

THE INDEPENDENT Civic Democratic Youth (ODM) association started an anti-Robert Fico campaign on March 14 entitled "If they attack you with Fico, fight back with reason".Robert Fico is the leader of the opposition social democratic Smer party, which leads by a large margin in the polls, but has been faulted by political analysts as lacking professional experience and economic expertise.

NGOs compete for 2 percent of income tax

ST increases charges at payphones

Dan Brantigan delivers a "good mess"

US TRUMPET player Dan Brantigan will tour Slovakia with his American-Slovak quintet from March 20 - 29. The group plays rock laced with a style of improvisation Brantigan calls a "mess." "A good mess," he says, is as if "Pat Metheny met Led Zeppelin and U2 for a drink at a rave, and they all decided to play together."

Fico ready for compromise

GDP data even better than forecast

THE GDP story just keeps getting better. After the Statistics Bureau delighted markets last month with an estimate of 7.5 percent GDP growth for 4Q 2005, one of the highest rates Slovakia has ever seen, the actual results released in early March were even better at 7.6 percent.

Reader feedback: Just a media stunt

Do Slovaks pay the most for electricity?

WITH REGARDS to income, Slovaks have the most expensive electricity in the European Union, states the results of a study by the consultancy firm PA Consulting. When put in perspective, nominal electricity prices in the Slovak Republic are the highest among the ten new EU member states.According to the study, which based its data on information from Eurostat, Slovaks paid an average of Sk5,160/MWh (€133.4/MWh) last year, including taxes.

Reader feedback: Are Slovaks just cheap labour?