Archive of articles - April 2014, page 15
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Radio_Head Awards handed out, Korben Dallas most successful
THE SIXTH year of the Radio_Head awards saw most of the accolades going to the band Korben Dallas: it received a total of three prizes out of five nominations, the SITA newswire wrote. The band won in the following categories: Concert Band/Performer of the Year, Album of the Year (Karnevalová Vrana) and Single of the Year (Otec).
Kiska begins transition to office
THE RESULT of the presidential election amounted to much more than a mere change in personnel, says Grigorij Mesežnikov, president of the non-governmental Institute for Public Affairs.
Exercise: Telling the truth on immigration
This exercise is linked to the article: Telling the truth on immigration
Switch to DST saves €20-30 million
SLOVAKIA observes daylight saving time (DST), or summer time, based on the argument that changing the clocks leads to savings in electricity. This year the switch took place during the last weekend in March. The Institute for Financial Policy (IFP) has calculated that the switch to DST can save to Slovaks between €20 and €30 million.
Liptovský Mikuláš declines to invite Russians to WWII event
REPRESENTATIVES of Liptovský Mikuláš, Žilina Region, have rejected the request from the Russian Embassy to Slovakia to have a Russian military attaché attend celebrations commemorating the 69th anniversary of the town’s liberation from Nazi Germany. The decision came as a response to the situation in Crimea, the TASR newswire reported on April 3.
New rules for personal data protection to change slightly
PARLIAMENT overrode the veto of President Ivan Gašparovič who refused to sign the amendment to the law on personal data protection, but in the end have accepted some of his suggested changes, the SITA newswire reported on April 3. The changes were cleared by the MPs last week in a fast-track proceeding, as employers’ associations heavily criticised the law, calling it nonsensical.
Paška ends talk of moving Dubovcová east
SPEAKER of Parliament Pavol Paška is not talking about moving the office of Ombudswoman Jana Dubovcová from Bratislava to Košice anymore.
Prosecutor files perjury charges against Hedviga Malinová
THE PROSECUTOR has closed the investigation of Hedviga Malinová, an ethnic Hungarian who said in August 2006 that she was attacked by two men after being overheard to speak Hungarian, and filed a lawsuit against her, the Pravda.sk website reported on April 4.
Kaliňák defends police shooting at students
POLICE officers regularly shoot at civilians, said Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák after the session of the parliamentary committee for defence and security. He was explaining the shooting on D2 highway from June 2013 in which the police fired shots at a car in an attempt to detain a criminal suspected of two murders. Instead, the police detained a group of four students who had nothing to do with the case. The entire operation lasted more than five hours, with the students having no idea as to why they had been stopped and interrogated for much of that time.
Parliament picks five candidates for CC judges - corrected
PARLIAMENT has elected five of candidates for the Constitutional Court (CC) judges, of whom the president will appoint three that will replace Ján Auxt, Juraj Horváth and Ján Luby whose 12-year tenure expires on July 4. The sixth candidate will be picked in the new voting in May, the TASR newswire reported on April 3.
AFP: Highly-placed official likely to have profited from emission quota scandal
A highly-placed official at the Environment Ministry likely profited from the emission quota case, representatives of the Aliancia Fair Play (Fair-Play Alliance, AFP) announced on April 2, based on the findings of the Swiss Prosecutor's Office. The Swiss police have investigated the money laundering surrounding the emission quota scandal, with the criminal prosecution stopped both in Switzerland and Slovakia. “We’ve discovered that profits likely went to some highly-placed official at the Environment Ministry," AFP programme manager Pavol Lacko told the TASR newswire. He exchanged correspondence with the Swiss authorities. He added that the suspected public official worked at the ministry until 2009. According to Lacko, a credit note worth $3.8 million appeared in one of accounts at Swiss bank Credit Suisse in mid-August 2009 and the bank considered this operation suspicious, forwarding it to the Swiss Prosecutor’s Office. A person employed at Slovak Environment Office until 2009 made the claim of being the beneficiary of this account. “The Swiss refer to this individual as ‘secretary’, which is the most common name for state secretary, office head or some other highly senior official,” said Lacko, adding that Swiss authorities refused to identify the person. Furthermore, the same individual was involved with the account of a certain firm through which money from the emission quota case was transferred to other accounts. In late 2011, Credit Suisse informed the Swiss Prosecutor’s Office that it discovered another two accounts, one based in Belize and another in Cyprus where the former ministry official was also identified as the end beneficiary. AFP maintains that Switzerland provided all the critical bank documentation to Slovak authorities. “That means that our Prosecutor’s Office should also know the identity of the said senior official,” claims AFP programme director Zuzana Wienk. Because of this, she sent an open letter to Special Prosecutor Dušan Kováčik, which inquires as to why the findings haven't been published, who is the aforementioned official and why was the Slovak criminal prosecution dropped. Swiss authorities requested evidence from their Slovak counterparts that would prove the money involved in the banking operations originated from criminal activities; otherwise the Swiss criminal prosecution over money laundering had to be stopped. “Swiss authorities received no such information. One of the reasons allegedly is that Slovak authorities were waiting for legal help from different states,” Lacko said. The controversial sale of Slovakia's surplus emission quota to US-based Interblue Group took place in 2008, under the first government of Robert Fico (2006-10). Back then, Slovakia sold 15 million tonnes at €5.05 per tonne, whereas neighbouring countries managed to clinch more favourable deals. Interblue Group subsequently sold emission quotas to Japan and made €47 million from the transaction, which was carried out under the remit of the Slovak National Party, a coalition partner in Fico’s first government.
US Embassy awards Ombudswoman Jana Dubovcová
US Ambassador to Slovakia Theodore Sedgwick gave Ombudswoman Jana Dubovcová the Human Rights Defender award April 2. The stance of the embassy is a strong message for the government and its view concerning human rights in Slovakia, the Sme daily wrote.
Maďarič admits changes in government by mid-term
The government met on April 2 at its regular session, led by the Prime Minister Robert Fico, who over the weekend lost the presidential election.
Slovakia paid out €370,000 in ECHR cases in 2013
The total number of complainants who took their cases against the Slovak Republic to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg fell when compared to 2012, but the bodies in Strasbourg still dealt with 464 complaints, while rejecting another 684, according to Slovakia’s representative at the court. The figures for 2012 were 531 and 1,079, respectively. Slovakia had to pay nearly €370,000 in compensation, of which €174,000 was paid via out-of-court settlements. Among the successful plaintiffs was Supreme Court Chairman Štefan Harabin who received €3,500 but had claimed as much as €152,000 for a disciplinary punishment that he received from the Constitutional Court, the TASR newswire wrote. Conversely, the court rejected a petition from a company called Lawyers Partners, which in the past was commissioned with extracting licence fees for public-service Slovak Radio. Lawyers Partners claimed that due to changes in laws, mainly pertaining to the level of fines for failure to pay licence fees, the company suffered damages reaching an astronomical €6.43 billion. The Strasbourg court turned the petition down.
Inspectors found 1,323 people engaged in undeclared work last year
The number of people reported by labour inspectors to be engaged in undeclared work rocketed from the 692 recorded in 2012 to a total of 1,323 in 2013, according to a report acknowledged by the government on April 2. The number of inspections carried out at companies in 2013 rose accordingly year-on-year. While labour centre inspectors and employees of the National Labour Inspectorate (NIP) carried out a total of 12,103 checks involving 10,947 companies and 41,538 individuals in 2012, the figures rose to as many as 20,692 checks involving 18,558 employers and 58,029 individuals a year later. As for the results of the checks, 658 employers were found to have broken the respective regulations, and totally 1,323 people were reported to be engaged in undeclared and/or illegal work in 2013. In 2012, the figures stood at 359 companies and 692 people, respectively, the TASR newswire quoted from the report. The inspectors also discovered 22 immigrants illegally employed in Slovakia in 2013. Most of them were from China, Vietnam, Poland, Albania, Macedonia and South Korea. Based on the checks in 2013, inspectors imposed fines totalling €1.01 million on 441 employers.
Beblavý to join Procházka in founding new political party
Independent MP Miroslav Beblavý will co-found a new political party along with independent MPs Radoslav Procházka and Andrej Hrnčiar. Unlike them, however, he doesn’t plan to relinquish his parliamentary mandate. “I accept the offer from Radoslav Procházka,” Beblavý said at a press conference on April 2, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Beblavý added that it was Procházka’s idea of a lean state that he found appealing and which won him over. He doesn’t entertain any plans to leave parliament, though. “I'll continue to serve here until 2016,” Beblavý said, adding that he enjoys being a lawmaker because he can do a lot of tangible good for the people in that role. Beblavý concluded he has realised that changes can be adopted only when a person is part of some kind of community and that’s why he wants to join forces with Procházka. He also concurs with him that Slovakia needs a new generation of politicians to take over and feels confident that such a change might happen in co-operation with Procházka.
The Guardian praises April Fools joke by Slovak public television
In its April 1 night broadcast the public-service Slovak Television brought more than 300 minutes of live counting of sheep hosted by Andrej Bičan and his guests. They managed to count 2,750 sheep, RTVS boasted in a press release.
Election date for Supreme Court and Judicial Council chair set for May 19
The election of the new chair of Supreme Court and Judicial Council will be held on May 19, the incumbent Supreme Court and Judicial Council chairman Štefan Harabin announced on April 2. The information was published on Judicial Council’s website. Meanwhile, as recently as March 31 Harabin refused to specify when he would announce the election date. The website further informed that Judicial Council’s members should propose their candidates for the new chair by April 28. Harabin’s term ends on June 23. The date is critical because the incumbent President Ivan Gašparovič will still be the president in May, the TASR newswire wrote. The incoming president Andrej Kiska, who will be in office in mid-June, is on the record as saying he will do everything possible to ensure that Harabin is not reinstalled.
Poll: Smer would win 41.5 percent of votes and 78 mandates
If parliamentary election took place on the last weekend in March (when the presidential election took place), it would be won by the Smer party, with so 41.5 percent of vote and would get 78 chairs in parliament. It would be followed by the Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH) with the support of 9.2 percent and 17 mandates, and Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) would get 9 percent of votes.
Socialist EP head Swoboda warns against LGBTI discrimination
Ultra-conservative lobby groups are pushing for constitutional amendments in several European countries to limit marriage to heterosexual couples and thereby deny LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) people the same rights, socialistsanddemocrats.eu website wrote on April 2.
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