News overview from September 29, 2020

This is your overview of news that happened in Slovakia on Tuesday, September 29, 2020.
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Bureaucratic index improved

The bureaucratic burden of a model entrepreneur in Slovakia, a micro-company with four employees involved in metalworking, accounted for 217 hours at the beginning of 2020. Compared with 2019, it was four hours less.

From the total burden, red tape linked with running a company accounted for 47 percent, followed by employment issues accounting for 39 percent, legislative changes at 5 percent and other reasons at 9 percent.

This stems from the Bureaucracy Index issued every year by the economic think tank INESS on the occasion of International Bureaucracy Day, falling on September 29.

Hotels will not need to count hangers in wardrobes any more. Slovakia’s Bureaucracy Index has improved Read more

Economic prognosis revised

The Slovak economy should contract in constant prices by 7 percent, according to the September macroeconomic prognosis of the selected banks, published by the National Bank of Slovakia.

While in August they expected the economy to fall by 7.6 percent, they revised the prediction upwards in September, forecasting a drop by 7 percent.

Analysts are optimistic for next year, expecting a growth of 5.8 percent.

Bishops disagree with cancelled masses

The representatives of the two largest Churches in Slovakia have opposed the recent proposal of the central crisis staff to cancel masses in order to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Only bishops can order priests not to publicly celebrate mass, and the state cannot carry out such an action without their agreement, said Martin Kramara, spokesperson of the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia.

Crisis staff takes resolute measures, severe limits on mass events introduced Read more

“We are surprised by the announced measures, part of which is across-the-board cancellation of masses as churches received a promise that if they observe strict measures they will be able to follow the so-called semaphore warning system,” Kramara said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

The board of bishops of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia said that they have not received any information about the planned step yet.

“We are aware of the situation being serious, we do not want to underestimate and cause problems to individuals or society,” they wrote in a statement, adding that believers have been following the rules based on the COVID-19 semaphore warning system.

“
From this day on we are done amusing ourselves with some semaphores.
„
PM Igor Matovič when announcing stricter measures

In other news:

The world needs more cooperation, Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korčok (SaS nominee) said during a phone call with the newly-elected chair of General Assembly of the UN, Volkan Bozkir, and Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary A. DiCarlo.

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48 municipalities will hold a complementary election on October 3, with voters expected to choose a total of 33 mayors and 28 councillors.
The University of Economics in Bratislava will switch to online education from October 5, and ask its students to leave dormitories. Also Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice recommended online education to all faculties where possible.

Assistant of far-right ĽSNS MP Milan Mazurek and administrator of the Kulturblog platform Ján Pastuszek was charged with extremism, for selling T-shirts featuring a portrait of Jozef Tiso, president of the Nazi-allied Slovak state, in a laurel wreath.
23-year-old defender Erik Černák became 10th Slovak winner of the Stanley Cup, after his Tampa Bay Lightning team defeated the Dallas Stars in the NHL finals.