Far right in, Smer weakened in election

Meal
vouchers
may end
NEWS
Fair trade
Robin Lerner of the US State
Department says the visitor
exchange programme has
benefits for both sides. For
young Slovaks, it’s a chance
to practice English and get
some real world experience.
pg 2
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
BUSINESS
Numbers game
According to a recent list,
Bratislava is the sixth
richest region within the
EU. But experts point out
that such rankings only
paint part of the picture.
pg 4
OPINION
Mostly mainstream
Marian Kotleba’s success in
the election comes as a
shock, but the results are
not so strange in the grand
scheme of things. Voters
the world over are increasingly aggrieved.
pg 5
BUSINESS FOCUS
Green light
The Green to Households
project enables end users to
draw EU funds for installing
new technologies that harness energy from renewable
energy sources.
pg 6
Smart metering
The first intelligent electricity meters have been installed. Though they are
expected to reduce the
electricity bills of end consumers, some problems still
remain.
pg 7
CULTURE
Dutch art
Paintings by Dutch masters
drawn from collections in
Slovakia are now on display
at Bratislava’s National
Gallery.
pg 11
Robert Fico admitted he expected a better result for his party in the election.
Photo: TASR
Far right in, Smer
weakened in election
SLOVAKIA’S
voters
presented
politicians and observers with a major surprise in the March 5 parliamentary elections. Extremists made
significant gains, at the expense of
centrist parties leaving little chance
for a lasting government.
The results , which came slower
than usual because of technical
problems at the Statistics Office,
completely re-shuffled the situation
on the Slovak political scene.
The result of the ruling Smer, below 30 percent and well below expectations, was another surprise,
but was overshadowed by the strong
showing by the far-right People’s
Party – Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) led by
known extremist Marian Kotleba (8
percent) and the protest party of
BY MICHAELA TERENZANI
& RADKA MINARECHOVÁ
Spectator staff
businessman Boris Kollár (6.6 percent), who will occupy together 25
seats in the 150-member parliament.
Analysts are discussing a mixture of factors that strengthened the
protest vote and brought extremists
to parliament: one thing is that
voters remain disappointed with the
standard political parties, another
thing is the hostile and fearful atmosphere that was fostered by campaigning by some standard parties,
mainly the ruling Smer with its anti-
migrant rhetoric.
The
Christian
Democratic
Movement (KDH) dropped out of
parliament for the first time in the 26
years, and the newcomer Sieť of Radoslav Procházka, which was considered a favourite for becoming the
new leader of the centre-right,
barely made it to parliament with
just over 5 percent of the vote.
Most analysts agree that Slovakia will see new elections soon. A
caretaker government could be appointed to handle Slovakia’s upcoming EU Council presidency in the
second half of 2016 and early elections could take place after that, they
suggest.
Spectator staff
AT ITS final session just three days
before the parliamentary elections,
the Robert Fico cabinet approved a
hefty package of investment stimuli
for a handful of companies, some of
which have vague and suspicious
backgrounds.
“Negotiations about stimuli were
led for several months; it is not a new
thing that has arrived in the very last
moment,” said Economy Minister
Vazil Hudák, as cited by the SITA
newswire, after the cabinet okayed
the stimuli on March 2, stressing that
the investors will receive the stimuli
only after they invest the money
which they promised to invest and
create the declared number of jobs.
Peter Kremský, the executive
director of the Business Alliance of
Slovakia (PAS), and Martin Reguli,
analyst from the F. A. Hayek Foundation, see the approval of stimuli
rather as a pre-election strategy to
improve the reputation of the ruling
Smer party.
“I think this is part of a pre-
See MEAL pg 4
Hunters take
aim at their
own chamber
BY ROMAN CUPRIK
Spectator staff
election fight in which the cabinet
tries to utilise also this tool in order
to bring earlier results by which it
can promote itself in the pre-election
fight,” said Reguli, as cited by the
Hospodárske Noviny economic daily.
The approved investment stimuli total €43.3 million. They will go to
five companies that plan to invest
€224.6 million and create 1,820 jobs
by 2018 in Slovakia. The stimuli consist of direct incentives to be used for
purchase of tangible and intangible
assets and tax holidays.
HUNTERS in the association of hunting organisations Hubert complain that legislation forces some 60,000 hunters to contribute to the Slovak Hunters Chamber (SPK),
which fails to tell them what they do with
the budget.
The chamber was created in 2009 as a
part of a new law on hunting adopted by
Smer MPs. Since then it has been led by Smer
MP Tibor Lebocký. SPK united all hunting
associations and is the only institution allowed to grant hunting licences.
Such an obligatory body is not fair because hunting is not a profession, according to critics who point out that SPK members and even government do not have the
power to check its finances.
“Everyone who wants to have a hunting licence has to be a chamber member.
Every hunting organisation has to be
chamber member,” Hubert’s head Peter
Cagala told The Slovak Spectator. “And those
payments are totally nonsensical.”
Hubert gathered support from some of
the biggest opposition parties for a plan to
change legislation concerning hunting.
See INV pg 10
See HUNT pg 2
Read more on pg 3
Fico approves investment stimuli
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
THE MEAL voucher scheme has long been
criticised for the profits it generates for just
a handful of stakeholders. Now, the Antimonopoly Office has joined the criticism
and imposed a hefty fine after discovering
that the five companies issuing meal
vouchers violate free market principles.
“Competition has completely failed on
this market; this means that the market is
a cartel or was a cartel in the given period
and we also think that this market is very
prone to other cartels in the future,” said
Radoslav Tóth, vice-chairman of the Antimonopoly Office (PMÚ), in late February, as
cited by the SITA newswire. He went on to
call on the Labour Ministry to abolish the
vouchers and replace them either with
money directly paid to employees or an
electronic voucher scheme.
The PMÚ found five companies issuing
meal vouchers guilty as part of two cartel
agreements and imposed an aggregate fine
of €2.96 million. The affected companies
still can challenge the verdict, so the PMÚ
has refused to identify them.
2
NEWS
March 7 – 20, 2016
Slovakia unveils EU presidency logo
THE OFFICIAL logo of the
Slovak EU Council Presidency was unveiled on February 22 at the historical building of the Slovak National
Theatre in Bratislava in the
presence of Slovakia’s top officials.
The official ceremony,
however, was accompanied
by a certain controversy.
The author of this key
element of the presidency’s
visual identity is Jakub
Dušička, a 23-year-old student of the Academy of Fine
Arts. The logo presenting
Slovakia as a young and dynamic country is the product
of a tender in which almost
230 experts and laymen enrolled.
The logo will be featured
on documents, promotional
items, brochures, banners
and official communication
channels during the
presidency-related events in
Slovakia, as well as abroad.
Several media outlets in
the meantime informed that
while the logo cost almost
€5,000, the ceremony at
which it was unveiled cost
€200,000. Of this sum,
€156,000 went to the Agency
Evka, but it is not clear for
what the Foreign Affairs
Ministry paid. Though the
contract was published in
the central registry, it lacks
specific details, the Sme daily
reported.
Slovakia will launch its
first six-month EU Presidency on July 1. It is the 116th
presidency in a row. On this
occasion, Prime Minister
Robert Fico voiced his conviction that Slovakia will become the human face and
voice of the European Union
during that time.
Meanwhile, the Slovak
government approved the
strategic framework for the
country’s presidency over
the EU Council at its February 24 session, with the actual agenda of the presidency
expected to be approved in
June.
The framework is based
on the priorities of the EU’s
strategic programme adopted at a summit in June 2014:
jobs, growth and competitiveness, energy union, freedom, security and justice;
and the EU’s role as a strong
global player, the TASR
newswire reported.
Programme helps young
Slovaks work abroad
change programmes. The government had to enact the regulation and start to build the
system to implement the programme.
But it really began at universities. They have been conducting academic exchange
for decades. A lot of what the
Fulbright Hays Act sets up is
exchanges for the purpose of
mutual understanding and
educational and academic exchange.
Exchanges open a
new world to
students, but also
prove interesting
to US employers
BY RADKA
MINARECHOVÁ &
ZUZANA MATKOVSKÁ
Spectator staff
AMONG the biggest benefits of
the US Visa Exchange Programme is that young people
“leave the nest” and start taking care of themselves.
They are forced to work,
but also learn the language and
the culture of the country they
temporarily live in, says Robin
Lerner, deputy assistant secretary for Private Sector Exchange at the US Department
of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
“They find themselves
achieving something that they
even didn’t know they have in
them,” Lerner, who oversees
the J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor
Program, added.
Robin Lerner
Photo: Courtesy of the US Embassy in Slovakia
The
exchange
programmes are familiar also to
Slovaks as more than 3,000 exchange visitors from Slovakia
went to the United States in
2014 via various categories.
The majority of them (2,544)
participated in the Summer
Work Travel programme open
to university students.
The Slovak Spectator and
the Sme daily spoke to Lerner
about the beginnings of the exchange programmes, the interest of Slovaks in them and
also about the interest of Amer-
icans to study in Slovakia.
The
Slovak
Spectator
(TSS)/SME: Could you, please,
describe the beginnings of
the exchange programmes
in the US?
Robin Lerner (RL): What
we call the Exchange Visitor
Program began with the Fulbright Hays Act of 1963. There
were some informal exchanges before but through
the Fulbright Hays Act of 1963
the State Department was able
to initiate formalised ex-
TSS/SME: Was it hard to promote these programmes
among young people?
RL: The Summer Work
Travel, for example, was
heavily promoted with Ireland. The mechanism for the
youth of Ireland and other
countries of Europe was to actually come over, work and see
the United States and then go
home. No brain drain. This
programme is implemented by
exchange organisations. What
we at the State Department do
is that we have an office that
accepts applications from
American organisations or
entities.
See RL pg 10
HUNT: Transparency questions raised
Continued from pg 1
Gathering support
Slovak EU Council presidency logo
Photo: TASR
First Zika virus case confirmed
THE HEALTH Ministry confirmed that a woman hospitalised in late February in
Prešov hospital has been infected with Zika virus.
The woman was accepted
to the hospital after she had
returned from South America, but was released on February 26. The infection has
been confirmed by a laboratory in Hamburg, Germany,
the TASR newswire reported.
“She does not have to be
isolated,” Health Minister
Viliam Čislák told the press
on March 2, as quoted by
TASR, adding that she does
not threaten anybody. The
yellow fever mosquito (Aedes
aegypti) which spreads the
illness is not widespread in
Europe.
The woman cannot become pregnant or donate
blood, and she needs to be
careful also in her private life
during the treatment.
Police officers depart for Greece
TWENTY Slovak police officers departed for Greece in
order to assist in coping with
the migration crisis on February 29. The police officers
will be deployed with Poseidon – part of the European
Union’s Frontex border guard
operation. Its tasks will
mainly involve registering
and fingerprinting migrants.
“It’s another contribution of Slovakia and a sign of
solidarity for the addressing
of the biggest migration
crisis to afflict Europe since
May 2015,” said Slovak Interior Minister Robert
Kaliňák, as quoted by the
TASR newswire.
Compiled by Spectator staff
public hearing is slated for March 16, court
spokeswoman Martina Demčáková told
The Slovak Spectator.
On the other hand, it was not politicians but ordinary people and hunters
who collected 350,000 signatures in a petition for creating a united hunting organisation as a guarantee of nature and
cultural and historical values, according
to Šuba.
“This decision is proof that they act
before they study the organisation and
the operation of similar modern organisations in developed Europe,” reads the
SPK statement.
However, this petition was about
hunting organisations, not about SPK,
according to Cagala.
“Everyone signed it, even me, men in
taverns and pensioners coming out from
church,” Cagala said.
Hunters demand a cancellation of the
obligation to join SPK and some payments for the chamber. They also want to
cancel the obligation to renew hunting licences every five years.
Ordinary People and Independent
Personalities (OĽaNO), Most-Híd, Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), Sieť
and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) signed
Hubert’s memorandum pledging to do so.
The ruling Smer party has not responded
to Hubert’s call and the Slovak National
Party (SNS) said it will discuss the issue
after general election on March 5.
Such complaints have been around for
awhile but they are not constructive, according to head of SPK Imrich Šuba.
“This is just rerunning rhetoric of
several people with a single motivation to
Obligation goes too far
destroy the organisation, naturally
without any proposed solution,” Šuba told
MPs filling a complaint against the
The Slovak Spectator. “Even if they had obligatory element of the SPK referred to
some solution its result would be an- a Hungarian Constitutional Court’s dearchy.”
cision, which cancelled it in a similar
matter.
Constitutional Court takes the case
“Another reason to doubt the legality
of enforced membership in SPK is, for exA number of Slovak MPs are hunters. ample, the fact that people who fish, a
The Sme daily counted 18 hunters of 150 similar hobby, are not obliged to unite in
MPs while the final number is probably a fishing union,” Ján Mičovský of OĽaNO
higher. Therefore hunting legislation said in 2014, as quoted by the TASR newsprobably concerns them too.
wire. “Even professional foresters who
Opposition MPs previously ap- have voluntary membership in the Slovproached the Constitutional Court over ak Forestry Chamber have such
this matter in 2014. The filed complaint freedoms.”
was signed by 47 MPs from OĽaNO, MostMičovský added that obligatory
Híd, KDH, SaS and the Slovak Democrat- membership in chambers is acceptable
ic and Christian Union (SDKÚ).
only in professions such as auditors, lawThe court rejected their demand to yers and so on.
block the enforcement of the legislation
Such comparisons are not right bebut it is deciding about the issue. The cause hunting is not a hobby but a seri-
ous activity which should have specific
rules, according to Šuba.
“Only experienced and well-prepared
hunters should have the right to intervene in nature,” said Šuba. “It is a relict
of past times when anyone could become hunter within a short time and they
thought that they could do anything.”
He added that SPK cannot be compared with the Hungarian chamber because it is an organisation of people, while
SPK is an organisation of legal persons.
Questionable transparency
When all basis payments are tallied up
the SPK receives around €1.5 million from
around 60,000 hunters per year.
SPK claims that its yearly income is
€535,000. With this budget SPK is running 13 activities which the state would
otherwise have to do.
However, SPK runs only those activities which are profitable and less profitable activities, like managing hunting
plans, are still burdens upon state regional offices, according to Cagala.
Moreover, it is impossible to learn
how chamber handles that money because it does not have publicly accessible annual reports. Even the Environment Ministry stated in the past that it
does not have the power to check SPK’s
finances.
“We discuss all information in our
meeting where we present reports on our
activities in particular areas such as
hunting, cynology, education and so on,”
Šuba said.
Cagala, however, questioned it saying that this statement is superficial.
“SPK is obliged to publish everything;
they live from our membership fees
therefore we have the right to obtain
complete information,” Cagala said.
NEWS
www.spectator.sk
March 7 – 20, 2016
Small chance to form a
stable government
BY MICHAELA
TERENZANI & RADKA
MINARECHOVÁ
Spectator staff
SLOVAKIA’S voters presented
politicians and observers with
a major surprise in the March
5 parliamentary elections.
With extremist parties making significant gains, there is
little chance for a lasting government.
The results of the elections, which came slower than
usual due to technical problems at the Statistics Office,
completely re-shuffled the
situation on the Slovak political scene. The result of the
ruling Smer, below 30 percent
and well below expectations,
was only one of the surprises.
It was overshadowed by the
high gain of the far-right
People’s Party – Our Slovakia
(ĽSNS) led by known extremist Marian Kotleba (8 percent)
and the protest party of businessman Boris Kollár (6.6 percent), who will occupy together 25 seats in the 150-member
parliament.
Additionally, the Christian Democratic Movement
(KDH) dropped out of parliament for the first time in the
26 years, and the newcomer
Sieť of Radoslav Procházka,
which was considered a favourite for becoming the new
leader of the centre-right,
barely made it to parliament
with just over 5 percent of the
vote.
Most observers of the local political scene have been
taken by surprise with the
election results. They do not
expect any stable government
to arise from the mixture of
parties that made it to parliament and talk about the possibility of a caretaker government for Slovakia that will run
through the end of the year.
The Christian Democratic Movement dropped from parliament after 26 years.
Slovakia will see new elections soon. A caretaker government could be appointed to
handle Slovakia’s upcoming
EU Council presidency in the
second half of 2016 and early
elections could take place after
that, they suggest.
Fico, whose Smer gained
the biggest portion of the vote,
just over 28 percent, said he
will try to avoid early elections. He said he feels the responsibility to put together a
government, but admitted
that it is not going to be easy
and “might take longer than
usual”.
Richard Sulík, whose
Freedom and Solidarity (SaS)
came in second with 12.1 percent of the vote, said he was
also ready to try and put together a “rightist, reform government” if Smer fails to gain
enough support for their option. After the election results
got clearer as the night progressed, leaders of Ordinary
People and Independent Personalities, and the NOVA
movement (OĽaNO-NOVA),
Igor Matovič and Daniel
Early elections in sight?
Lipšic, who made it to the parliament with 11 percent of the
Most analysts agree that votes, came to celebrate at SaS
Parties that made it to the parliament and their number of seats
Photo: Sme
headquarters. They however
refused to speculate about the
possibilities for the next government.
ors from Smer, (people like
Luboš Blaha) could now tip the
balance
of
parliament,”
Deegan-Krause said.
Five needed for
centre-right coalition
Smer drops
Political analyst Kevin
Deegan-Krause sees two alternatives based on the election math and a big mashup of
five parties (SaS-OĽaNO-MostSieť-Sme Rodina) is one of
them.
“None of them was in the
parliament before 2010,” he
noted.
Another option that would
make 77 or 78 seats in the parliament is the government of
Smer and the Slovak National
Party (SNS) with the support of
Kotleba.
“But I don’t know if the
party could survive it,”
Deegan-Krause told The Slovak Spectator and explained
that at this point, in Smer,
some of the more westernoriented members could leave
the party if it teamed up with
far right extremists.
“The thing is that Fico’s got
to be really weakened now,
and even two or three defect-
Smer’s result is a big fall
compared with its 44-percent
victory from four years ago.
Despite that, Fico stated that
Smer is “the most successful
political project in the modern history of Slovakia”. He
however admitted they expected 4 or 5 percent more, but
understands the result as “the
price for winning elections
four consecutive times”.
Fico labelled the results
“complicated” but said that
this proves that the “political
system is very much alive”.
Smer’s votes most likely
shifted to SNS, but Kollár and
Kotleba might have profited
from its loss, according to sociologist Pavel Haulík of the
MVK polling agency.
Political analysts generally agree that Smer’s antimigrant rhetoric in the campaign has backfired and aided
extremists parties.
See VOTE pg 10
Source: Statistics Office, Sme
3
Far right makes it
to parliament
mainly first-time voters.According to the exit poll, almost 23 percent of first-time
voters cast their ballot for
Kotleba’s party.
Observers expressed
concerns about the fact that it
is the people in their late
teens and early twenties,
today’s secondary school
BY MICHAELA
students, who supported the
TERENZANI
far-right party. They point to
Spectator staff
the education system in the
country as one of the factors
that lead to this behaviour in
OF THE eight parties that
young voters.
made it to the parliament
“There is a lack of educaafter Slovakia’s March 5 elec- tion at schools but also edutions, two are considered
cation at home,” political
highly non-standard and un- analyst Pavol Boboš said durlikely to be considered to have ing the election night.
a part in any potential coaliPolitical analyst Aneta
tion.
Világi noted that there has
The far-right People’s
been no critical reflection of
Party – Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) of the wartime Slovak state.
Marian Kotleba scored 8.1
There are still people who
percent in the elections and
remember that time and
will have 14 seats in the new
some of them admit that
parliament, while the protest they were quite well off back
party of Boris Kollár, Sme
then, economically, and this
Rodina (We are Family)
is what they tell their grandgained 6.6 percent of the vote children, who in turn are
and will have 11 MPs in the
unable to evaluate that innew parliament. This stems
formation in the context of
from preliminary results rehistory data.
leased by the Statistics Office
“It makes sense to me
after more than 99 percent of that it clicks in their heads
the votes were counted on
when they have nothing to
Sunday morning.
confront it with,” Világi said.
The reason also lies in the
Mixture of factors
fact that first-time voters are
normally not interested in
After Kotleba’s 2013 victhings like family policies,
tory in the regional governor pensions, or economics, and
vote, analysts warned that
they react to simple messages
the top regional power will
that extremists are good at
open up the public discourse
broadcasting.
to him and his associates.
“When first-time voters
Some opined back then that
vote for Kotleba, they are athe won’t be able to carry out
tracted by the ideology, the
his promises and will disapsubstitute, rather than real
point his voters, but the parproblems, because they don’t
liamentary election results
know what to actually expect
have proven that wrong.
from a party,” Világi said. InAnalysts are discussing a stant messages and slogans
mixture of factors that
resonate with them, and serstrengthened the protest vote ious politicians simply stand
and brought extremists to
no chance to explain their
parliament: one thing is that policies in such instant manvoters remain disappointed
ner, she explained. Young
with the standard political
people simply need more exparties, another thing is the
perience in life “to move
hostile and fearful atmoaway from their intuitive
sphere that was fostered also way of choosing a party”.
by the campaign of some
Additionally, addressing
standard parties, mainly the
first-time voters is even more
ruling Smer with its anticost-effective than with othmigrant rhetoric.
er groups. An online cam“Smer introduced an atpaign on social networks
mosphere of fear and anger
suffices, as “that is where this
and then was unable to
group [of voters] lives”, Világi
channel it,” said political
said.
analyst Pavol Hardoš during a
debate in the editorial room
A share in power?
of the Sme daily, to explain
the result of Kotleba.
Most parties who made it
Hardoš also noted that for to parliament, including
Kotleba’s result the factor of
Smer and SNS, have made it
non-voters plays a role:
clear that they wouldn’t conpeople who normally
sider negotiating with either
wouldn’t vote turned out to
Kotleba or Kollár.
support him.
Richard Sulík of SaS, the
second strongest party after
First-time voters bring
Smer with 20 seats in the
extremists in
house, excluded Kotleba and
his ĽSNS (and originally also
Data of the exit poll for
Smer) from his coalition conRadio Expres suggest that a
siderations.
large portion of Kotleba’s vote
came from young people,
See FAR pg 5
Exit poll data:
large share of
Kotleba’s vote
came from firsttime voters
4
BUSINESS
March 7 – 20, 2016
Country report hit education, health
SLOVAKIA’S recovery from
the crisis was one of the
fastest in the EU, and its
economic expansion is set to
continue. Driven by household consumption the real
GDP growth is expected to
exceed 3 percent in both
2016 and 2017, the European
Commission writes in its
annual country report for
2016 published in late February.
But the EC warns that
while the Slovak economy is
highly integrated into global
value chains, production is
concentrated among a few
sectors and regions.
“Slovakia is an internationally integrated economy, especially in the
lower parts of value chains,
as a large share of the car
and electronics production
is carried out by foreignowned firms and exported,”
reads the report, adding that
despite policy efforts, administrative and regulatory
barriers continue to harm
the business environment.
The labour market has
witnessed a cyclical improvement when the unemployment rate fell to 11.5
percent in 2015 and is expected to further decline
below 10 percent in 2017 on
the back of robust economic
expansion.
“However, structural
unemployment continues to
represent a key challenge,
reflecting pronounced geographical differences in labour market conditions, accompanied by low labour
mobility,” the report reads.
“Low educational outcomes
and inequalities linked to
socio-economic background
represent major obstacles to
the improvement of human
capital with potential
knock-on effects for skill
levels and growth potential.”
The education system is
insufficiently geared towards increasing Slovakia’s
economic potential, the report reads.
“Educational outcomes
are weak and inequalities
appear high in an international comparison,” reads
the report. “The low attractiveness of the teaching profession is not supportive towards improvements in
teaching quality.”
The EC warns that Slovakia’s health-care sector
continues to face long-term
sustainability challenges.
Take best region stats
with a pinch of salt
A closer look at
indicators paints
a different picture
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
THE BRATISLAVA region repeatedly places high among
EU statistics of the richest regions, but analysts warn that
when interpreting such positive results, indicators used
for calculation of the ranking
should be taken into consideration and the whole picture
should be painted.
Based on a report by Eurostat, the statistics office of the
European Union, published in
late February, the region of
Bratislava placed sixth overall
with 186 percent of the EU average when regional GDP per
capita, expressed in terms of
purchasing power standards
for 2014, was taken into consideration.
“Placing of Bratislava is, in
our opinion, overrated due to
Bratislava is the seat of many branches of international companies.
several reasons,” Michal
Habrman, analyst of the Institute of Financial Policy
(IFP), a governmental think
tank at the Finance Ministry,
told The Slovak Spectator.
Inner London – West in the
UK placed first with 539 percent, followed by the Grand
Duchy of Luxembourg (266
percent), Brussels in Belgium
(207 percent), Hamburg in
Germany (206 percent) and
Photo: Sme
Sale of Zuno bank failed
ALFA Bank Group of Russian
businessman Michail Fridman has withdrawn from
the acquisition of Slovak and
Czech divisions of Zuno bank
of Austrian Raiffeisen International. Reasons for this
remain unknown as the Alfa
Bank Group’s spokesperson
said that the transaction has
not materialised due to external reasons that have
nothing in common with
the existing acquisition
agreement, according to the
Hospodárske Noviny daily.
Embraco opens global SSC in Košice
BRAZILIAN producer of
compressors Embraco operating a successful business
in Spišská Nová Ves in eastern Slovakia opened in mid-
February a global shared
service centre (SSC) in
Košice to deal with financial
issues as well as human resources.
Provident Financial leaves Slovakia
THE NON-BANKING institution Provident Financial, one
of the most important lending companies in Slovakia,
has announced it will no
longer lend money in the
country after laws for pro-
tecting debtors, passed by
the ruling Smer party last
year, have discouraged it
from further operation in
Slovakia.
Compiled by Spectator staff
taken with a pinch of salt,
agrees, citing especially the
kind of indicators evaluated
behind this statistical phenomenon.
“Alas, Bratislava, that appears richer than it is in reality, is paying for this when it
does not have the right to draw
EU funds,” Ďurana told The
Slovak Spectator.
See STAT pg 9
MEAL: Idea of voucher system is broken
Continued form pg 1
One of the marches to highlight problems of education.
Inner London – East in the UK
(204 percent). The Bratislava
region surpassed the region of
Prague, which placed ninth
with 173 percent and even Vienna which finished 17th with
158 percent.
Radovan Ďurana, an analyst at the think tank Institute
of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), according to
whom the statistics regarding
wealth of regions should be
Photo: Sme
Based on information and documents PMÚ obtained during a one-year
investigation, it claims that the companies have restricted competition with a
cartel agreement under which they,
between 2009 and 2014, divided up the
market amongst themselves. The companies involved agreed not to lure away
an existing client of another voucher issuer. When companies held a tender to
find a voucher supplier, only one company offered acceptable conditions. Others submitted only pro forma bids. This
way they kept their market share stable
and only really competed for new clients.
Within the second cartel the voucher issuers pressed on retail chains to accept a maximum of five vouchers per
shopping trip. This way they wanted to
push people to spend vouchers in restaurants. The second cartel agreement,
even though retailers have never implemented such a restriction, lasted from
2011 and 2014.
The Association of Issuers of Meal
Vouchers does not see a reason to comment on the PMÚ’s verdict, the organisation informed on its website.
Meal voucher scheme
In Slovakia’s Labour Code for nearly 20
years employers have had to contribute to
the meals of their employees. As only
large companies usually have a canteen,
others give their employees meal vouchers issued by voucher issuing companies
of which the biggest include Doxx,
Endered, Le Cheque Dejeuner and Vaša
Slovensko.
Employers buy vouchers from the issuer; with voucher values ranking
between the obligatory minimum €3.15
and €4.20. It must pay the issuer a com-
mission that is capped by law at 3 percent. Then the employer distributes the
vouchers to its employees, while the employer pays 55 percent of the value of the
voucher at least and the employee the
rest. Afterwards the employee can use the
voucher for buying either a meal in a restaurant or food in a shop. The restaurants or shops return to the voucher issuer and exchange the vouchers for
money. This transaction is also subject to
payment of a commission to the issuer
and restaurants pay a bigger commission than retailers.
About 750,000 employees receive meal
vouchers from their employers.
Scrapping the scheme
The PMÚ proposes dissolving the
voucher scheme with employees instead
receiving a direct financial contribution
to their salaries, or a shift to a voluntary
system, with employees deciding for
themselves whether they want to receive meal tickets or cash. In case of the
latter, employers will directly pay the benefit to employees when it would be exempt from taxation and levies as is currently the case of meal vouchers.
In their reaction the Labour, Social
Affairs and Family Ministry stated that
if meal tickets were scrapped, people’s
interest in having meals at restaurants
would fall dramatically and they would
use the money for other purposes than
buying a meal. This can have a negative impact on their eating habits resulting in worsened health conditions as
well as on employment in the restaurant sector.
The Association of Issuers of Meal
Vouchers shares the latter opinion, arguing that if vouchers are scrapped, sales
of restaurants would decline by €209 million annually and that thousands of cooks
and waiters would be out of a job.
Criticism of the voucher
scheme
Opposition politicians and some economic analysts have repeatedly criticised the meal voucher scheme arguing
that vouchers are only a useless interlink between employers and employees
securing a highly profitable business for
the voucher companies. Moreover, it
brings more red tape to employers as well
as restaurants and retail chains.
There have already been several attempts to scrap the scheme, but they have
failed so far as the Labour Ministry remains a strong advocate.
“Companies issuing meal vouchers
have secured hundreds of thousands of
clients,” said Radovan Ďurana, an analyst at the think tank Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), as cited
by the Sme daily. “They can keep high
rates for usage of meal vouchers,
moreover with only small concerns in
terms of the future.”
Restaurants also criticise the scheme
when they point to increasing commission for re-purchase of vouchers by their
issuers.
Retailers join the criticism pointing
out that the original idea of meal vouchers is now so broken that they are useless in their current form. Pavol Konštiak,
the president of the Association of Trade
and Tourism, recalled that the employee
was able to get a warm meal via the
voucher in the past. The usage of the
voucher is by law limited to the purchase of meals and it is not possible to pay
for alcohol or cigarettes.
“But this has changed in such a scope
that you can today actually buy anything with the voucher,” said Konštiak, as
cited by the Hospodárske Noviny daily.
“Vouchers should be cancelled in any
form because it is a profit-making activity of just a few companies.”
OPINION / NEWS
www.spectator.sk
“Smer is the most successful political project in the modern history of
Slovakia.”
PM Robert Fico comments on the election result of his Smer party,
which harvested a lower than expected 28.3 percent.
Europe & Art;
Art & Europe
BY RICHARD VAN
RIJSSEN
Special to the Spectator
THE “European project” is often
defined in political, economic
or even bureaucratic terms. The
discussion centres around
which measures should be
taken, on how to implement
these measures in a way to benefit all, or at least most of us.
Another, and at present popular way to describe Europe is to
define it in common values and
in our common history. The
paradox is that our perhaps
strongest common value is that
of diversity. The European history is full of our differences.
And yet, and yet…
Even during the many internal conflicts and wars
which are so abundant in
European history, mutual influences have existed. These
influences were more often
than not of a very personal
nature. Writers, artists, philosophers, composers, musicians
have found inspiration in colleagues living across borders,
even in the country of – what
was thought at the time to be –
the archenemy. And not only
brothers in art influenced one
another. Ludwig van Beethoven, the German-born composer of what recently has become the European anthem,
was inspired by Napoleon, as
much as the Polish composer
Chopin by France! And let us
not forget the statue of Dutch
admiral De Ruyter in Debrecen.
In many ways, possibly the
best way to define Europe is
“unity in diversity”. Slovakia’s
history is in itself a reminder of
the many faces of Europe. The
diversity of our history – divisions that over such a long
period of time have “made”
Europe into what it is now – is
still omnipresent. At the same
time, the underlying and unifying factor is sometimes and
somewhat neglected.
For this reason – and obviously many other reasons – I
am particularly happy that the
start of the Slovak Presidency,
and thus the end of the Dutch
Presidency on June 30, will be
marked by the opening of a
grand exhibition in the Danubiana Meulensteen Museum.
This museum, which is itself a
European experience being
born out of Slovak-Dutch cooperation, will have masters of
European art to show for it!
Joan Miró was an outstanding Spanish painter and
sculptor inspired the members
of the Cobra group. The Cobra
group with artists from the
Netherlands, Belgium and
Denmark (Cobra stands for
Copenhagen, Brussels and
Amsterdam) in the late forties
created a revolution in the arts.
A revolution they subsequently
brought to Paris; a revolution
that not only changed art itself
but our view of the arts as well.
Members of the Cobra
group such as painters and
sculptors Appel, Constant and
Corneille
were
certainly
deeply influenced by Miró. In
turn, they influenced young
artists across Europe. They
worked at a time when the differences in Europe ran deep, in
the late 40s of the last century.
Both their mutual and common influence surpassed
political and other boundaries.
For that reason, it is appropriate that the handing of
the European gavel from the
Netherlands to Slovakia will be
marked by a truly European
exhibition.
Richard van Rijssen is the
Ambassador of the Netherlands to
Slovakia
FAR: Situation is complicated
Continued from pg 3
Kotleba not surprised
“It proves that standard parties have paid
little attention to the will of voters, here’s the
result,” he said as quoted by Sme.
The outgoing foreign minister Miroslav
Lajčák who ran on the slate of Smer said that
the non-standard parties will “complicate the
perception of Slovakia in Europe”, the TASR
newswire reported.
František Šebej of Most-Híd (11 MPs) pointed to the upcoming EU presidency in the
second half of the year.
“People whom Kotleba and Kollár bring into the parliament are people who have neither
education, nor value, nor the intellectual
equipment to be able to take part in such a complicated political processes,” Šebej said as,
quoted by TASR.
Kotleba said for the Plus Jeden Deň daily
that he was satisfied with the results, but not
surprised.
Kollár said he was scheduled to meet SaS’
Sulík and said that he wouldn’t have a problem “with anyone but extremists”.
Kollár, however, earlier said that he was
not willing to go to a ruling coalition because his party is too small and wouldn’t have
a say.
“I’d rather survive outside of that and gain
greater power so that we can then decide more,”
Kollár said as quoted by Sme.
In an immediate reaction to Saturday’s
election results, a protest gathering was organised to take place in Bratislava on Monday,
March 7.
March 7 – 20, 2016
5
Extreme measures
CONGRATULATIONS Slovakia, was there ever really
any doubt? Today the country is officially a mature
democratic system, one
where voters appear just as
discouraged with pretty
much everything (including
democracy itself) as everybody everywhere else.
Far right wing and generally populist parties did
well in the March 5 election,
while Ivy League graduates
did poorly and voters fled traditional parties in droves.
Prime Minister Robert Fico
had a bad night, and Radoslav Procházka’s Sieť party
even worse as it nearly
missed parliament altogether. Meanwhile, the biggest
failure of all came from the
Slovak Statistics Office,
which had big trouble counting the votes – a likely false,
but funny rumour circulated
that one of the workers there
crashed the server when they
spilled
mayonnaise-based
cod salad all over it. If only we
can attribute the rest of the
evening to a silly mistake.
Richard Sulík’s Freedom
and Solidarity (SaS) was a big
winner, finishing second, but
perhaps the best (or worst)
performance of the night
came from Marian Kotleba’s
People’s Party – Our Slovakia
(ĽSNS) which took 8.1 percent of the vote. That performance saw a borderline
Nazi party enter parliament
for the first time since World
War II. Conventional wisdom would have it that Fico’s
decision to play the antiimmigration
card
throughout
campaigning
contributed directly to the
ĽSNS’s success, but according
to exit polls people backed
Kotleba because of his positions on corruption and social inequality.
It is hard to draw a clear
conclusion out of the voting
results – both liberals and
neo-fascists did better than
expected – other than voters
are clearly enraged. It does
seem safe to say two semicontradictory things at the
same time. Fico’s ugly migrant rhetoric fed a larger
beast of fear and instability
producing
unpredictable
results, while the cowardice
BY BENJAMIN
CUNNINGHAM
Spectator staff
that saw Sieť and other
mainstream parties decline
to confront this head-on also
angered people.
Though no one seems to
say it, the latter phenomenon has perhaps the most to do
with the crisis of democracy
that is now enveloping what
seems like the entire world.
As signified by Donald
Trump, Marine Le Pen or
UKIP’s Nigel Farage and their
13 percent showing in the
2015 UK, election voters are
drawn to leaders who “tell it
like it is” because they have
grown used to politicians
saying nothing at all.
In what was a gradual
process for decades, politicians and campaigns became
about reading poll numbers
and strategic communication. It became more about
resume, marketing and
avoiding “gaffes” than shaking hands outside the factory
gate during the shift change.
It’s not just a feeling, high
level politicians really did
lose the personal touch that
was how people used to win
elections. Worse yet, they
seemed almost uninterested
in the individuals they were
seeking to represent. A party
like Sieť, which got about a
third of the votes it was expecting, embodies this ethos
completely.
What people want today
are representatives that remind them of themselves, or
at least how they like to envision themselves. Kotleba is
angry and believes the system is geared toward screwing him over. He is mad as
hell and is not going to take it
anymore, and people who
have been taking it for years
like this. Trump calls every
other politician he encounters a clown and a phony.
Combine this with a brand
that is synonymous with
success and wealth and many
Americans take to that as
well.
Democracy was never
really designed to create some
class of professional politicians. It was meant to see
everyday people run for office, serve for a time, and then
be replaced by others taking
their turn. Sure the world is
complex, but if you put a
group of businesspeople,
lawyers, accountants, factory workers and stay at home
parents in a room together
and force them to talk about
things you are likely to discover a pretty diverse skill set.
Combine this with a professional bureaucracy and you
might even be able to run a
country. A group like that
certainly seems like it might
be able to write laws, make a
budget and prioritise schools
over bailing out bankrupt
companies with friends in
high places. They might even
listen to what their neighbours have to say.
That sounds like a lot of
work, but the alternative are
people like Kotleba.
6
March 7 – 20, 2016
Project promotes
renewables in homes
Green to
households
project gives
the end
consumer access
to EU money
-Economic Ministry, www.economy.gov.sk
-Regulatory Office for Network Industries (ÚRSO)
www.urso.gov.sk
-Slovak Electricity Transmission System (SEPS)
www.sepsas.sk
-Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ÚJD), www.ujd.gov.sk
-Slovak Innovation and Energy Agency (SIEA),
www.siea.sk
State energy holding fails to launch
BY ERIK RÉDLI
Special to the Spectator
SLOVAK households are generally lukewarm toward renewable energy, but a project
that allows them to access EU
subsidies which was launched
in December is trying to
change this. Interest was so
high that it led to suspicions
that robots rather than people
were filling out online applications.
“The
project
Zelená
domácnostiam – Green to
Households – gives the end
consumer access to EU money,
supports alternative sources
and increases the awareness of
the people about these green
energy solutions,” said Veronika Galeková, the director of
the Slovak Association of
Photovoltaic Industry (SAPI).
The project run by the
Slovak Innovation Energy
Agency (SIEA) is financed from
the EU Operational Programme Quality of Environment, supervised by the Environment Ministry. The
European Union has allocated
a total of €115 million for the
project, out of which €45 million was made available during the first phase launched in
December 2015. Money will be
gradually allocated via individual rounds.
EU funds expert Ján Rudolf
said that the project is unique
as it is the first time that EU
funds flow directly to households.
“The fact that all the conditions are specified and published in advance should
provide transparency,” Rudolf
said.
On the other hand, some of
the providers of alternative
sources think that under the
current circumstances, the
project Zelená domácnostiam
is just a tool for lobby groups in
order to increase their share of
the energy market.
Institutions and organisations
in the energy sector in Slovakia
Households are highly interested in subsidies for renewables.
tion is from alternative
sources. Zelená domácnostiam
is expected to increase the
share to 18 percent by 2018.
“The project encourages
the installation of small alternative energy sources in
households,” said Galeková.
According to her, it helps the
alternative sources, particularly photovoltaics, to advance on the ladder of customer preferences.
The households can choose
from small energy devices up
to 10 kWh including photovoltaics, wind turbines, sun
collectors, biomass and heat
pumps that cover the needs of
a family house. After successful application, the household gets a voucher applicable at an energy provider for
30 days.
Out of the 4,651 vouchers
issued in the first and second
round for which a total of more
than €10 million was allocated, 1,777 were allocated to
solar panels, 1,696 to photovoltaic panels, 847 for heat
pumps and 331 to biomass.
“The number of solar panels is equally dispersed around
Slovakia, the highest interest
in heat pumps was from Bratislava and Žilina regions,”
SIEA spokesman Eduard Jambor said, adding that the numbers prove that the alternative sources have some potenRenewable energy
tial in Slovakia, but adding
with potential
that the number of carried out
installations will be lower.
Currently, 11 percent of
Matúš Burian from the
Slovakia’s energy consump- Slovak Association of Renew-
able Energy (SKREA) sees the
project Zelená domácnostiam
as belonging to the government measures aimed at increasing the share of alternatives on the energy market of
Slovakia by lowering the costs
of installation.
“From an economic point
of view, each kilowatt of energy generated at home can
lower our dependency on the
supply of crude oil and natural gas,” said Burian
Moreover, this form of investment creates jobs.
However, Burian pointed
out that under current conditions the price for energy
generated this way is not
competitive with traditional
fuels. Burian cited too much
state intervention into the
management of the alternatives as the reason.
“Media information created the myth that the renewable sources are dependent on
state support,” explained
Burian, adding that fossil fuels
are also supported by the state.
Stimulus helps the new
technologies overcome initial
obstacles. Nevertheless, the
government subsidy should be
stopped when the alternative
source becomes self-sufficient
and begins to make a profit,
according to Burian.
“Any technology of energy generation can be viable
only if it offers a solution that
does not depend on the political, economic or environmental obstacles, now and in
the future,” Burian said.
Photo: TASR
Lobbying groups
Despite the popularity
with the public, some experts
are skeptical of the project.
“In my opinion, the project
is another point of the preelection social package, which
I do not consider right,” Ladislav Židek, the general director of Biomasa, an association
that promotes the potential of
biomass in Slovakia, told The
Slovak Spectator. “People utilise alternative energy sources
just because it is profitable
thanks to state subsidies, not
for environmental reasons. It
is a completely wrong approach toward alternatives.”
Židek opines that Slovakia
is constantly failing to meet
goals in utilisation of renewable energy sources (RES) on
time and this is an example of
a poorly-timed project. The
long-planned project caused
people to put off their investments and it caused problems to the big players within RES.
According to Rudolf, the
project is vulnerable to the
traditional effect that accompanies state subsidies.
“Certain lobby groups
might attempt to obtain a
monopolist position in the
funding,” Rudolf said, adding
that these subjects can profit
from spreading misleading
information. Households are
sensitive to this kind of manipulation, he opines.
See GREEN pg 8
THE SLOVAK government’s
idea of a state energy holding
has not become reality.
“Due to the general election, we do not expect its
founding anytime soon,”
spokeswoman of the Economy Ministry Miriam
Žiaková told the SITA newswire in early February.
The ministry even admitted that the holding has never
exceeded the form of a mere
idea.
“To this day, no specific
document that would move
the establishment of such a
holding to the level of feasibility has not been elaborated,”
Žiaková stated.
The government of Robert
Fico considered establishing a
state energy holding already
during the term of its first
economy minister, Tomáš
Malatinský. The holding was
meant to administer all state
shares in energy companies.
Through this holding, the
state also sought to buy back
shares of energy companies
which foreign investors may
have wanted to sell in the future. Ex-minister Malatinský
admitted, however, that buying back shares was not the
primary idea of this project.
The primary idea was that
through such a holding, the
state would be able, for example, to underwrite shares
through the stock exchange at
a lower rate, and invest thus
gained resources e.g. in the
development of the Slovak
heating sector.
Slovakia may export power to Balkans
IN THE future, Slovakia could
profit from exporting electricity to the Balkans; as the
country will have a greater
supply than needed for consumption. For this plan to become reality, the connections
at the Slovak-Hungarian border region must be expanded.
And here, problems emerge.
Two such projects –
Gabčíkovo-Gönyü and
Rimavská Sobota-Sajóivánka –
are already planned in detail.
However, the deadlines for
their completion are being
postponed, as are negotiations concerning them, the
Energia.sk website wrote.
In mid-January, the
European Commission supported these two projects,
approving a subsidy of €1.6
million. The subsidy was requested by the state Slovak
Electricity Transmission
Network (SEPS) which is responsible for the projects. In
total, the EC allocated €217
million for projects in central
and eastern Europe. Those on
the Slovak-Hungarian border
are vital for Slovakia, analysts
point out.
“Slovak-Hungarian profile
is identified in the long term
as one of the bottleneck
points – it does not have suf-
ficient transmission capacities,” energy expert of the
Euractiv website told the
Hospodárse Noviny daily. She
added that this is an obstacle
for international trade in
electric power.
“New transmission lines
are undoubtedly connected
also with new blocks of
Mochovce [nuclear power
plant] which are currently
being completed by the
Slovenské Elektrárne power
utility,” Martin Dargaj of the
Veneregtike.sk website
opined.
After their completion,
Slovakia could send power to
the south, as there would be
surplus on the market.
“Thanks to new SlovakHungarian lines, Slovakia will
be able to export power produced here to the Balkans
where still electricity is lacking,” he adds.
Even Hungarians could
consume the surplus energy.
The construction of two
new transmission lines will
cost more than €40 million,
Energia.sk wrote. It raises
questions, though, to what
extent this investment will
pay off.
Compiled by Spectator staff
BUSINESS FOCUS
www.spectator.sk
Smart meters for
electricity on the rise
Problems remain,
but experts say
they can help
energy efficiency
BY RADKA
MINARECHOVÁ
Spectator staff
SMART meters should result in
more effective use of electricity and lower bills, but not
many people are aware of
these benefits. Moreover, the
whole technology may become
useless if the state regulator
does not change its approach
to setting the prices, analyst
warns.
Smart or intelligent meters
are electronic devices that record the consumption of electric energy in certain time intervals and communicate that
information to consumers and
the distributor. This data can
be used for monitoring and
billing purposes. Operators of
distribution networks have
already started the process of
exchanging the old meters for
new ones, with the plan to finish the replacement of relevant devices by 2020.
“By the end of 2015, more
than 30,000 devices were installed at customers connected
to distribution network,”
Norbert Deák, spokesperson
for Slovak Electricity Transmission System (SEPS), told
The Slovak Spectator.
Though they are an interesting innovation, which will
be important especially in relation to growing decentralisation of electricity produc-
The smart meters should help save energy.
tion, there is one obstacle for
its installation in households
and small and medium-sized
companies: the regulation of
electricity prices, according to
Martin Vlachynský, analyst
with the Institute of Economic
and Social Studies (INESS)
think tank.
Installation plans
The installation of intelligent meters is part of a regulation, introduced in 2013 as part
of the government energy
plan. It obliges electricity distribution network operators to
install smart meters on any
household with an annual
electricity consumption of 4
MWh or more and companies.
By adopting the regulation,
Slovakia fulfils its commitments within EU legislation
that it has transposed. The
Photo: TASR
plan is to achieve 80-percent
market penetration of smart
meters by 2020.
According to Economy
Ministry’s estimates, this currently concerns some 400,000
distribution points where
smart meters will be installed
by 2020. The installation
schedule was divided into
three phases.
The first one, which ended
on December 31, 2015, concerned the first-category customers with annual electricity
consumption amounting to at
least 15 MWh and maximal reserved capacity of more than
30 kW, such as small and
medium-sized
enterprises,
restaurants and schools.
The second phase concerns
customers with annual consumption of at least 4 MWh and
maximal reserved capacity of
more than 30 kW, including
small and medium-sized enterprises, restaurants, schools,
plus electricity producers and
owners of charging stations for
electric cars. This phase should
end on December 31, 2016.
The last, third phase will
concern the customers with
annual consumption of 4 MWh
and more and maximal reserved
capacity of less than 30 kW, like
bigger family houses and shared
residential premises. This
phase should be completed by
December 31, 2020.
Západoslovenská
Distribučná (ZSD) company
says it changes the smart
meters according to the
schedule. It will install some
22,000 meters during the years
2015 and 2016, said the company’s head Andrej Juris. The
plan is to install more than
190,000 meters by 2020.
Also Stredoslovenská Energetika – Distribúcia (SSE-D)
says it follows the plan, as it
installed nearly 7,000 smart
meters last year. By 2020 it
plans to install them at about
110,000 delivery points, said
company’s spokesperson Jana
Bolibruchová.
The
Východoslovenská
Distribučná (VSDS) has already
installed 10,500 meters last
year, and another 26,500 during this year. By 2020 they plan
to install together 100,000
smart meters, according to
Andrea Danihelová, VSDS
spokesperson.
Except for the three big regional distributors, there are
also several small distribution
firms, but it is not clear how
many of the devices have been
installed by them, Deák said.
See SMART pg 9
Energy poverty problem persists
Proposed solutions
range from special
tariffs to social benefits
BY PETER ADAMOVSKÝ
Special to the Spectator
HOW many people suffer from energy
poverty in Slovakia? Who is energy poor
and how should this be addressed by the
state? The EU’s call to create action plans
to address such questions must be heeded
by each country; and Slovakia’s Economy
Ministry has ambitions to address these
issues in the coming year.
“We are developing a scheme to evaluate energy poverty and to set social benefits for people who cannot pay for energy,” Economy Minister Vazil Hudák said
in late January, adding that the working
group will negotiate it before and after the
general election held on March 5, as
quoted by the TASR newswire.
Energy poverty is generally defined as
a situation in which individuals or households are not able to adequately heat or
provide other essential energy services in
their homes at affordable costs. The World
Bank considers this to be a temperature of
21 degrees Celsius in the living room and
18 degrees Celsius in other rooms.
The phenomenon occurs when the
costs of energy exceed 10 percent of disposable income and the risk of nonpayment and subsequent disconnection
from the source increases, says Miroslav
Obšivaný, the chairman of the Slovak Association of Heat Producers.
The regulatory legislation determines
selected households and also small companies to be vulnerable customers. But,
according to the energy act, energy
poverty is primarily applied to disabled
customers whose vital functions are dependent on the commodities used for
heating, says Lenka Ferenčáková, the
editor-in-chief of the Energia.sk website
dedicated to the energy sector.
“In that it is really hard to create the
third definition of energy poverty,”
Ferenčáková told The Slovak Spectator.
The Institute of Economic and Social
Studies (INESS) think tank considers energy poverty as a good example of how
public administration can artificially create a problem and consequently offer
solutions.
“Poverty must be addressed as a consequence of the situation when people are
unable to develop their ability capital and
apply it to the labour market,” Martin
Vlachynský, an analyst at the INESS, told
The Slovak Spectator.
Vlachynský added that dividing of
poverty to energy, nutrition, clothing or
beverage categories only diverts attention from the primary causes. The government should rather focus on the removal of its own actions overcharging for
electricity, he said.
The problem in statistics
Statistics offices collect data of citizens who cannot maintain sufficient
housing heat. While that problem affects
one in every 10 Europeans, in Slovakia it
is only six people out of 100, according to
Zuzana Kusá, a sociologist with the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
But when only people with income
below the poverty threshold are taken into consideration, one in five are not able
to keep their house sufficiently heated.
See POVERTY pg 9
March 7 – 20, 2016
7
Mochovce project sped up
THE MOCHOVCE nuclear
power plant (EMO) constructed by the general electricity producer Slovenské
Elektrárne (SE) is still not
finished, but last year the
pace of completion works on
the 3rd and 4th blocks improved, the Slovak Nuclear
Regulatory Authority (ÚJD)
told the Venergetike.sk
website.
“Last year, the owner of
license [SE] united the coordination and management
of the conventional and
nuclear part of the Mochovce
project, while also boosting
the project team; this has
shown in acceleration of assembly activities,” ÚJD
spokeswoman Zuzana
Hosťovecká told the SITA
newswire.
SE, which is completing
the nuclear block at EMO,
has already informed the
supervisory body that it is
preparing the due documentation necessary for
launching the nuclear facility into operation and for the
operation itself.
“The system of physical
protection is being completed, and the checking of
special professional expertise of selected employees for
the 3rd and 4th block has
been launched,” said
Hosťovecká, adding that in
the reactor hall continues
works on assembling the reactor.
The fourth block is being
built, while the third one
should be launched into operation by the end of 2016. SE
would like to supply the grid
with the first commercially
produced electric power
from the third block beginning in 2017.
In case no serious unexpected phenomena occur
during inactive tests and
launching, the generator
should be phased in during
the course of 2017, ÚJD informed.
SE started the building of
the last two blocks – which
cost about €4.63 billion – by
official launch on November
3, 2008. After completion,
new nuclear blocks in
Mochovce will have installed capacity 471 Megawatt each, which will cover
about 13 percent of total
power consumption in Slovakia.
Slovak-Polish gas pipeline goes on
THE PROJECT of a SlovakPolish gas pipeline is closer
to its implementation. It
shall secure the connection
between a network of highpressure gas pipelines and
underground gas storages on
Polish territory with the
network of transit gas
pipelines on Slovak territory.
Thus, the possibility to
transport gas virtually from
the Baltic coast to Slovakia,
and further on through existing pipelines, all the way
to Hungary and to western
and southern Europe, will be
created.
Recently, the project got
the green light from environmentalists who finished
the process of Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA).
“Based on the result of
the process of environmental impact assessment,
we recommend the implementation of the interconnecting gas pipeline
Poland-Slovakia if the due
conditions are fulfilled and
measures implemented,”
the Slovak Environment
Ministry informed in its final statement, as quoted by
the SITA newswire.
The investor, Slovak operator of gas transport network, Eustream, has thus to
implement more than 70
measures during the realisation of the project or during the operation. Apart
from hydro-geological, pe-
dological, dendrological and
archaeological exploration,
the investor also has to consult the exact route of the
pipeline with municipalities
involved.
To reduce the impact of
construction on the environment and on landowners,
Eustream has to replace the
damaged and abolished trees
and bushes, to compensate
for permanent occupation of
farmland, or limiting the
ownership rights in forest
clearings.
The Slovak-Polish gas
pipeline will connect the
Slovak compressor station in
Veľké Kapušany with the
Polish gas hub in Strachocin.
The total length of connection is 164 kilometres, of
which about 110 kilometres
are on Slovak territory and
58 kilometres in Poland.
In Slovakia, the building
should cost about €100 million, and the construction
itself should start in 2018.
The gas pipeline should start
operating in early 2020.
The European Union
already approved support for
the project of Slovak-Polish
gas connection, for preparation studies and engineering
studies, amounting to €4.6
million in total. Totally, the
elaboration of studies shall
cost €9.2 million; thus the
project received EU help
amounting to 50 percent of
its costs.
Compiled by Spectator staff
8
BUSINESS FOCUS
March 7 – 20, 2016
GREEN: More chances to apply for subsidies to come
Continued from pg 6
“The fact that most of the
projects uses photovoltaics
proves that the big players
found a way to make people
dependent on the global industries,” said Židek. He explained that small biomass
providers do not have resources to help people with big
projects, or are sidelined by the
government.
Robots did not fill
the applications
Židek points to the second
round
of
Zelená
domácnostiam which was
hastily announced and the resources were used within
hours.
“Most probably, the applications were manipulated
or the big players prepared
projects in advance and submitted them on a short notice,” he opines, reacting to the
accusations that a large number of applications could have
been filled by software robots.
SIEA confirmed that their
check did not reveal any software manipulation. Before
launching the application
process, they hedged against
potential
manipulation.
SKREA recommends additional measures, such as recording of the IP address and
user details of the applicants.
“The people interested in
the vouchers did not understand why the number of applications was so high and
turned to the media for an explanation,” said Jambor.
They, however, did not
know that SIEA did not start
the numbering in the second
round from zero but carried on
Biomass is part of the subsidy programme.
in the order from the first
round, which led to misinformation.
“The suspicion that the
applications in the second
round were submitted by ro-
bots was due to this misunderstanding,” Burian said.
Galeková stressed that the
criteria of the project stem
from European regulations
and therefore some applica-
Photo: TASR
tions must be prioritised.
“Additional criteria of the
Operational
Programme
Quality of Natural Environment have to be taken into
consideration,” Burian said.
Therefore the projects that
have the lowest impact on the
environment are prioritised.
“During the whole year, we
stressed that the households
should choose devices that are
useful and apply only when
they gathered enough information about the advantages and disadvantages,”
Jambor explained. However,
many households applied
without proper preparation,
which blocked the access to
the resources for others, he
said.
For the upcoming rounds
SIEA added a detailed manual to
the application and the people
have to specify the alternative
source and contractor.
“It would also help if the
households applied for the
vouchers only when they are
really interested and ready for
the installation,” Jambor said.
New type of batteries tested
SPECIAL Blue Energy (BE)
new generation batteries, to
store electric power with
high efficiency, function on
unconventional chemical
components – manganese
dioxide, carbon and saltwater; with industrial cotton used as a separator. For
almost a year, the
Bratislava-based Emel company has been testing them
in Slovakia.
“Their advantage when
compared to currently used
lithium or lead batteries is
the fact that they are nonflammable, explosion-proof,
non-toxic and recyclable,”
CEO of the company,
Ľudovít Hamaš, explained
for the TASR newswire.
The effectiveness of BE
batteries is 85 percent, while
with other types, it is 70
percent. Moreover, their
lifespan is long, they can be
recharged without being
damaged and the number of
recharging cycles is 5,000.
“If this possibility is not
fully used, but only about 15
percent of energy is used
from the batteries, there can
be as many as 35,000 such
cycles; which prolongs the
lifespan to 100 years,”
Hamaš added.
Currently, Emel tests a
BE battery with capacity of
20 Kilowatt-hours – which is
enough for a house using
photovoltaic panels, wind
turbines or cheaper night
power. The goal is to test
their reliability and check all
declared parameters, according to Hamaš.
“This is the application
of a US patent; and these
batteries have already started to be manufactured
commercially, and so it is
not just laboratory tests,” he
added. “Their certification is
also being made in the Elec-
trotechnical Testing Institute in Prague, according to
European norms.”
Individual modules of BE
batteries can be put together
and interconnected into big
units. Emel prepares
projects to assemble a set of
batteries with capacity of
33,293 MWh. Such sets are
very apt for developing
countries of South America,
Asia and Africa.
Hamaš can imagine the
use of BE batteries also in
Slovakia: for example when
securing relatively cheap
electricity for Roma settlements.
He says that if such a
module is built close to a
settlement, batteries could
be re-charged from cheap
night electricity. During the
day, the stored energy would
be used for common consumption in households.
He calculated that only
one-tenth of the batteries’
capacity would suffice for
that. The rest could be returned to the grid during day
energy peak times when the
electricity is most expensive, which could bring also
an economic effect.
Also the company INTERGEO a.s. Bojnice plans to
use them, within projects of
building renewable sources
of energy. The Bojnice-based
company will be the agent of
BE batteries representation
for Slovakia.
“They combine all necessary qualities,” CEO of
the company Michal Bartko
said, as cited by TASR.
“Compared to lithium or
lead batteries, they need no
expensive maintenance, and
are fully environmentallyfriendly.”
Compiled by Spectator staff
from press reports
BUSINESS / FOCUS
www.spectator.sk
POVERTY: Policy lacks cooperation
“The housing benefit is
provided only to people in
material need,” Kusá said.
Continued from pg 7
“The worst situation is in
poor households where more
than three adults along with
dependent children live,” Kusá
told The Slovak Spectator,
adding that in this group as
much as one-third suffers
from energy poverty.
In Europe, the worst situations in terms of energy
poverty are in Bulgaria, Portugal, Lithuania and Cyprus
where a problem with heating affects more than half of
poor people, according to Kusá.
The Slovak data, however,
appears better because the
poorest households in which
energy poverty is an almost
universal phenomenon live
separated and segregated, and
are not sufficiently included
into the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions
(EU-SILC), Kusá said.
The three proxy indicators of EU-SILC show 6 percent
of the population that are in
arrears on utility bills and
heating that is not sustained,
and 7 percent are living in
dwellings with a leaking roof,
damp walls, floors or foundation.
Poverty databases do not
track
disconnections
of
households from electricity
supplies.
Michaela Krivá, spokeswoman for the electricity distributor Stredoslovenská Energetika, emphasises that
customers falling within the
energy poverty category usually tend to have high energy
consumption.
Kusá said that the disconnection experience is regarded as too marginal and excluded from monitoring,
though in Slovakia the most
deprived areas usually include a significant number of
Other needs
Households in segregated communities are prone to energy
poverty.
Photo: Sme
people with that problem.
According to 2012 statistics from the United Nations
Development Programme, 8
percent of Roma households
living in segregated areas had
no access to electricity and an
additional 22 percent of
households were cut off from
electricity supplies for several
months in the preceding year,
Kusá said.
Potential tools
The working group meetings came with a variety of
solutions, but the most discussed is a social benefit for
low-income households based
on the experience from Italy or
Spain. Obšívaný considers energy poverty as primarily a social problem.
“It is necessary to create a
flexible system for monitoring
socially-disadvantaged
people and addressing them
with
social
benefits,”
Obšívaný said.
Previously proposed special tariffs that in practice
subsidise prices for some
households or a solidarity fund
fuelled by energy companies
have been proposed, Obšívaný
said. However, energy com-
panies deny their role in financing solutions for such a
cross-sectional problem.
“Energy companies should
only provide the appropriate
technical measures and assistance,” Branislav Sušila,
head of regulatory and corporate development at the electricity
distributor
Východoslovenská
Distribučná, told The Slovak
Spectator.
Ferenčáková notices that
ÚRSO again proposed solutions like tariffs or a credit system.
“This shows that different
structures of state administration are still divided and
uncoordinated,” Ferenčáková
said.
The government already
adopted the non-systematic
gas rebates ranking from €10
to €165 that are sent to consumers via post. But Kusá
stressed that such lump-sum
rebates rarely make it to the
poorest households.
“They need to make accessible another fuel, mainly
wood,” Kusá said.
In the current system,
Kusá demonstrates deficient
housing programmes for
people with low or no income.
Experts suggest creation
of definitive rules to help. The
first task of the working group
should be to legislatively
define who is energy poor,
Obšívaný said.
“Only then is it possible to
proceed with the quantification of energy poverty and to
draft the legislative settings,” Obšívaný said.
Sušila sees solutions in
reducing energy consumption.
“Users
unnecessarily
waste a lot of energy at lower
prices, which negates the effect of such measure,” Sušila
said. “Additionally, it introduces cross-subsidies which
negatively impact other customers.”
Michaela
Dobošová,
spokeswoman for the electricity
distributor
Západoslovenská Energetika,
said that poverty should be
addressed through a state social programme, not through
price regulation.
Ferenčáková cited the
financing of insulation, guaranteed energy services and
simplification of decentralised production of heat and
electricity.
“The credit meters currently used in the suburb of
Košice Lunik IX can be an alternative,” Ferenčáková said.
Kusá proposes a public
debate on the transposition of
the EC directive concerning
common rules for the electricity market.
“The directive proclaims
energy as a universal and
publicly accessible service,”
Kusá said.
March 7 – 20, 2016
9
SMART: Pros and cons
should be adressed
Energy distributors agree
that the smart meters will
Some problems pending
allow better monitoring of
produced and consumed
Though the current
electricity, as well as collectempo of installing smart
tion of information for opmetres is good, it is impeded erating the distribution netby low awareness of cuswork. They may also help
tomers. There is no clear list reveal illegal electricity
of benefits the devices bring consumption, Juris said.
to customers or other related
Moreover, based on colsubjects.
lected information customMoreover, also nationers can use the electricity
wide awareness is missing,
more effectively and reduce
according to Deák.
costs, according to
“Only distribution comBolibruchová.
panies communicate with
“The potential drop in
the customers, by providing consumption depends on
them information shortly
each customer,” she said,
before the installation of
adding that they have to desmart meters,” Deák said.
cide on their own how and
Also information in mewhen they will use electridia is rather infrequent, he
city and whether they will
added.
invest into technologies that
Juris also admits that
should secure effective use
when installing smart
of smart meters.
meters, it sometimes hapJuris adds that based on
pens that customers need
data from smart meters,
more detailed information
electricity traders may preabout the devices, as well as pare special packages for
consulting.
customers that will help
Moreover, the problem is them monitor their electrithat the installation of
city consumption.
smart meters will not affect
As for obstacles, Slovakia
average families for now as
lacks dynamic tariffs and a
their annual consumption is more liberal framework for
about 2.2 MWh.
electricity distributors to reBolibruchová admits that for spond to the potential smart
households with lower elec- meters have, Deák says.
tricity consumption the fiMoreover, the current
nal savings are very low, es- regulation system does not
pecially compared with the
allow suppliers to create incosts for operating the smart novative packages of sermeters.
vices with, for example,
floating tariffs, Vlachynský
Meters to help save costs
adds.
“The point of smart
Since it is a new techno- meters is in using the price
logy, it is necessary to
fluctuations during the day,”
identify the possibilities it
Vlachynský told The Slovak
brings to customers, as well Spectator, “without this
as barriers to its further dethey are only for decoravelopment, Deák said.
tion.”
Continued from pg 7
STAT: Regional disparities in Slovakia are growing
Continued from pg 4
The analysts point out that
the Bratislava region’s GDP
includes also activities of those
companies that have a
headquarters in the capital,
but conduct many activities
also in other regions. Ďurana
also mentions that when the
biggest carmaker in Slovakia,
Volkswagen Slovakia, sits in
the Bratislava region but belongs to VW, this makes an
impression that the region is
extremely rich. As a consequence almost 30 percent of
Slovakia’s GDP is created in
Bratislava, which is more that
Prague’s share on the Czech
Republic’s GDP. Thus the reason why in this comparison
Bratislava has a better position than Prague.
Habrman and Ďurana further point out that the method of calculation via purchasing parity does not take into
consideration price differences between Bratislava and
the rest of Slovakia, when costs
of living in Bratislava are
higher, especially due to high-
er prices of housing and some
services. If the regional GDP
per capita is not expressed via
purchasing power, that of
Bratislava would be about 123
percent of the EU average, according to Habrman.
The IFP analyst also referred to the significantly underestimated number of citizens of Bratislava when a
large amount of people who
actually live and work in the
Bratislava region, have their
permanent residence registered somewhere else.
“Then when the GDP is
calculated per registered persons in the region, the final
indicator of GDP per capita is
exaggerated for Bratislava,”
said Habrman.
Moreover, Eurostat itself
notes in the report, that in
some regions the GDP per capita figures can be significantly
influenced by commuter flows.
“Net commuter inflows in
these regions push up production to a level that could not be
achieved by the resident active population on its own,”
wrote Eurostat in the news re-
More sophisticated production may help.
lease. “There is a corresponding effect in regions with
commuter outflows.”
Habrman added that this
factor is common for regions
consisting only of the capital
and close vicinity like Bratislava, London, Brussels, Vienna, Prague or Bucharest.
Katarína Muchová, analyst at Slovenská Sporiteľňa
(SLSP), also points out that the
GDP per capita speaks about
the economic activity, but
does not measure the income
Photo: Sme
available to households in a
given region or country.
Economist Vladimír Baláž
from the Institute for Forecasting of the Slovak Academy of
Sciences points out that GDP
can be evaluated from various
viewpoints. For instance, when
a country’s GDP is calculated by
using the income approach, it
indicates what portion of GDP
ordinary people enjoy. In such
a case the country’s GDP consists of two main items: wages
of employees and profits of
businesses. Baláž specified that
in Slovakia the portion consisting of the share taken by businesses is very high compared
with other European countries
when it amounts to almost two
thirds. The part taken by employees is only one third.
“Across Europe, except
Romania, it is vice versa,”
Baláž told The Slovak Spectator, explaining this with profits
of multinational companies
having their headquarters also
in Bratislava, yet these profits
are being exported in the form
of dividends. Thus he admits
that in general the GDP created in the Bratislava region is
high, but common people do
not enjoy it.
The main message of
Eurostat’s statistics about regions of the EU is, according to
Baláž, that Slovakia’s economy is extremely dependent
on foreign investments and
foreign trade, while what can
be done in the future is to try
to draw to Slovakia more
sophisticated
production
which would mean higher remuneration of workers.
Regional disparities
“In spite of its imperfections the ranking [of regions]
represents the best available
way for comparison of regions
according to their economic
performance,” said Habrman,
adding that it enables identification of which regions are
poor, average and rich, while
the Bratislava region is by its
economic activity well-above
the EU average.
But in the case of Slovakia,
for Habrman it is rather interesting to see a significant difference in economic activity of
the regions of eastern and
western Slovakia that ended
with 53 and 72 percent of the EU
average, respectively. For
central Slovakia Eurostat reports 61 percent.
Muchová of SLSP agrees,
pointing out that Slovakia’s
regions except for Bratislava
finished below the EU average
and that the regional disparities have not only sustained,
but even grown, especially
between that of Bratislava and
eastern Slovakia.
NEWS / BUSINESS
10 March 7 – 20, 2016
INV: Last minute stimuli questioned
Continued from pg 1
Remaining stimuli
Out of the stimuli and investors, the biggest ones raise
the biggest questions.
RKN Global Europe which
plans to invest €89.4 million in
Banská Bystrica and create 1,238
new jobs asked for assistance
worth €18 million of which €10
million should be used for purchase of tangible and intangible assets and €10 million
should be in the form of tax
breaks. Midia Agro applied for
investment aid worth €18.5
million to build a new plant for
producing milk-based children’s products in Čab (Nitra
Region) while it plans to invest €98 million and create 325
new jobs. Of the stimulus, the
company wants to use €16.5
million for purchase of tangible property while tax breaks
should account for €2 million.
Plans of RKN Global Europe
to build a plant to produce duty
stamps and blank copies of personal documents in an industrial park near Banská Bystrica
has been hitting headlines in
Slovak media for some time.
The Dubai-based firm,
formally run by the former head
of Interpol Robert Noble, is
seeking to cooperate on this
project with Ukrainian firms
accused of corruption in the US,
according to the Sme daily.
Noble confirmed on March
2 that all patents and know-how
for production of secure identity documents are held by his
Ukrainian partners, while his
explanation of financing the
project was unclear, according
to Sme.
RKN Global Europe also does
not hold, as of now, an industrial security review by the Na-
The cabinet also approved
allocation of stimulus of €1.4
million for cheesemaker Bel
Slovensko
in
Michalovce
(Košice Region) that plans to
expand production at its existing plant. It plans to invest
€4.25 million and create 50 new
jobs.
The Jasplastik-SK company
in Galanta (Trnava Region) requested €3.9 million in aid for
expanding its production capacities in Nitra-Mlynárce.
The investment, worth
€17.6 million, is to be carried out
in 2016-18, and 140 new jobs
should emerge by the end of
2017.
The car component manufacturer Mar SK in Sučany
(Žilina Region) is seeking €1.53
million in aid to expand its existing plant via a production
line for making ball bearings
and wheel hubs.
The investment worth
€15.35 million is expected to
lead to 67 new jobs.
During the last four years
the cabinet supported investments with an aggregate
amount of €1.5 billion, and
those supported companies
created around 10,000 jobs.
But an economic expert
warns that huge stimuli may
deform the business environment.
“While the investment
stimulus supports origination
of some investment, on the
other hand this money was collected from other businesses,
which as a consequence have
less for their own investments,” Martin Vlachynský,
analyst with INESS, told the TA3
news channel.
The Slovak milk producing sector is suffering.
tional Security Office (NBÚ),
which in case of production of
blank copies of personal identification documents is a necessity. Minister Hudák said
that the cabinet would require
such a review within the agreement with this investor and it
must be carried out before the
investment stimulus applies.
But Peter Goliaš of the INEKO think tank also pointed out
that the proceeding should be
reverse and that initially the review should be done and only
afterwards the stimulus should
be granted.
Midia Agro, on the other
hand, unveiled its plans only in
late February. Even though
Slovak milk producers have
welcomed its plan as they are in
a desperate situation due to an
excess of milk on the European
market due to cancelation of
milk quotas within the EU, the
Russian embargo and decreasing demand of the Chinese
market for powdered milk, the
Food Chamber of Slovakia (PKS)
has called on the cabinet not to
allocate the stimulus.
“It is bewildering then
when deciding about financial
support for a company, one
which does not have listed in its
business activities processing of
Photo: Sme
milk and production of dairy
products; it was preferred to
local traditional producers,” the
PKS wrote in its stance, pointing out that an unknown Cypriot company that has no experience with production and
sale of powdered milk has
launched Midia Agro some
months ago.
While also the Environment Ministry pointed to the
absence of a licence to process
milk, for the cabinet to greenlight the investment it was
enough that Midia Agro is in the
process of getting it.
The chamber further pointed to unused capacities of existing dairy companies in Slovakia and thus in its opinion it
would be more effective and just
to financially support these
producers than to provide selective state support and create unfair competition in the
milk-processing sector.
Moreover, Midia Agro is
taking a €50 million loan to
finance the project, while the
bank is waiting to see whether the company will receive
the stimulus.
Thus the company is not
able to prove that it is capable
of financing the investment,
Sme wrote.
VOTE: Caretaker gov’t
likely for rest of year
The chair of the party Béla
Bugár was visibly disap“It is a result of Fico’s
pointed with the results by
discourse and that the opthe time 50 percent of the
position that was unable to
votes were counted.
oppose it,” political analyst
“What we can say is that
Pavol Hardoš said.
citizens have already voted
outside the system twice,
KDH out, Most barely in
meaning they did not vote
for established parties,”
The KDH has been around Bugár said.
for 26 years and it is the first
time now that it has dropped
Procházka far below
out of the parliament with
expectations
just below 5 percent of the
vote. Over the past four
The result of the newyears, KDH has been deserted comer Sieť however came as
by its younger generation
a bigger surprise than the
including Daniel Lipšic and
results of KDH and Most-Híd.
Radoslav Procházka, who
One of the reasons for the
have both made it to the par- party’s failure might have
liament with their respective been that they did not form a
new parties.
strong opposition to Smer
KDH has relied too much and that he was not very
on outdated topics and faces, strong in televised debates,
Haulík told The Slovak Spec- Procházka told the journaltator.
ists when votes from more
The movement did not
than 42 percent of election
give an official statement to
precincts were counted.
the final results at night.
Sieť leaders will meet on
Deputy chair Pavol Zajac
March 7 to discuss the situhowever listed the mistakes
ation. Procházka told journthat the KDH made: the failed alists he is ready to resign as
candidacy of Pavol Hrušovský the party’s chair. He refused
in the presidential elections, to speculate about the future
but also the controversial
government, TASR wrote.
draft law proposing in vitro
There were many undefertilisation to be a punishcided voters among Sieť
able crime that was filed in
preferences and they seem to
the parliament shortly before have changed their minds in
elections and that some of
the last moment, Haulík said.
KDH MPs signed.
“Procházka was not in
With KDH and the Slovak the parliament, and many
Democratic and Christian
have forgotten about him,”
Union (SDKÚ) out of the par- said political analyst Aneta
liament, Most-Híd (6.5 perVilági in post-election debate
cent) remains the only one of hosted by the Sme daily,
the traditional right-leaning when commenting on the
parties in the parliament.
poor results by Sieť.
Continued from pg 3
RL: American students should travel abroad more
we have about 10 agencies
today whose job is to promote
They do the application to the programme across all the
be designated by the State De- different categories.
partment as a sponsor of a J-1
exchange. Once they go TSS/SME:
Which
prothrough the process, they get grammes are the most popthe J-1 visa forms to bring ular with Slovak students?
people on. They pick the coun- How has the structure of
tries, find the partners and participants in this student
spread the word. In Slovakia exchange
programme
changed over the years?
RL: The highest interest
from Slovakia is in the Summer Work Travel programme.
The eligibility for that category has always been university students. They have to
show proof that they are university students and they can
come anytime during their
studies, whether they are
bachelors, masters, PhD students. Or during the last summer, after they finish their final exams. That has never
changed.
What they can or can’t do
on the programme, that is different now. We’ve taken out
certain jobs and created more
clarity on the kinds of jobs that
are appropriate for an exchange programme. Ultimately, this is a cultural exchange programme. It allows
Slovak youth to get a more acContinued from pg 2
tual experience of US culture.
We allow them to work for up
to three months and then they
can travel for a month. And
during that whole time they
are speaking English, making
friends, living in the US and
learning what that’s about.
TSS/SME: What other programmes are popular, except for Summer Work
Travel?
RL: The au-pair programme is popular here. It’s
very different from the
European au-pair programme.
We also have sponsors who are
responsible for that programme, for finding the host
families. The host families
have to be selected and must
show that they are eligible.
They have to have a certain
size of the room for au-pair.
The au-pairs are limited in
how many hours they can
work per week and they have
to get time off. We regulate
they can only do work for children. They can stay for up to
two years.
Also the high school exchanges are popular. There
were 254 in high schools in
2015. It’s quite an expensive
programme; the families are
making investments to send We began major monitoring
their child. The other one is a trips in the summer. I sent all
Camp Counselor programme. my staff out, they went to
every corner of the US to meet
TSS/SME: Is there any in- participants in the proterest among American stu- gramme and ask them lots of
dents to come for an ex- questions about how the prochange to Slovakia? What is gramme is going. We continue
their motivation to choose to do that. In 2014 I started a
Slovakia?
blog where I highlighted sucRL: My first-hand experi- cessful programmes. There are
ence is only in inbound pro- countless stories of how this
grammes in the US. But an programme has just changed
Open Doors report shows there people’s lives. But what I love
is an increase in students about the J-1 is that young kids
studying here. We have a Ful- leave the nest. They find
bright programme which does themselves
achieving
allow for two-way research something that they even
and we have a Fulbright Com- didn’t know they have in them.
mission. They do a lot of work
On the other side, I’ve seen
here to promote the pro- the host employers who show
gramme, to find funding for you a map and the pins of
other programmes. Americ- where the students came from
ans don’t study abroad as and all the presents they’ve
much as other countries study gotten over the years from the
abroad. It’s something we students that came. They don’t
work on a lot: to try to in- even know how to pronounce
crease the number of Americ- the name of the country, but
ans going abroad.
they still get emails. That has
opened their world so much.
TSS/SME: What have been
the best moments for you TSS/SME: Would you personsince you have been appoin- ally join such a programme?
ted to the post?
RL: I did one. I was a camp
RL: I came in 2012 and we counsellor in Switzerland in
actually needed to make some college. I don’t even know if I
fixes to Summer Work Travel. made any money, but it was
great. I spoke French, met
people from all over the world,
travelled all over Europe. It allowed me to be there the whole
summer.
TSS/SME: Slovakia often
struggles to lure the talents
to return from abroad back
home. Based on the US experience, what would you
recommend the country to
change, so these people want
to return?
RL: I am not specifically
familiar with Slovakia enough,
but I would just say a country
that wants to attract people
has to think about what the
young people want and what
they need. The J-1 programme
works because young people
want work experience, they
want to learn English and they
want to travel and have fun. I
often find other governments
want to do the same thing, but
they need to create a visa for it.
We created a structure around
it, which makes it easy. I’m not
sure how many people are
looking to learn Slovak, but
you have to look what else you
have and build on it.
To read the whole interview,
please go to www.spectator.sk.
CULTURE
www.spectator.sk
Dutch paintings at the SNG
BY ZUZANA VILIKOVSKÁ
Spectator staff
DUTCH painting has had tremendous impact on art history. Its influence has spread
far and wide, touching also on
regions and spheres surprisingly distant, geographically
and culturally.
The latest exhibition at the
Slovak National Gallery in
Bratislava (SNG) proves that
Dutch painting has also impacted this country. Rather
than offering a selection
brought in from another gallery or another country, it exhibits the works of Dutch
masters and workshops from
local collections – both private
and state-owned.
“This period saw the intellectualisation of art production,” curator Zuzana
Ludiková told the media, “and
the ever bigger losses and
damaging of old art which
evoked interest, collecting and
nostalgia for the lost artworks of old masters.”
The SNG collection of
Dutch art is relatively young in
the context of collecting it, as
the gallery itself was founded
in 1948 and the artworks of old
masters were transferred to its
ownership in 1953, curator
Ludiková said. This initiative –
followed alongside the prioritised collecting of national art
– led to a separate collection of
European art which has preserved its character to the
present day, and is used and
exhibited in this way still.
Dutch art was not among
the most common types collected in what is now Slovakia; and so the contents of the
SNG collection reflect mostly
the collectors’ preferences of
the 19th, and the limited 20thcentury Czechoslovak market. Despite these limitations, it has the potential to
testify and represent not just
collecting strategies and dealers’ preferences, but also to offer focal themes of these periods, Ludiková said.
The approximate 100
works in the Netherlandish
Painting exhibition are divided into eight categories.
They were selected to show the
trends, leitmotifs, peculiarities and gradual development
of this specific genre.
A. Jansz. van der Croos: Montfoort Castle. 1653.
Dutch painting developed
gradually, from religious motifs and also religious, or institutional financiers to cities
or individuals (increasingly
Italian ones) as clients. As motifs moved towards the secular, still lives and landscapes,
as well as urban, mostly market scenes, so did the artworks’ function. The foundation materials also changed,
from wood to canvas and even
copper plates, as did the prevailing colours.
Academies vs masters
The early works were done
by painting workshops, where
the names of artists were
either not very important, or
one work was done by several
painters – first the landscape
specialist and only later by figure painters. It is a mystery
whether these were planned
from the beginning and approved by the first painter, or
done without their consent.
Sometimes, apprentices
were asked to copy a masterpiece of a renowned artist, often the founder or leader of the
art school, and the best copies were sold under the master’s name.
Later, the mastery of the
most-renowned artists became ever more important,
and this exhibition also captures this phenomenon. Those
in the “Painting in the Northern Netherlands 1648-1700”
section include Rembrandt van
Rijn (mostly etchings) and his
academy (or studio), as well as
his contemporaries like Pieter
Jansz Quast, Pieter Codde,
Gerrit Lundens, and others.
In the later periods, genre
paintings and portraits gradually prevailed. The centre of art
also shifted, from Antwerp in
the early period, through
Haarlem to Utrecht (which had,
thanks to its Catholic character, lively trade with Italy).
Apart from paintings
which gave name to the whole
display, etchings and crockery ordered in the Netherlands for the coronation feast
of Hungarian Empress Maria
Theresa’s father, Charles III,
made in Delft are included.
This chinaware was not made
for the emperor personally,
but rather for guests at other,
less important tables who
were then allowed to take the
plates home as souvenirs,
Ludiková explained.
This exhibition is on the
second floor of the SNG’s
Esterházy Palace, in Ľ. Štúra
Square in Bratislava. It runs
daily, except for Mondays, until May 22. Admission is free,
except for accompanying
events which are numerous
for this exhibition; but are
mostly in Slovak. There is also
a catalogue of 140 pages accompanying this selection,
the summary of which is in
English. Apart from this, there
are leaflets, both in Slovak and
in English, available at the
ticket office for free.
L. van Valckenborch – Georg Flegel: Allegory of Summer. Around 1595
Photos: Courtesy of SNG
Film, music and more in French month
FRENCH culture is presented richly in
Slovakia, and each year, one month brings
a condensed dose of it – March. Not just in
the capital but also in Košice and Banská
Bystrica, the Month of Francophony
presents a host of various events, connected through one common phenomenon, the French language.
In Bratislava, it started by the end of
February with a Francophone market,
followed by a French Language Exchange
Meeting, the opening of an exhibition (of
Miloš Kopták and Michéle Francillon)
with a French programme, an evening of
poetry, a Celtic-French-Irish evening
(Roch’ann band, Avalon Academy of Irish
Dance), a university students’ forum, the
opening of paintings by Tessa Muljacic
(Croatia), a concert of the Carrousel band,
Journée – tasting French meals and delicacies in Slovak restaurants with a lecture on gastronomy, commemoration of
the 25th anniversary of French bilingual
sections at Slovak schools, a lecture of
Sufism, a workshop of creative writing for
French and Slovaks, and the Romanian
Film Club.
As the year 2015 was especially strong
in French cinematography, according to
the organisers from the French Institute
in Slovakia; and is the second most productive in the world, the Crème de la
Crème film festival may become one of the
highlights of the whole month. The “week
of French movies” – March 10-16 – will take
place not just in Bratislava, but also in
Banská Bystrica, Nitra, Košice, and other
Slovak cities and towns simultaneously.
In Košice, the Month of Francophony
will comprise also two photography exhibitions, Gout de France promotion of
the country’s gastronomy, an evening of
poetry, a theatre performance, and more,
organised by the Košice-based French Alliance (which has also a branch in Banská
Bystrica), the TASR newswire wrote.
Specific information can be found at
cremedelacreme.filmeurope.eu and institutfrancais.sk.
Compiled by Spectator staff
March 7 – 20, 2016
11
Fest accompanies music awards
EIGHT years ago, the need for
musical awards that would
form natural opposition to
the Slávik and Aurel popularity awards – for pop
genres – appeared. In 2008,
the Rádio_FM has given a
chance for “different music
than known from the commercial, mainstream media”.
The Radio_Head Awards
will be presented in midMarch 2016 as well, and also
this time, the gala event will
be preceded by a two-day
festival featuring only Slovak out-of-the-mainstream
performers. On March 11, in
the famous Slovak Radio
pyramid building, Korben
Dallas, La3No Cubano and
Fúzy Múzy bands will play,
as well as the Symphonic
Orchestra of the Slovak Radio and Residential Ensemble of the Rádio Devín
radio station.
The next day, David
Kollar & The Blessed Beat,
Tono S., Fresh Out Of The
Bus, Jana Andevska, Konvergencie Players, or Valér
Miko Trio will address the
audiences in the same venue,
the SITA newswire wrote.
The presenting of the
Radio_Head Awards will take
place on March 13 in the Old
Market-hall in SNP Square,
within a gala evening in
which bands Fallgrapp, Billy
Barman, Puding pani
Elvisovej, Saténové ruky or
Bulp will perform.
The contest categories
include Album of the Year,
Reviewers’ Award, Debut of
the Year, Single of the Year,
Electronic Music, Hard &
Heavy, Hi-hop/Rap/R’n’B,
World Music/Folk, Jazz,
Classical Music and Experimental Music.
Listeners of the
Rádio_FM station had the
opportunity to select their
favourites in four main categories: Album of the Year,
Single of the Year,
Newcomer/Discovery of the
Year and Debut of the Year.
The most nominations –
three – belong to bands
Saténové ruky and Chiki liki
tu-a. Other candidates include Billy Barman, Puding
pani Elvisovej and Korben
Dallas.
More detailed information can be found at
www.radiohlavy.sk and
about the festival also at
www.citylife.sk.
SNM presents the best of 15 years
AFTER last year was influenced by the anniversary of
Slovak linguist, politician, revivalist and activist Ľudovít
Štúr, this year turns back to
Slovak history and also to the
internal history of the Slovak
National Museum (SNM).
The exhibition that opened in mid-February in the
headquarters of the SNM – at
Vajanského Embankment 2 in
Bratislava – offers an overview
of the most interesting exhibits, displays and items
from deposits.
Called “4 Millions in a
Museum – What We Have Acquired” exhibits, until midOctober, unique exhibits, including Just’s collection, a
treasure from the Bratislava
Castle hill as well as findings
of skeletal remains of Celts
from the 1st century BC from
the recent archaeological research at Bratislava Castle,
SNM informed the SITA
newswire. A big selection of
silver coins from mediaeval
treasure from Svätý Jur, a
Papal bull from the 15th century from research of the Spiš
Castle, or Priami’s blueprint of
Červený Kameň castle’s fortification.
The most valuable acquisitions since 2000 include the
gothic artworks, The Abduction of Europe plastic artwork
from Vienna porcelain factory, an African lion, and more
can be seen daily except for
Mondays 9:00-17:00, JulyAugust 10:00-18:00 for €2-€4.
More information is on museum website, www.snm.sk.
During its 120 years of
history, SNM has accumulated
more than 4 million artefacts,
expanding its collections via
purchases, donations, its own
research and exchange with
other museums and galleries.
Compiled by Spectator staff
12
CULTURE
March 7 – 20, 2016
Germanised “nest”
Western SLOVAKIA
Bratislava
n FILM: Escaping Riga – Two
young men Sergei Eisenstein
and Isaiah Berlin are forced to
leave their hometown Riga
during World War I. Later,
they become great figures of
the 20th century, one becomes a film producer in Soviet Russia and another becomes the best British philosopher of his generation, mixture of feature and documentary film.
Starts: March 7, 20:00; A4 –
Priestor Súčasnej Kultúry /
Space of Contemporary Culture, Karpatská 2 (70 minutes,
English language). More info:
www.citylife.sk.
EVEN a hundred years ago,
publishers who produced
postcards tried to stand out in
order to sell more of their
goods. Publisher Bernat Blayer of Stará Ľubovňa did this by
placing an automobile before
his camera – then a
rarity which only
very rich people
could afford. It is
quite probable that
the Praga brand car
appeared in the streets of this
small town only thanks to an
agreement between Mr Blayer and its owner to come for
the purpose of a photo and
that, in fact, it drove in the
streets of a bigger city.
The town is called
Hniezdne and it lies in the
northern Spiš region, not far
from the Polish border. Its interesting name refers to ancient times when a Slavonic
settlement used to be here.
Hniezdo, meaning nest, in
this case is the term for a
settled and probably even
fortified site. The first written mention stems from 1286,
and it mentions a town called
Knysen, a Germanised form of
the town’s original name, as
by that time, a large number
of German immigrants had
settled there. Gradually,
Slovaks merged with the new
settlers and Hniezdne became a German town, as did
many others in Spiš.
The right side of the postcard is lined by walled burgher houses which can be found
in smaller towns in
Spiš. They have
usually two floors
and local Germans
started
building
them in the laterenaissance style at the beginning of the 17th century.
Similar houses appeared here
in the following century but
already in the baroque style.
Visitors to this town are also
attracted by valuable murals.
By Branislav Chovan
Febiofest hails club films
THE 23RD year of the Slovak
edition of the traditional film
festival Febiofest will focus on
producer’s and club films;
while also highlighting movies from Visegrad Group (V4)
countries. In almost 30 days,
visitors in 10 Slovak cities will
get to see more than 100 films.
The goal of the festival is
to draw attention to Slovak
production, comparing it
with films of neighbouring
countries (Poland, the Czech
Republic and Hungary as V4
countries – and also Austria,
this time). Many of the movies
will be shown – between
March 17 and 23 in Bratislava
cinemas – in an exclusive preview, while they will also get
the chance to see some of the
directors present their works
in person, including masterclasses for students of the
Film Faculty of the Academy
of Performing Arts.
The festival collection includes Oscar nominee (Anomalisa, director Duke Johnson) and Oscar winner (Spotlight, director Thomas McCarthy), as well as movies that
have been awarded in Berlin,
Venice, and Cannes, Zuzana
Kizáková informed.
Apart from offering a fine
selection of movies made
abroad, the festival will also
present some Slovak and
Czech-Polish-French-Slovak
co-productions
including
Olga Hepnar (director Tomáš
Weinreb, Petr Kazda) which
opened the Berlinale film
festival’s Panorama section.
It tells the true story of a
young, frustrated Czech woman who, driving a lorry,
killed eight people at a tram
stop in 1973 and was the last
woman to be executed in
communist Czechoslovakia.
Other films from the
Slovak Film Landscape include e.g. Steam on the River
(Robert Kirchhoff, Filip Remunda) about the professional and personal twists and
turns of the fate of three
Czechoslovak
musicianémigrés, jazzmen Laco Deczi,
Ľubomír Tamaškovič and Ján
Jankeje; or 5th October by
Martin Kollar, the story of a
man who reviews his life
while waiting for D-day, the
date of his crucial surgery.
There are proven, traditional sections like Club Film
Today (latest feature and documentary films from all over
the world), Mirror of the Past
(older cult films), Club Juke-
box (with the possibility to
put together one’s own selection of movies), the Film Cabinet for Children, Kinoikon+
(a section curated by Slovak
film journalists, this time
featuring Polish director Walerian Borowczyk), ASFK (Association of Slovak Film
Clubs) Novelties – three
movies awarded with Cézar
previewed (Mustang, Common Market Law and Marguerite); and a novelty, the
section Experimental.
Film festivals offer, apart
from a host of films, also the
chance to meet filmmakers in
person. Guests at the 23rd Febiofest will be Czechs Helena
Třeštíková, Petr Zelenka),
French-Georgian Ottar Iosseliani (Grand Prix Venice
1984, 1989, FIPRESCI Berlinale
1981), and Spanish Albert
Serra (historical dramas, two
will be screened at this fest).
After the capital (March
17-23), a selection of movies
will tour Slovakia between
March 31 and April 16. More
detailed information and the
full programme can be found
at www.febiofest.sk.
Compiled by
Zuzana Vilikovská
Bratislava
n CLASSICAL MUSIC: Doshisha
University Orchestra – Japanese symphonic orchestra plays
in the Slovak Philharmonic
concert hall. This orchestra
from the Japanese city of
Kyoto is made up of 120 students from the University of
Doshisha, one of the most
prestigious Christian schools
in Japan, as conducted by
Hiroyuki Odano.
Starts: March 9, 18:00;
Slovak Philharmonic, Reduta
building, Eugena Suchoňa
Square 1. Admission: €3-€6.
More info: www.filharmonia.sk.
Bratislava
n LIVE CONCERT:
Spanish
music – Flamenco and commemoration of Paco de Lucia.
A night full of Latin music,
primarily flamenco, Spanish
temperament and passionate
rhythms. Played by Morenito
de Triana, aka Stano Kohútek
(guitar), Michal Caba (cajon
and
percussions).
They
present their own compositions, as well as works of the
best masters of flamenco guitar.
Starts: March 9, 19:00; Loď
Café/Divadlo v podpalubí,
Tyršovo Embankment. Admission: €9. Tel: 0903/449-650;
www.lodtheatro.sk.
Bratislava
n LIVE MUSIC: Eros Ramazzo-
tti – Famous Italian singer embarks on another world tour
with his latest album Perfetto, making a stop also in the
STANLEY Clarke Band will play in their Bratislava concert a fusion of
rock, jazz and funk. The evening will feature the bass guitar player,
16-year-old Beka Gochiashvili (Georgia, piano), as well as Cameron
Graves (American, keys), Michael Mitchell (Canadian, battery). They
will have Slovak support, jazzman Juraj Griglák (with Štefan Bugala,
Peter Raitl, Eugen Vizváry and Michal Bugala) on March 7 at 19:00 in
Istropolis inTrnavské mýto 1. Tickets cost €11 (reduced price) and €25.
More information can be found at www.citylife.sk, tickets at
www.ticketpoeral.sk.
Photo: Courtesy of M. Šálek
Slovak capital.
Starts: March 15, 19:00;
Ondrej Nepela Ice Stadium,
(Slovnaft Arena), Odbojárov 9.
Admission: €35 – €199. Tel:
02/5293-3321;
www.ticketportal.sk; www.citylife.sk.
Bratislava
n GAME FESTIVAL:
Anime
Show 2016 & Game Expo 2016 –
This year of this multi-genre
festival brings a variety of sections (anime, comics, manga;
Japanese
culture;
sci-fi,
fantasy & horror; artworks,
games, karaoke, cosplay, DDR,
board games, PC games, card
games and L.A.R.P, and more),
as well as tea culture, typical
gastronomy, etc. in three days.
Starts:
March
18-20;
Cultus-The House of Culture
Ružinov, Ružinovská 28. Tel:
02/4333 0523, www.citylife.sk.
Bratislava
n CLASSICAL MUSIC: Organ
recital of renowned Czech
musician Pavel Kohout offers
works by Bach, Slovak Ivan
Sokol, Czech Josef Klička and
Liszt.
Starts: March 20, 10:30;
Concert Studio of the Slovak
Radio, Mýtna 1. Admission:
free. More info: www.cityl-
ife.sk.
CENTRAL SLOVAKIA
Zvolen
n CONCERT: Chris Ellys – The
indie-pop and solo English folk
performer comes to Slovakia as
part of his Feel The Words Tour
2016. He started with a minifestival, followed by his first
tour. Since February 19, Ellys
has played in Slovakia and the
Czech Republic. His second
tour brings primarily his own
songs, because cooperation
with guitarist Nick Power has
ended.
Starts: March 11, Fri 19:30;
Džezva Café, Tehelná 4; Admission: €2.5. More info:
www.kamdomesta.sk.
EASTERN SLOVAKIA
KOŠICE
n OPERA: Dialogues of the
Carmelites – The French opera
by Francis Poulenc in three
acts from 1957 has been adapted and conducted by Ondrej
Olos and directed by Linda
Keprtová. Starts: March 12,
19:00; State Theatre Košice
(SDKE), Hlavná 58. Admission:
€4-€15. Tel: 055/2452-269,
055/2452-260;
or
via
www.navstevnik.sk;
more
info www.sdke.
Košice
n EXHIBITION: My Country is
A TRULY dramatic performance brings the third anniversary of the
Slovak Championship of Latin Dancing organised by Fáber Dance
Team. The jury consists of Felix Castillo (Belgium), Egle Visockaite
(Lithuania), Beatrix Lajtai (Hungary), Michelle Bacci (Italy), Dennis
Kuznecov (Russia), Katarina Balúchová, Michaela Bielická, Matej
Chren, Peter Pastorek, Eduard Slimák, Michal Soukup, Kvetoslava
Štrbová, Stella Víťazková (all from Slovakia). The contest starts on
March 5, between 10:00 and 22:00 in the hall of sports Dukla, Slobody
Square 9 in Banská Bystrica. Tickets cost €20-€25, more information
can be found at at www.tanec-msr.sk. Illustrative stock photo: Sme
My Fantasy / Moja krajina je
moja fantázia – The exhibition
presents successful painter,
illustrator and co-founder of
the International Biennale of
Illustrations, Miroslav Cipár.
The exposition is interactive
and visitors are a part of it.
Screenplay and dramaturgy by
Katarína Kosánová, art design
solution by Zuzana Hlavinová
and Nataša Štefunková.
Open: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00
until May 1; Kasárne Kulturpark, Kukučínová 2; more info:
www.k13.sk.
By Spectator staff