State scraps Rázsochy hospital project. The Health Ministry says plans for the Rázsochy hospital building, which was originally conceived as a state-of-the-art medical facility for Bratislava, are not feasible. It instead proposed to construct a brand new teaching hospital. The idea to build Rázsochy has been in the works for more than 30 years. But what started out as an ambitious project to serve patients from across Slovakia, and to house medical students, resulted in a huge but unfinished complex which was later left to rot. It has been ravaged by scavengers seeking scrap metal and other materials. The construction of Rázsochy was launched in 1987, two years before the fall of the communist regime in Slovakia. The complex was supposed to have been completed in 1993, but construction was halted in 1990. The second Mikuláš Dzurinda government halted the project completely in 2003, the Pravda daily wrote. Today only the skeleton of the huge facility remains. So far the Rázsochy complex has cost €33 million.JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
Slovak food products defined. The Agriculture Ministry proposes to label food ‘Slovak’ in cases where at least 75 percent of the ingredients used in its preparation come from Slovakia. Water added during production is not included in the calculation.
New rules for major investments. Slovakia adopted new legislation for so-called significant investments, valid as of August 1. The ruling Smer party describes it as a tool to attract new investors to Slovakia but the opposition criticises the changes, saying they grant the state more power to decide over large investments to the detriment of municipalities and expand the state’s powers of expropriation. The revised law increases the minimum amount required for an investment to qualify as significant, from €33.194 million to €100 million. The category of significant investments is extended to encompass all construction projects except those involving mining.
