Archive of articles - August 2010, page 5
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Interblue Europe sticking to its contract
INTERBLUE Group Europe, which claims to be the legal successor of the US-based Interblue Group that bought a large tranche of Slovakia’s carbon dioxide emission quotas during the term of the past government, has refused to terminate its right to buy remaining emissions quotas that were specified in the initial sale, according to Martin Ružinský, the State Secretary at Slovakia’s Agriculture and Environment Ministry, the TASR newswire reported.
Rail-fare rises not ruled out
THE STATE-RUN joint-stock railway company, Železničná Spoločnosť Slovensko (ŽSSK), Slovakia’s operator of passenger rail transportation, said it cannot rule out increases in passenger fares from the beginning of 2011. However, the company is still consulting the option with the Transport Ministry which represents the state as a stockholder, the SITA newswire reported.
Floods strike again
ANOTHER wave of floods hit some regions of central Slovakia on Sunday, August 15. A so-called thousand-year flood filled the streams of the Upper Nitra region and inundated parts of Handlová and Prievidza and their surrounding villages, reaching a depth of 3 metres in some places.
Kolárovo’s unique mill floats but doesn’t turn
BY THE beginning of the twentieth century, water mills were a feature of almost every village along the larger rivers of Central Europe. While several “fixed” mills along river banks have been preserved, there is only one surviving floating mill among all the countries of the Visegrad Four, in Kolárovo on the Little Danube River. However, its wheel turned just once at Kolárovo before becoming non-functional, owner Ivan Šáli told the ČTK newswire.
Volunteers help to maintain zig-zag railway
FOR 14 YEARS, volunteers from Slovakia and the Czech Republic have helped to maintain the historical back-swath – or zig-zag – forest railway in the open-air museum at Vychylovka, in the Kysuce region of Slovakia. Fans from the civic association Klub romantikov úzko-rozchodnej železnice Oravy a Kysúc / Club of the Romantics of the Narrow-gauge Railway of Orava and Kysuce (KRÚŽOK) repaired the rails in early August.
Bežní ľudia
“I WANT to live like common people, I want to do whatever common people do,” sang Jarvis Cocker of the British group Pulp in the 90s. Years later, Slovak politicians are catching on. And common people are all you hear about.
Change may come to minority laws
THE SLOVAK government will soon re-evaluate the criteria for use of minority languages in matters of public administration, said the Deputy Prime Minister for Minorities, Rudolf Chmel, as reported by the TASR newswire on August 13.
Qute of the week
“Almost 57 percent of our election programme is in the government programme – that’s an exact number.”
Russia’s Gazprom gets a Slovak twin
RUSSIAN gas giant Gazprom now has a double in Slovakia.
Galko highlights doubtful ministry deals
LUCRATIVE deals involving 20-year-old Soviet-made helicopters and expensive Zodiac FC 470 inflatable boats of no apparent use to the army were among the legacies that Defence Minister Ľubomír Galko says he inherited from his predecessor at the Ministry of Defence.
Countrywide Events
Western SLOVAKIA
New US ambassador arrives in Slovakia
PRESIDENT Ivan Gašparovič greeted the new US ambassador to Slovakia, Theodore Sedgwick, on August 18. Sedgwick was sworn in to his post on July 4.
Encouraging Austrian companies to eye Slovakia
AUSTRIA and Slovakia have not escaped the impacts of the global economic slow-down, but Patrick Sagmeister, the Austrian Commercial Counsellor in Bratislava, regards the downturn as having provided a stimulus for Austrian companies to take more interest in Slovakia. He thinks that is the high quality on offer which prompts many Austrian firms to come to Slovakia.
Nature knows no borders
OVER the centuries humans have forced the Danube River into rigid banks to prevent its flooding from endangering people living nearby. Humans have harnessed the Danube’s waters to ship goods to and from the North and Black Seas and built dams to generate electricity – leaving only small parts of the river untouched and in its original rough, and sometimes also destructive, beauty. One such stretch is just across Slovakia’s border in Austria, at the Donau-Auen National Park. While visitors from Slovakia have been welcomed by the park administration for some time, this year is special because Slovakia, as one of countries sharing the Danube, is the park’s guest country for this season.
An era of transparency dawns, but is it too good to be true?
TRANSPARENCY is not a natural instinct for many politicians. Most do not feel any natural inclination to share with the world bits of information on what bills they have paid or what offerings they have received for what should have been a public service – but wasn’t.
State contracts to go online
TRANSPARENCY isn’t just a word – that has been the message from the new government ever since Prime Minister Iveta Radičová took over. Now her cabinet is trying to prove it and has promised to publish all deals that involve state money. Moreover, such contracts will not become valid until they are posted online, allowing the public to examine the numbers and conditions. Political ethics watchdogs suggest that the new procurement transparency rules might mark the twilight of the dubious deals that were cooked up by ministers and state officials of all types over the past couple of years or more. However, the largest opposition party, Smer – which was in government until June this year – has expressed scepticism about the new rules.
Some Austrian companies or companies with Austrian investors in Slovakia
Baumax,www.baumax.sk
Hungary's Sólyom tries again to enter Slovakia
“I WILL be back,” Hungarian president László Sólyom said last year as he stood on the Elisabeth Bridge linking the Hungarian town of Komárom with its Slovak twin Komárno across the Danube. Slovakia’s authorities had barred him from entering Slovakia, touching off a diplomatic spat between the two countries. A year on, Sólyom, who is no longer the president of Hungary, announced plans to visit Komárno – but this time as a private person.
‘Maria Theresa’s bridge’ to be rebuilt
SLOVAKIA’S Devínska Nová Ves and Austria’s Schlosshof will again be joined across the Morava River by a new bridge.
Austrian institutions in Slovakia
Austrian Embassy
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- Top 10 events in Bratislava for foreigners More articles ›
