TELECOMMUNICATIONS
On sale now
NEWS
Fico starts blogging
Smer leader Robert Fico has
launched his own personal
blog. His choice of venue
was slightly surprising: the
website of Sme, a newspa-
per he has previously
accused of lying.
pg 2
EC Roma strategy
A European Commission
framework document
aimed at spurring better
Roma-inclusion policies in
member states has received
a cautious welcome from
Slovak activists.
pg 3
OPINION
The magic phrase
“No law has been broken” is
the magic, formulaic re-
sponse politicians often
toss out in response to ques-
tions about deals that are
rotten to their core when
judged by ethical standards.
pg 5
BUSINESS FOCUS
Elixir or poison?
The two biggest telecom
companies in Slovakia saw
their revenues dip in 2010
and partly blamed state and
EU regulators, while the
third operator praised regu-
lation as necessary.
pg 6
A different path
The Slovak Spectator spoke
to Peter Máčaj, chief execut-
ive officer of Slovanet, an al-
ternative telecoms pro-
vider, about the firm's dir-
ection and challenges fa-
cing the telecoms industry.
pg 7
CULTURE
Stretching their style
The Abhijit Banerjee Trio,
leading exponents of
Northern Indian classical
music, recently played two
gigs in Slovakia. The Slovak
Spectator asked them about
their approach to music.
pg 11
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Vol. 17, No. 15
Two ships collided on the Danube river canal near Šamorín in the early morning hours of April 13. One, a German pas-
senger boat, was carrying 100 people. Fortunately, no one was injured. For more details, see pg 2.
Tax boss in hot water
over office rental deal
OWNERS of office properties in
Košice might get another chance to
bid on the leasing of office space to
Slovakia’s Tax Directorate if Prime
Minister Iveta Radičová carries
through on the responses she made
to queries about a previously-inked,
five-year, €6.6-million rental
agreement between a firm owned
by a regional official of her own
political party, the Slovak Demo-
cratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ),
and the state’s tax authority.
The leader of the parliamentary
Nothing to do? Build a castle!
BY MICHAELA TERENZANI
Spectator staff
ONE STONE to kill two birds: that is
the basic idea behind the Culture
Ministry’s heritage-protection-
meets-labour-market-needs plan,
under which some of the country’s
long-term unemployed will be put to
work restoring Slovakia’s castles.
The ministry said castle restoration
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SLOVAK BUSINESS DIRECTORY
Contacts to more than 2,600 companies in 106 categories
Monday, April 18, 2011 - Sunday, April 24, 2011
BY BEATA BALOGOVA
Spectator staff
opposition, Smer chairman Robert
Fico, presented what he called a
story of party cronyism when he told
the media on April 11 that Slovakia’s
Tax Directorate, headed by Miroslav
Mikulčík, had signed a contract
earlier this year to rent an office
building in Košice from Nitra Invest,
could be speeded up because of lower
labour costs and at the same time
jobless persons would get the
chance to re-establish working
habits that might have deteriorated
during long-term unemployment.
But not everyone may fully share the
enthusiasm of the ministry: similar
projects in the recent past, paying
minimum wage, have hardly been
embraced by those seeking work.
Beginning in May, unemployed
people from nearby municipalities
Photo: ČTK
a firm co-owned by Ondrej Ščurka,
the chairman of the SDKÚ branch in
Nitra. Fico hinted that some pro-
ceeds from the lease might end up in
SDKÚ party accounts and called on
Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš, who
had nominated Mikulčík to the tax
office position, to resign.
Mikulčík maintained that the
contract with Nitra Invest is fully in
line with applicable laws and that
the lease will save the state money.
See DEAL pg 10
are expected to start doing restora-
tion work at two historical monu-
ments – Šariš Castle in eastern Slov-
akia and Uhrovec Castle in western
Slovakia.
The pilot version of the project
was presented by the Culture Min-
istry and the Central Office of La-
bour, Social Affairs and Family
(ÚPSVaR), which deals with the un-
employed.
See REPAIR pg 4
FOCUS
of this issue
Tender
watchdog
boss quits
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
ROMAN Šipoš had a rather short career as
boss of Slovakia’s procurement authority.
He resigned on April 11, after less than a
year in the job, following withering criti-
cism from Prime Minister Iveta Radičová
of the operation of the Public Procure-
ment Authority (ÚVO).
Radičová pointed to what she called a
rise in cancelled public tenders and the
authority’s failure to efficiently publish
its decisions following audits.
But it is the question of Šipoš’s re-
placement rather than his departure that
has resonated on the political scene. Op-
position leader Robert Fico, who chairs
the Smer party, swiftly announced that
his party would nominate a candidate to
lead ÚVO and insisted that the position,
based on the traditional distribution of
power, “belongs” to the opposition.
See ÚVO pg 2
RTVS boss
under fire
over payout
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
MILOSLAVA Zemková, the recently ap-
pointed director of public broadcaster Ra-
dio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), has
been pressed to explain her acceptance of
around €17,000 in severance payments
after she left her last job, as director of
Slovak Radio (SRo), to move to RTVS. RTVS
was created by the merger of SRo and Slov-
ak Television (STV) at the beginning of
2011.
Zemková in effect moved from one dir-
ectorship to another, although she was
acting RTVS director for two months be-
fore being confirmed in the job by parlia-
ment in February.
See PAY pg 5
2 April 18 – 24, 2011
Cargo and passenger ships collide
TWO ships collided on the
Danube river canal near
Šamorín in the early morning
hours of April 13. A pleasure
boat carrying 100 passengers
from Passau, Germany to Es-
ztergom in Hungary collided
with a cargo ship transport-
ing maize. The cargo ship was
severely damaged but rescue
workers managed to seal
cracks to prevent the ship
from totally sinking and later
managed to remove its fuel
and load the maize onto an-
other boat.
All passengers and crews
from both boats were un-
harmed. The Slovak Rescue
Service sent boat units from
its stations in Šamorín and
Spišiak pleased with police work
POLICE Corps President
Jaroslav Spišiak voiced his
satisfaction with the per-
formance of the police force
in the first quarter of 2011 at a
press conference on April 11,
the TASR newswire wrote.
Spišiak said he was par-
ticularly happy with the
work of traffic police, as the
number of road collisions
was reduced 30 percent in
the first quarter compared to
2010. He also listed police
success in murder investiga-
tions and a recorded drop in
property-related crimes.
“A particular focus was
placed on traffic accidents,”
Spišiak said, as quoted by
Trial over Deaflympics fraud begins
THE OPENING of the trial of
the head of the Slovak
Deaflympic Committee,
Jaromír Ruda, and Košice-
based notary public Stanislav
Furda began on April 13 before
a senate of the District Court
in Banská Bystrica and was
scheduled to resume on June
1, the SITA newswire repor-
ted. Both defendants are
charged with fraud involving
funds that were to be used to
stage the Winter Deaflympics
in Slovakia in February 2011.
The prosecutor charged
that notary Furda was en-
trusted with Sk52 million
(about €1.7 million) in 2008
from a sponsoring Slovak
firm that was supposed to be
used for organising the
Deaflympics but that, based
on agreements with Ruda, he
transferred funds to various
accounts and withdrew cash
totalling Sk48.5 million and
paid back only Sk3.5 million
on the agreed deadline, SITA
wrote.
Ruda and Furda both
stated that they are inno-
cent. The notary told the
court that he did not defraud
anyone as he “sent the
money to the accounts ac-
cording to Ruda’s orders”.
In February 2011, Ruda
Dunajská Streda, the Sme
daily reported. The Central
Rescue Service in Gabčíkovo,
the site of a major dam on the
Danube, also assisted.
“The ships crashed, ac-
cording to the latest informa-
tion, at about 1:40 in the
morning. The sinking boat
was out of the usual channel
route,” Ivan Peťko, spokes-
man of the Regional Fire Bri-
gade, told the TASR newswire.
Slovak Interior Minister
Daniel Lipšic visited the site
and said he was shocked to
learn that rescue units
learned about the accident at
only around 8:00 in the morn-
ing even though the incident
took place much earlier.
TASR, adding that police of-
ficers had also exceeded ex-
pectations in all other indic-
ators and posted better results
than last year.
The number of minor of-
fences dropped by nearly
1,100 in the first three
months of 2011, while an ad-
ditional 657 perpetrators of
crimes and offences were
tracked down this year com-
pared to a year ago, Spišiak
said, attributing the accom-
plishments to a re-organisa-
tion of the Police Corps,
modifications to how police
officers are paid, and changes
to the career advancement
system.
was detained while trying to
cross the Slovak-Hungarian
border and charged with
fraud involving €11 million
by Slovakia’s Office for the
Fight Against Corruption and
a judge from the country’s
Specialised Criminal Court
placed him in pre-trial cus-
tody. The police have stated
that Ruda fraudulently bor-
rowed €10 million from at
least four companies to fin-
ance the Deaflympics and
that he neither returned the
money nor provided evid-
ence to document its use.
The prosecution also
charged that Ruda fraudu-
lently obtained at least €1
million in 2010 from member
associations of the Interna-
tional Committee of Sports
for the Deaf (ICSD). Ruda
could be sentenced to 10 to 15
years in prison if found guilty
of the charges against him.
The 17th Winter
Deaflympic Games were
scheduled to start in the
High Tatras on February 18.
The ICSD cancelled the com-
petition a week before it was
due to begin when it became
apparent that venues for the
games were not ready.
Compiled by Spectator staff
NEWS
Fico starts blogging
also expose a politician to
BY MICHAELA much more criticism directly
TERENZANI from readers, who can parti-
Spectator staff cipate in online debate under
the article.
ROBERT Fico stepped into the Audience guaranteed
lion’s den, according to some
on the Slovak political scene, Fico’s first blog article, an
when, as leader of the biggest opinion piece about the pro-
opposition party, Smer, he cess used to select the general
launched a personal blog on prosecutor, was published on
the website of the Sme daily. April 7. Within one week it
The potential conflict arises was viewed more than 63,000
from the contrast between times and had over 1,700 con-
Fico’s politics and Sme’s tributions in the discussion
readership, which is believed below.
to be mostly critical of the “He will certainly not
populist former prime minis- have problems with reader-
ter. His arrival in the Slovak ship numbers,” Sudor said.
blogosphere did not go un- Robert Fico now runs his own blog. Photo: Sme - V. Šimíček “When he writes something
noticed: his first article, pub- the numbers will be very
lished on April 7, immedi- leading politicians, including administrator of the high – unless of course he
ately hit the top of the week’s some in government, pursue blog.sme.sk website, having bores readers by posting
most-read chart. lively online interactions with more space to explain their three articles a day.”
Slovak politics is perhaps supporters and citizens. arguments and provide more Blogs on the Sme daily’s
more ‘online’, principally via “When politicians make opinions on topics moving the website are among the most-
the medium of personal blogs, essential political statements, political scene is indeed one of read in Slovakia, thanks partly
than most other countries. they tend to not have enough the main reasons why many to the fact that the most popu-
The second largest party in the space to add detailed argu- politicians publish their own lar articles are also featured on
current ruling coalition, Free- ments. That is why I decided texts via blogs. the main page, www.sme.sk.
dom and Solidarity (SaS), to enter this blog arena,” Fico “When a politician writes That may be one of the reas-
which was launched only in said in his explanation of why an article on Sme, nobody can ons why dozens of Slovak
2009, achieved significant ex- he had started a blog on Sme’s interfere with the text, as long politicians maintain a blog
posure to a large extent as a popular blogging platform, in as it doesn’t violate the law or there, with many of them
result of the blogging activit- a short video inserted into his our internal ethical code,” Su- publishing regularly.
ies of its leader Richard Sulík first article. dor told The Slovak Spectator,
and other members. Many According to Karol Sudor, adding, however, that blogs See BLOG pg 5
ÚVO: Independent expert is preferred
Continued from pg 1 the second government of Mikuláš ceeded in a standard manner in protect-
Dzurinda. Fico accepted him in the same ing the public interest.
“I do not see any reason why a rep- way as the current ruling coalition ac- “I am convinced that I did not know-
resentative of the ruling coalition should cepted Šipoš, who was also nominated ingly err,” Šipoš said, as quoted by SITA.
stand at the top of this institution,” said not as a representative of the opposition “The circumstances that emerged con-
Fico. “This position belongs to the oppos- but by the government – in this case, vinced me that I could not have acted
ition and we will claim it.” Fico’s own – before the 2010 election, otherwise if I wanted to remain true to
Fico stated that under the previous Mesežnikov explained. human values and principles.”
government, a representative of the op- The Civic Conservative Party, which In early April, Radičová noted that
position led the office. He also said that if has four MPs in parliament who were ÚVO had cancelled 111 out of 220 public
the ruling coalition changes this rule, it elected as part of the Most-Híd candidate procurements and that she had received
would deform Slovakia’s laws. list, agrees and has argued that the role of several complaints regarding the opera-
Radičová responded that she would ÚVO should not be to serve as a lever in tion of the tender watchdog. The prime
wait to see whom Smer actually nomin- the struggle between the opposition and minister claimed that ÚVO’s current
ates and then make a decision, implying the ruling coalition, or as a means to cov- deputy chairman, Marek Vladár, is oper-
that the government would not agree to er up potential blunders in public pro- ating under a clear conflict of interest.
any name put forward. The prime minis- curement, the SITA newswire wrote. Vladár was responsible for public
ter said the government is open to nom- The Sme daily reported on April 14 procurement at the Interior Ministry
ination of a professional, independent that lawyer Tomáš Kamenec, who has under the previous government. As
person who is recognised for his or her expertise in tenders, is being considered. deputy head of ÚVO he now oversees
expertise and is familiar with public pro- Radičová responded that she is aware of several tenders that he himself originally
curement policies. Kamenec from his role as an expert announced, including a tender on elec-
Observers said they would also prefer quoted by the media, but she refused to tronic identification cards and a register
independent, non-partisan professionals comment further on his possible nomin- of private citizens.
to watch over public tenders. ation. Parliament is likely to vote on a Nevertheless, following Šipoš’s de-
“It should be an independent new candidate on May 15. parture Vladár is now temporarily in
person,” the president of the Institute for The head of ÚVO is selected by par- charge of the whole authority.
Public Affairs (IVO), Grigorij Mesežnikov, liament based on a proposal by the cab- Among Radičová’s criticism was that
told The Slovak Spectator. “If the coali- inet, according to the new revision to the ÚVO’s decisions sometimes take several
tion and the opposition had been able to law on public procurement that became months and significantly hinder the pro-
agree on a joint candidate, that would valid on April 1. curement process.
have been the best solution. However, One of the most closely watched re-
claiming that the opposition should have Šipoš’s departure cent decisions by ÚVO was the cancella-
the right to control the coalition through tion of a tender process at Slovakia’s
this public institution is quite wrong.” After Šipoš’s departure, Fico was railway operator, ŽSR. In mid March con-
According to Mesežnikov, the adher- quick to suggest that his resignation was struction firm Skanska and ŽSR protested
ence of public procurement processes to likely to have been caused by pressure against an ÚVO decision that ordered ŽSR
the law must be controlled regardless of from the government. to cancel a year-long tender process for a
any partisan link. “Apparently he has been pushed and contract to modernise a 12-kilometre sec-
Regarding Fico’s insistence that the forced to do things that are not in line tion of line between Zlatovce and
post belongs to the opposition, with the law,” Fico said, as quoted by the Trenčianska Teplá. The contract had
Mesežnikov said that this claim lacks TASR newswire. been provisionally awarded to Skanska,
foundation. Šipoš himself remained somewhat which submitted the lowest bid. The
“The previous chairman of ÚVO, tight-lipped about the reasons for his de- firm is now suing ÚVO, as is ŽSR. ÚVO
[Béla] Angyal, was not a nominee of the parture, delivering only a vague state- cancelled the tender based on an audit
opposition at all,” Mesežnikov said, ment on the subject. He said that since conducted even before a contract had
pointing out that he was appointed by his appointment he had always pro- been signed.

European Commission
prods on Roma strategies
European
framework
document seeks
concerted action
BY MICHAELA
TERENZANI
Spectator staff
CAUTIOUS enthusiasm ac-
companies the European
Commission’s recently issued
framework document setting
out priorities for tackling
problems of Roma living in
Europe. It certainly does not
promise to turn Slovakia’s
Roma shantytowns into mod-
el communities overnight but
Roma human rights activists
call it a first step towards more
concerted effort by countries
of the European Union.
On April 5, shortly before
International Romani Day
celebrated on April 8, the
European Commission re-
leased its European Frame-
work for National Roma In-
tegration Strategies, with the
aim “to guide national Roma
policies and mobilise funds
available at EU level to sup-
port inclusion efforts”.
More than 11 million
Roma are estimated to be liv-
ing in Europe, according to
data from the Council of
Europe’s Roma and Travellers
Division, and more than half
of them live in countries
which are members of the
EU. It is estimated that Slov-
akia has around 500,000
Roma citizens. It is generally
acknowledged that Roma in
Europe live in considerably
worse socio-economic condi-
tions than other Europeans
and face discrimination in
the job market as well as in
other aspects of society.
“Despite some good inten-
tions from national politi-
cians, too little has changed in
the lives of most Roma over
the last few years,” said Vivi-
ane Reding, justice commis-
sioner and vice president of
the EC. “Member states have a
joint responsibility to put an
end to Roma exclusion.”
Education spotlighted
Corresponding with the
EU’s broader Europe 2020 tar-
gets for employment, social
inclusion and education, the
newly announced framework
focuses on four priorities:
education, employment,
health care and housing, and
calls on member states to set
individual national Roma in-
tegration goals based on the
Roma population in each
country, and their current so-
cio-economic starting point.
“All of the priority areas
are relevant to Slovakia and
NEWS
The EC says all Roma children should at least finish primary school.
they are interlinked,” Rob ficant financial resources to
Kushen, the executive direct- member states to address the
or of the European Roma problems of Roma and many
Rights Centre in Budapest, people inside and outside gov-
told The Slovak Spectator, but ernment institutions have
at the same time he particu- raised concerns about how ef-
larly highlighted the area of fectively these resources have
education. been used.
“Educational outcomes for “There was a need for
Romani children in Slovakia some kind of glue or
are terrible,” Kushen said, ex- something that would
plaining that Roma children strengthen the position of the
are routinely and illegally EC in solving Roma issues on
shunted into special educa- the national level,” Oravec
tion programmes. “Without said, adding that the symbolic
an education, Romani chil- importance of the document
dren will not be able to get is that it puts more weight on
jobs and will not be able to Roma problems, making the
contribute to the Slovak eco- issue one of the key priorities
nomy and society.” of the EU.
According to a survey in The ERRC’s Kushen be-
six EU countries, including lieves the framework is a step
Slovakia, only 42 percent of in the right direction, but that
Roma children complete on its own it is inadequate.
primary school, compared to “The reason an EU
an EU average of 97.5 percent, strategy is needed is because
and attendance by Roma stu- Roma exclusion is an EU prob-
dents in secondary education lem: exclusion stems from vi-
programmes across these six olations of EU law and the free
countries is estimated at only movement of Roma across
10 percent. member-state borders means
“Most important to me is that poverty and human
that member states help en- rights violations in, for ex-
sure that all Roma children ample, Romania have a direct
complete at least primary bearing on France,” he said.
school,” Commissioner Red- Kushen reiterated that the
ing said at the presentation of primary responsibility for
the framework document. dealing with discrimination
faced by Roma should rest
The role of the EU with the member states but
said the EU undoubtedly has a
NGOs working with Roma role: to enforce EU law and to
communities welcome the sanction states for violations
framework document because of the Race Equality Directive
it makes the EU’s role in deal- and the Free Movement Dir-
ing with Roma inclusion ective; to provide funding for
clearer. Roma inclusion initiatives;
“It’s clear that the EC and to make sure that EU bur-
doesn’t want to take up the eaucracy does not stand in the
role of solving Roma prob- way of EU funds being used ef-
lems, and it wouldn’t even be fectively.
right because it would only
deepen the alibis of member National reports
states who could then say ‘it’s – an effective tool?
up to Brussels’,” Laco Oravec
from the Milan Šimečka Criticism of the frame-
Foundation told The Slovak work document has already
Spectator. surfaced, with critics saying it
But the EU provides signi- is too brief and vague and that
Photo: Sme - P. Funtál
it does not deal effectively
with discrimination, preju-
dice and women empower-
ment issues.
“It is positive that the EC
has the tendency to set out
very clear and measurable
aims for the member states,
but these are only small pieces
of a big mosaic,” Oravec said.
Under the European
Framework for National Roma
Integration Strategies, mem-
ber states must submit na-
tional Roma strategies by the
end of 2011 specifying how
they will contribute to the
achievement of the goals of
the document.
Member states must also
appoint national contact
points to manage, monitor
and report on the implement-
ation of their Roma integra-
tion strategy. The EC will is-
sue annual reports on wheth-
er progress has been made.
Depending on national
strategies as the main re-
medial tool might not be very
effective, according to Oravec,
who said national govern-
ments will not find it difficult
to just put strategies on paper.
“I am sceptical whether
this will not just be a formal
tool, easy to report,” Oravec
stated.
Slovakia’s Office of the
Government Plenipotentiary
for Roma Communities has
already said that submitting
national action plans for
Roma integration will not be a
problem since the country is
currently revising its national
action plans for the Decade of
Roma Inclusion, 2005-2015, a
regional initiative under-
pinned by the Open Society
Foundation and the World
Bank.
“In the strategy that the
EC expects from us we will
take account of the actualised
national action plans for the
Decade,” Iveta Duchoňová,
the office’s spokesperson, told
The Slovak Spectator.
Wind and fire hit
Slovak forests
TWO natural disasters hit
Slovakia in mid April. After
strong winds caused severe
damage in north-east Slov-
akia for several days begin-
ning on April 8, large areas of
virgin forest in central Slov-
akia were destroyed by a fire
that started near the village
of Staré Hory on April 9.
For three days, strong
winds – classified as a
whirlwind – blew over the
High Tatra mountains caus-
ing local authorities to issue
a state of alert from the
morning of April 8 until
noon on April 11.
Locals in the Tatras still
vividly remember the 2004
natural disaster when
strong winds damaged
strips of the high forests and
significantly changed the
face of the popular moun-
tain resort area.
This time damage in-
cluded many fallen trees and
several roofs blown apart by
the wind. Most damage was
reported in the districts of
Poprad, Levoča, Gelnica and
Spišská Nová Ves, as well as
in the Orava region.
The SITA newswire re-
ported that damage in the
High Tatras amounted to
€250,000. The wind also
caused complications in loc-
al transport as cable cars in
the mountains suspended
operations for three days and
parts of the local tram routes
– between Starý Smokovec
and Tatranská Lomnica –
were closed as well.
The state-run forest ad-
ministration in the High
Tatras reported direct dam-
age to the forests of €750,000
up to April 11 and another
€17,000 in property damage.
The Slovak Hydro-Met-
eorological Institute (SHMÚ)
issued strong-wind warn-
ings as well for April 12 for
the western-Slovak regions
of Záhorie and the Danube
lowlands as well as for dis-
tricts in northern Slovakia:
Orava, Kysuce, Turiec, Lipt-
ov, Horehronie and Spiš.
No damage, however,
A fire rampaged through a forest near Staré Hory. Photo: TASR
April 18 – 24, 2011 3
was reported in western
Slovakia.
But wind alone was not
the only source of destruc-
tion in Slovak forests. In the
village of Horný Jelenec -
Staré Hory, in Banská
Bystrica district, fire started
around noon on April 10 and
within one day consumed
almost 100 hectares of
mixed forests, parts of
which were inaccessible
virgin areas.
According to SITA, the
fire caused damage amount-
ing to €222,000 and that 178
professional fire fighters
from Banská Bystrica, Žilina,
Prešov and Bratislava Re-
gions, along with 20 cistern
pumps, were on the scene to
cope with the fire, accom-
panied by members of local
firefighting groups and
forest workers. Four heli-
copters from the armed
forces and the interior de-
partment helped to extin-
guish the fire as well.
The teams of fire fighters
managed to bring the fire
under control and prevent it
from spreading further on
the evening of April 11.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t
say that I’m satisfied,” Alex-
ander Nejedlý, the president
of the Firefighter and Rescue
Corps said at a press briefing
on the evening of April 11, as
quoted by SITA. “We’ve done
derring-do here; the boys
have gone to the bottom of
their powers, carrying ma-
terial on their backs to al-
most rock-climber terrain.”
On April 12, three days
after the fire broke out, the
firefighters managed to ex-
tinguish the flames. The
cause of the fire remains un-
known at this time.
A big fire had caused
damage in the same region,
but on the opposite slopes of
the Jelenská valley, in April
2007. That blaze affected 113
hectares of forests and took
10 days to extinguish.
Compiled by Spectator staff
from press reports
4 April 18 – 24, 2011
Peugeot to bring 900 jobs to Trnava
AN INVESTMENT by car-
maker PSA Peugeot Citroen
worth more than €120 mil-
lion, to produce a new model
in Slovakia, will result in
about 900 new jobs, the pres-
ident of PSA Peugeot Citroen,
Philippe Varin, announced
after a meeting with Prime
Minister Iveta Radičová and
Education Minister Eugen
Jurzyca in Trnava on April 11,
the TASR newswire reported.
The Trnava-based plant
intends to launch a third
working shift a year from
now and gradually increase
annual production to a max-
imum capacity of 300,000
vehicles. The new model will
be the third to be manufac-
tured in Trnava.
“It shows that car manu-
Coke is not the same everywhere
THE WORLD’S best-known
soft drink, Coca-Cola, is not
exactly the same in Slovakia as
it is in Germany or in the
Czech Republic, recent tests by
Slovakia’s Consumer Associ-
ation have revealed.
The association had six
branded products purchased
in eight countries of the EU
tested by the Slovak Veterin-
ary and Food Institute and
found that some transnational
concerns sell, under one brand
and in the same packaging,
products with different con-
tents, the Sme daily reported.
The Coca-Cola produced in
four of the countries, includ-
ing Slovakia, contained iso-
glucose, while in the other
four samples there was no
sign of it and sucrose was used
instead, Sme wrote.
The Consumer Associ-
ation suggested that isogluc-
ose is used for economic
reasons: it costs half what
sucrose does.
Slovakia's population is ageing fast
BY 2050 almost four in ten cit-
izens of Slovakia will be aged
60 or more, according to the
Allianz Demographic Pulse
study, the SITA newswire re-
ported. Currently, people over
60 make up 19 percent of
Slovakia’s population. Accord-
ing to the study, the increas-
ing longevity which partly ac-
counts for the rise is a result of
huge progress in health care
and social conditions.
“By 2050, government ex-
penditure on pensions, social
care and health care will con-
stitute almost 30 percent of
GDP in the eurozone,” SITA re-
ported, citing the study. “Slov-
akia will be under the average
of the European Union, with a
share of 20.4 percent of GDP.”
In Slovakia, the biggest
percentage increase in costs
related to the ageing popula-
tion is expected to be in the
area of pensions.
facturing within the PSA
Peugeot Citroen Group and
its personnel have reached
full maturity,” Varin said, as
quoted by TASR. “On the oth-
er hand, it's also a confirma-
tion of the strategic charac-
ter of our investment in
Slovakia, with the planned
gradual increase in effect-
iveness of the already exist-
ing capacities.”
Varin and Jurzyca signed
a Memorandum on Coopera-
tion in the area of secondary
education between the Edu-
cation Ministry and PSA
Peugeot Citroen after negoti-
ations were completed
between the French Ambas-
sador in Slovakia, Jean-Marie
Bruno, and the Slovak Ambas-
sador to France, Marek Eštók.
Zdeněk Vilímek of Coca-
Cola, however, told the Sme
daily that the reason for the
difference is technological.
“Our plant in Lúka near
Piešťany is equipped for the
production of drink with li-
quid fructose-glucose syrup
and it cannot process crystal
sugar,” he said, adding that
the recipe for production of
the syrup is the same all
around the world.
Only one product was the
same in all the tested mar-
kets: Milka Alpine milk
chocolate. The biggest differ-
ences in quality were found
in Kotányi black pepper.
The tested products
were purchased by mem-
bers of the association in
normal supermarkets in
Germany, Austria, Poland,
Slovakia, the Czech Repub-
lic, Hungary, Bulgaria and
Romania. The products
were tested both scientific-
ally and sensorially.
“Overall, in connection
with the increasing age of the
population, the costs of pen-
sions, social care, education
and health care will rise by
5.2 percent of GDP by 2050 in
Slovakia,” the study predicts.
The study also researched
estimated longevity. Increas-
ing life expectancy together
with a fall in the age limit for
retirement by the end of
1990s led to an enormous in-
crease in the time people
spend in retirement. In de-
veloped countries, men
spend around 20 years in re-
tirement on average. On av-
erage, people in France spend
24 years in retirement, while
Swiss people spend 16.8
years. According to the study,
Slovak men spend 16.3 years
and Slovak women 25.1 years
in retirement.
Compiled by Spectator staff
BUSINESS
REPAIR: Jobless to
restore monuments
Continued from pg 1
Both government offices
state they are seeking to offer
a single solution for two prob-
lems: deteriorating monu-
ments and long-term unem-
ployment. ÚPSVaR will con-
tribute by selecting persons
for the project from among
those registered at regional
labour offices, while contrib-
uting funds re-allocated from
cancelled or ineffective
projects.
The initial plans call for 20
long-term unemployed
people to start working at
Uhrovec Castle with an addi-
tional 30 to report to Šariš.
ÚPSVaR expects the project
not only to have a positive
impact on the country’s em-
ployment figures but also to
help the jobseekers maintain
their working habits and
provide them with a better
opportunity for employment
in the labour market after the
project ends, ÚPSVaR spokes-
person Danica Lehocká said.
Protection and restora-
tion of historical monuments
is among the priorities of Cul-
ture Minister Daniel Krajcer,
who announced earlier in
March that projects to protect
and restore national monu-
ments in 2011 will receive the
highest amount of state fin-
ancial aid ever, amounting to
about €144 million, most of it
coming from the EU’s Re-
gional Operational Pro-
gramme, and much smaller
amounts coming from tour-
ism support programmes and
from the Norwegian Finan-
cial Mechanism.
Learning different skills
Krajcer is very enthusiast-
ic about the project and called
it a win-win approach, saying
it brings immediate benefits
to unemployed persons as well
as to the castles. He also stated
it will have additional longer-
term benefits as it will provide
participants with professional
skills that they can use after
the project ends, as well as
adding to the development of
tourism in the regions sur-
rounding the castles.
The Culture Ministry will
provide about €100,000 from
its grant system to finance
the project and will serve as
its professional guarantor. A
precondition for a castle to
be included within the pro-
gramme is for it to already be
part of the activities of civic
associations that deal with
protection of monuments
and for some protection
work to have already been
started in cooperation with
local authorities.
Eva Chudinová, the
spokesperson for the Culture
Ministry, said that workshops
take place at the castles during
the summer focused on pro-
Restoration work at Uhrovec Castle.
fessional restoration or con-
servation of castle ruins, not-
ing that this is done under the
supervision of civic associ-
ations as well as under the ex-
pert supervision of regional
monument protection offices.
“The unemployed can first
perform easier work, such as
cleaning, seeding green areas
or manipulating materials,
and can then gradually be-
come acquainted with more
demanding skills such as
stonemasonry or carpentry,”
Chudinová said.
Is there motivation?
Some observers warn
against too much optimism
and point to similar projects
from the past that did not
meet with much enthusiasm
or success among the long-
term unemployed. Psycholo-
gists have noted that after
long periods of unemploy-
ment people’s working habits
deteriorate and they may find
it very hard to return to the la-
bour market. This may explain
the experience from a project
that was launched by the La-
bour Ministry in 2010 after
Slovakia was hit by massive
floods. The ministry sought
long-term unemployed per-
sons to do work such as clean-
ing riverbeds and authorised
835 job positions in coopera-
tion with the affected muni-
cipalities – but only 212 people
took up the opportunity, the
Sme daily reported, noting
that earning the minimum
wage of just over €300 per
month was apparently insuf-
ficient motivation.
Lehocká said Slovakia’s
current system of social al-
lowances, and how they are
distributed when someone
Photo: Courtesy of Peter Horanský
participates in this kind of
work, is at fault.
“Drawing social allow-
ances is in some cases prefer-
able to working,” Lehocká told
The Slovak Spectator, explain-
ing that receiving any paid in-
come lowers the amount a
Drawing social
allowances is in some
cases preferable to
working.
Dana Lehocká, ÚPSVaR
person receives in social al-
lowances.
How much those working
on a castle reconstruction
project would earn has not been
announced but it is not likely to
be much higher than the min-
imum wage. However, the
chairman of the Freedom and
Solidarity (SaS) party, Richard
Sulík, announced that new le-
gislation that is already under
preparation could motivate
long-term unemployed persons
to seek work, mentioning the
payroll-tax reform plan ad-
vanced by the government. He
said even though the most
comprehensive changes are
planned for 2013, special rules
could be designed even earlier
for the castle reconstruction
projects so that a person’s social
allowances will depend on real
work activity.
“It will not [continue to]
work in the way that social al-
lowances will be also for those
who don’t want to work
anymore,” Krajcer said, as
quoted by the TASR newswire.
“We are creating more space
and possibilities so that people
can deserve the allowance, or
get money through the project.”
A long-term problem
Unemployment statistics
show that Slovakia’s unem-
ployment rate reached a post-
crisis high in February of 13.16
percent, up 0.18 percentage
points compared to January. In
human terms this meant that
395,445 people were registered
as unemployed, according to
data from ÚPSVaR released on
March 21. The jobless rate in
February 2011 also stood 0.19
percentage points higher than
the same month in 2010 and
marked the highest number of
unemployed Slovaks since
January 2005.
In addition, statistics from
Eurostat indicate that Slovakia
has the highest long-term un-
employment rate in the EU.
Eurostat wrote that in the
third quarter of 2010, Slovaks
who had been unemployed for
a year or longer represented
9.4 percent of the labour force,
compared to an EU average of
3.8 percent in that quarter. La-
bour market experts say those
trapped in long-term unem-
ployment are primarily per-
sons with low levels of educa-
tion and poor qualifications
and note that these people
may lose their working skills,
habits and job knowledge and
severely lessen their chances
of finding work again.
Slovakia’s job offices re-
gistered a total of 184,694 long-
term unemployed at the end of
2010, or nearly 50 percent of
the total number of unem-
ployed persons. This was an
increase of 44,581 since
December 2009 and an in-
crease of 77,174 compared with
December 2008.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
Miroslav Mikulčík, the head of the Tax Directorate, reacts to claims by Smer
that he signed a sweetheart deal with an ally of one of the ruling coalition parties.
The magic phrase
“NO LAW has been broken,” is
one of those magic, formulaic
responses that politicians of-
ten throw to journalists
whenever the media starts
digging into deals that may
formally meet legal standards
but may be rotten to their core
when judged by ethical stand-
ards.
The frequency of a particu-
lar politician’s use of this
phrase often depends on
whether he or she is at that
moment in the opposition or
is in the country’s govern-
ment. Sometimes even those
most eager defenders of the
“no law has been broken and
the deal is alright” response
morph into harsh critics of
the phrase when it is not
someone from their own polit-
ical tribe who stands to bene-
fit. Smer boss Robert Fico has
offered an exemplary insight
into this chameleon-like ap-
proach.
Understandably, with the
frequency that the phrase has
been used in Slovakia, journal-
ists (and maybe even citizens)
are becoming concerned (and
perhaps a bit angry) whenever
questions about cronyism or
unethical conduct are
routinely dismissed with
these particular words.
All in all, “no law has been
broken” has been pretty much
the response from political of-
ficialdom to qualms about the
contract Slovakia’s Tax Dir-
ectorate, headed by Miroslav
Mikulčík, signed earlier this
year to lease an office building
in Košice from Nitra Invest, a
firm co-owned by Ondrej
Ščurka, the chair of the Nitra
branch of the Slovak Demo-
cratic and Christian Union
(SDKÚ). Not only do the stor-
ies about how Nitra Invest
was chosen ring hollow, but
the explanations about the
firm’s background have only
PAY: Speaker Sulík says bonus is fine
Continued from pg 1
In addition to her sever-
ance payment, Zemková also
received a bonus worth three
times her former monthly
salary, meaning that she was
paid a total of around €30,000
upon leaving her old job as
SRo director, the Sme daily
reported. The bonus was ap-
proved by the SRo Council,
which oversaw the public
broadcaster.
However, one council
member, Michal Dzurjanin,
told the Sme daily that council
members did not know about
Zemková’s severance payment
and would not have voted for
the bonus if they had.
RTVS spokeswoman Al-
exandra Štullerová Koreňová
said that Zemková’s working
“I would sign a contract like this even with
the brother of Smer’s chairman.”
raised new questions rather
than satisfactorily answering
the initial ones.
The deal, worth €6.6 mil-
lion, may be unlikely to snap
anyone’s political neck even
EDITORIAL
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
though there certainly could
have been a more elegant way
of responding to the contro-
versy than posing the ques-
tion: “Should a party member
be handicapped or discrimin-
ated against?” That curious
quote comes from Mikuláš
Dzurinda, boss of the SDKÚ,
who contended that the
whole process had been
above-board and transparent.
Nevertheless, Prime Min-
ister Iveta Radičová properly
asked the Tax Directorate’s
director to take new bids to
find office space in Košice and
added that if a cheaper offer
meeting all requirements is
submitted, he should cancel
the current contract. One can
only guess why she did not
order the deal be dumped first
and then a new, transparent
tender could be started in
relationship with SRo had
ended and that she was en-
titled to the severance pay-
ment. She remained tight-
lipped about the exact sum
Zemková received but ac-
cording to Sme, Zemková’s
monthly salary at SRo was
€4,282.
Zemková’s severance
pay-off was based on a last-
minute change to the collect-
ive agreement between SRo
and trade unions, which es-
tablished a severance pay-
ment of four times her
monthly salary.
Culture Minister Daniel
Krajcer, who was behind the
creation of RTVS, refused to
comment on Zemková’s bo-
nus and severance payments
and suggested that the issue
was for the RTVS Council, the
OPINION / NEWS
which Ščurka’s firm could bid.
Is it because those who
pull the strings in her party
would not have liked that de-
cision or is it because she is
convinced that the deal has no
blemishes?
Recent weeks offered an-
other version of the “no laws
have been broken” excuse
when Miloslava Zemková, the
director of Radio and Televi-
sion of Slovakia (RTVS), took
around €17,000 in severance
payments plus a generous
€13,000 bonus when depart-
ing from her last job as direct-
or of Slovak Radio (SRo) to take
the helm at RTVS. We are told
that her severance pay was
based on a last-minute change
to the collective agreement
negotiated between the trade
unions and management.
Zemková, who will soon
start laying off hundreds of
people from RTVS, first defen-
ded her severance and then,
when pressed for explana-
tions and a return of the
money, said she actually
could not do so because SRo no
longer exists and anyway, she
had already given her sever-
ance to charity. As of April 14
Slovakia’s taxpayers had yet
to learn which lucky charity
benefited so generously from
their taxes.
Oddly, Zemková was not
known as a public servant
who carried along a suitcase
of controversial or nonsensic-
al decisions or as an apple pol-
isher to whatever politicians
happened to be in power. So
one can only incredulously
wonder why a public servant
with such a good reputation
could use such bad judgement
– a blunder that the Slovak
public will be more likely to
remember than any future
steps she might take to heal
the ailing, debt-ridden public
broadcaster.
steering body of the merged
broadcaster. Nevertheless,
his Freedom and Solidarity
(SaS) party colleague, Speaker
of Parliament Richard Sulík,
called on Zemková to return
the severance payment, sug-
gesting that she was not
morally entitled to it, the
SITA newswire reported.
On April 12, Štullerová
Koreňová said that it was
not clear to whom Zemková
would return the money
since she was paid it by SRo,
which no longer exists, and
not RTVS. Zemková has
now given the money to
charity, the spokeswoman
said, without specifying
which one.
When it came to the bo-
nus, however, Sulík said this
was justified.
BY LUKÁŠ FILA
Special to the Spectator
“IT HAS to be a vratka. It
makes no other sense,” said
opposition leader Robert Fico
about the recent property-
leasing scandal of the Slovak
Democratic and Christian
Union (SDKÚ), turning an
expert term previously used
by accountants, auditors,
and businessmen into
Slovakia’s word of the week.
Until now, “vratka” de-
scribed a VAT refund. Thanks
to Fico, it has become a syn-
onym for money that politic-
al parties siphon from public
funds. Of course the manner
in which the Smer leader
used it indicates that it is not
new to his vocabulary. But
the previous coalition’s mis-
deeds are no excuse for the
seven sins of the current one:
1. Conflict of interest.
Not only was the public not
notified in advance that an
official appointed by the
SDKÚ was signing a deal
with a member of the same
party, but tax office boss
Miroslav Mikulčík claimed
that he himself did not
know about the ties. Given
that Mikulčík is close
friends with Finance Minis-
ter Ivan Mikloš, who is close
to SDKÚ boss Mikuláš
Dzurinda, who is close to
the lucky entrepreneur,
BLOG: More space for argument
Continued from pg 2
According to Sudor, however, politicians
using the blog.sme.sk service are mainly from
the right-of-centre side of the political spec-
trum – especially SaS, whose 2010 election
success was built partly on the activities of its peatedly accused Sme of printing lies and
members in the blogosphere.
Robert Fico admitted that the readership vent him from starting a blog on the same
numbers of the Sme website were a motiva- daily’s website.
tion.
“On the one hand the Sme daily is rightist political analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov told The
and supports [Prime Minister] Iveta
Radičová, that’s obviously clear,” Fico told
“She deserves one such
payment because she has
been leading the radio with
expertise and dignity and the
results of SRo cannot be com-
pared with the results of
STV,” Sulík said, as quoted by
SITA, referring to the finan-
cial crisis which RTVS is now
facing as a result of the huge
debts it inherited from STV.
In a brief interview with
Sme on April 9, Zemková
said that she does not in-
tend to return the severance
payment as, she said,
everyone who leaves their
job has the right to a sever-
ance payment. She also ar-
gued that even though she
is not jobless, her job as
RTVS director does not rep-
resent a continuation of her
previous role.
April 18 – 24, 2011 5
Vratka
4. The breach of election
SLOVAK WORD promises. The use of off-
shores is particularly amus-
OF THE WEEK
ing given the fact that in their
election manifesto the SDKÚ
promised to “guarantee that
companies whose owners are
not identifiable will not be
able to sign agreements with
the state”. Well, here you go.
5. Lies. Mikulčík has
presented several versions of
how his office found the
company and signed the
contract. Obviously, they
cannot all be true.
6. No sanctions. No one
is going to pay for any of the
problems. The tax office dir-
ector and the finance minis-
ter are keeping their jobs,
Ondrej Ščurka, this does not the company is keeping its
seem very convincing. contract.
2. No tendering. A prop- 7. A crazy quasi-solu-
er tender could have eased tion. Radičová says that if
doubts about the conflict of anyone has a better offer
interest. The fact that the than the one introduced by
deal was agreed directly with her party colleague, they will
Ščurka would make the terminate the agreement.
transaction suspicious, even What sort of an entrepreneur
if it was not an SDKÚ regional would want to make a fool of
boss who was on the receiv- the tax office boss? And is
ing end of the deal. this how the government
3. The use of off-shore plans to function – handing
companies. The company out contracts to cronies in
whose building the tax office the hope no one will find out,
is moving into is co-owned and only if someone does, let-
by a firm registered in ting others compete?
Cyprus. Now, it is hard to ar- If this is the way the
gue with Prime Minister SDKÚ and Radičová plan to
Radičová when she says that operate, they will soon find
that country is “a regular that political fate can be very
member of the EU”. Still, vratká (uncertain) and voters
Cyprus is not known for its may well show them the
transparency. vrátka (little door).
Sme. “But let’s be objective and admit that
their internet portal is the best and the most
read.”
The media, however, noted that Robert
Fico has consistently been at odds with the
Sme daily and its journalists, and has re-
misleading its readers. But that did not pre-
“He is a politician without scruples,”
Slovak Spectator. “For him, everything that
meets a purpose is acceptable.”
J ÁN PAL LO - Publisher
EDITORIAL
B E ATA B AL O G OVÁ - Editor - In - Chief
J AM E S THO M S O N - Assistant Editor
D O NAL D S PATZ - Assistant Editor
J ANA L IP TÁKOVÁ - Staff Writer
M IC H AE LA TER ENZANI - Staff Writer
ZUZANA V IL IKOVS K Á - Staff Writer
D O M INIK A UH R ÍKOVÁ - Staff Writer
LAYOUT, WEB & IT
TATIANA ŠTR AUC HOVÁ - Graphic Designer
R O M AN K R Á Ľ - IT
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SALES - FINANCES
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6 April 18 – 24, 2011

TELECOMMUNICATIONS
The alternative development BUSINESS FOCUS Next issue:
of Slovakia's telecoms market

Cutting energy use

in telecoms INSURANCE

Competition is intense Institutions and organisations in the

Three major
operators plan
investments
for 2011
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
LAST year, Slovak telecommu-
nications operators continued
to fight for customers and
searched for ways to overcome
decreasing revenues that they
said were caused by both the
economic crisis as well as gov-
ernment regulations. Market
watchers expect that the
launch in June of a large 3G
network by Slovakia’s newest
telecom operator may further
sharpen competition this year,
and say the growing popularity
of smart phones and similar
devices will require all the ma-
jor operators to roll out more
sophisticated and faster ser-
vices.
“Fights for price-sensitive
clients, of whom there are
more and more, continued last
year,” Filip Hanker, an expert
and the editor-in-chief of
Zive.sk and MobilMania.sk,
told The Slovak Spectator,
adding that in the voice seg-
ment of the business there is
not very much new to offer
from the marketing angle and
that operators are forced to re-
duce the price for calls. “An-
other trend is a drop in prices
for short messages and sup-
plementary discounts for a
combination of services
through which operators en-
deavour to maintain an ad-
equate average revenue per
user.”
According to Hanker, oper-
Telecom firms like to attract heavy mobile users. Photo: TASR
ators are keeping an eye on cus- Slovakia’s dominant tele-
tomers who have minimum com operators, when assessing
communications needs as well, 2010, complained about both
offering them various kinds of national and EU regulations
bare-bones service packages as which they said impacted their
well as lower prices for pre-paid revenue streams.
cards. “The factor which cur-
“It is still more convenient rently affects the development
for operators to keep these cli- of the Slovak telecom market is
ents than to release them to the its general saturation and stag-
competition,” Hanker said. He nation and simultaneously the
added that this is partly be- unceasing regulation from the
cause quoting a larger number side of the national regulator as
of customers in a firm’s final well as the European
results looks better, but is Commission,” Andrej
mainly so because such cus- Gargulák, the spokesperson for
tomers can later trade up to a Slovak Telekom (ST), told The
different product, start to use Slovak Spectator. “Growth was
the internet as well, or simply seen especially in the segment
because customers from other of digital television and mobile
networks will call these low- data services.”
usage persons and the operator Slovak Telekom merged
can earn revenue from inter- last year with sister company
connection fees. Operators are T-Mobile, and in late February
also continuing in their efforts ST’s general director, Miroslav
to increase revenues from the Majoroš, described 2010 as one
internet, Hanker said, adding of the most demanding years
that he is certain that the oper- for his company. The merger
ators see internet-generated process is not yet over as the
revenues rising for many years company will undergo further
to come. This is why they have restructuring in 2011 even
offered various products even though it laid off 150 staff last
to those who need to use the in- year, primarily from mana-
ternet only occasionally. gerial positions. A larger reduc-
tion in the company’s labour
force, which numbered 4,650 at
the end of 2010, is expected to
come this year, according to
the SITA newswire.
ST closed its 2010 financial
year with total consolidated
revenues of €934.3 million, a
drop of 4 percent, even though
its number of active mobile cli-
ents increased by 31,000 to
2.246 million, SITA reported.
Orange Slovensko also put
price regulation and the
slowly-ending economic crisis
as the main factors that af-
fected it last year. Its revenues,
at €763.8 million for the year,
shrank by 6 percent compared
to 2009. The company attrib-
uted almost all of this fall – 5.8
percentage points – to price
regulation.
“When the influence of
regulation is not taken into
consideration, Orange actually
reached revenues at the 2009
level,” Peter Tóth, corporate af-
fairs manager at Orange Slov-
ensko, told The Slovak Spectat-
or. “This means that after a
year of decrease, Orange man-
aged to stabilise its revenues.”
Tóth added that Orange
managed to compensate for the
negative impacts of regulation
and the crisis by growing its
telecom services, as the volume
of voice services grew by 3 per-
cent and data services in-
creased by as much as 68 per-
cent.
But in contrast to the other
major telecom operators, the
number of active Orange cus-
tomers decreased by 21,000, or
0.7 percent, to 2.87 million.
Tóth said that his company
perceives this small decline to
be an excellent result based on
the level of competition in
Slovakia.
See TEL pg 8
telecom sector in Slovakia
Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional
Development
Minister: Ján Figeľ
www.telecom.gov.sk
Telecommunications Office (TÚ SR)
- The TÚ SR is Slovakia’s regulatory and pricing authority
covering the electronic communications sector.
www.teleoff.gov.sk
IT Association of Slovakia (ITAS)
- ITAS is a professional association representing the most
important local and international companies operating
in the Slovak information and communications
technology market.
www.itas.sk
Telecom companies in Slovakia
Mobile operators:
- Orange Slovensko, www.orange.sk
- Slovak Telekom, (T-Mobile and Slovak Telekom
merged as of July 1, 2010 and the latter became the
successor company)
www.t-mobile.sk
- Telefónica O2 Slovakia, www.sk.o2.com
Some providers of fixed-line services:
- Antik Telecom, www.antik.sk
- GTS Slovakia, www.gts.sk
- Orange Slovensko, www.orange.sk
- Slovak Telekom, www.slovaktelekom.sk
- Slovanet, www.slovanet.sk
- Swan, www.swan.sk
- UPC Broadband Slovakia, www.upc.sk
- ŽSR - Železničné Telekomunikácie, www.zt.sk
Other companies active in telecommunications:
- Digi Slovakia, www.digislovakia.sk
- Energotel, www.energotel.sk
- Nokia Siemens Networks Slovakia,
www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com
- Satro, www.satro.sk
- SES Astra, www.ses-astra.com
- Towercom, www.towercom.sk
- Vnet, www.vnet.sk
- WiMAX Telecom Slovakia, www.wmx.sk
Slovak Telekom on strike alert
TRADE union members working for the biggest telecom
operator in Slovakia, Slovak Telekom (ST), went on strike
alert on April 11, the financial daily Hospodárske Noviny
reported on April 14. The action was in protest at a
company plan to lay off as many as 730 workers, a steep
rise from the 280 originally planned. According to the

Regulation: Elixir or poison?
Mobile operators are
divided over the
efficacy of regulation
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
TWO of Slovakia’s mobile operators com-
plain that government regulation is to
blame for their lower revenues and poorer
financial results. But the most recent op-
erator to arrive in Slovakia’s relatively sat-
urated mobile market believes that appro-
priate government regulation is a precon-
dition for a healthy, competitive environ-
ment. And an expert on the telecoms mar-
ket says government regulation of the mo-
bile business is important because the
market cannot always adequately affect
prices and service conditions.
“Regulation would probably not
please any industrial branch,” Alojz
Vlčko, a telecom market expert, told The
Slovak Spectator. “Thus, we should not
wonder about the rhetoric of mobile oper-
ators. It is logical for them to name regula-
tion of prices for services as the cause be-
hind their drop in revenues, because
without it [regulation] the creation of
prices might be freer and operators might
ask more for their services.”
The telecommunications sector exper-
ienced several waves of national and
European regulation governing intercon-
nection fees, the fees paid when making
calls from one operator’s network to an-
other network, as well as roaming prices
when away from one’s own network.
Vlčko views supervision by national
and European regulatory agencies to be
important in mobile communications,
saying competition is able to affect prices
only to a limited extent.
“International roaming might serve
as an example,” Vlčko said, noting that
before European regulation, prices for in-
ternational roaming were incomparably
higher than prices for national calls even
though the character of both services
was the same. “Even under threat of reg-
ulation, the operators were unable to
reach an agreement [among themselves]
at the wholesale level to make calling
from abroad cheaper. Only regulation
helped.”
Orange Slovensko, the mobile operat-
or which currently has the largest num-
ber of active customers in Slovakia,
blamed regulation for almost all of the
drop in revenues it reported last year.
See REG pg 9
SITA newswire, the company employed 4,650 people as of
the end of 2010.
About one quarter of ST employees are members of local
trade unions, the daily wrote. According to Milan Brlej,
the head of the Posts and Telecommunications Union, a
change in the company’s profit targets by ST’s
shareholders might prevent the labour reduction.
Deutsche Telekom is the majority holder in ST, with 51
percent. The rest is held by the Economy Ministry and
the National Property Fund.
A meeting with ST director-general Miroslav Majoroš, at
which trade unions asserted that the employer had
violated the Labour Code and failed to meet the terms of
the collective agreement, did not bring any agreement on
the number of layoffs.
According to Hospodárske Noviny, the Economy
Ministry, as one of the minority shareholders, will not
intervene.
“This is a matter for the company’s management,” said
Róbert Merva, spokesperson of the Economy Ministry, as
quoted by the daily. “So far it is only bargaining. We do
not expect the situation to sharpen so much that our
intervention will be needed.”
Compiled by Spectator staff
 BUSINESS FOCUS April 18 – 24, 2011 7

A slightly different path FOCUS shorts

BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
COMPARED to other European
countries, development of
telecom businesses in Slovakia
took a different route because
liberalisation here came later
than elsewhere. Nevertheless,
the market found its own path.
The Slovak Spectator spoke
with Peter Máčaj, the chief ex-
ecutive officer of Slovanet, one
of the bigger alternative tele-
com operators in Slovakia,
about the telecoms market, its
consolidation, and the chal-
lenges it currently faces.
The Slovak Spectator (TSS):
What are the greatest chal-
lenges the telecommunica-
tions sector faces today? Do
impacts from the global eco-
nomic downturn continue to
affect the sector and particu-
larly alternative telecommu-
nications operators?
Peter Máčaj (PM): The
biggest challenges facing the
telecommunications sector, at
least in Slovakia, are incess-
antly decreasing prices and
growing requirements on the
services provided. These two
things are a bit in contradiction
because when you want to en-
hance the quality of telecom-
Peter Máčaj, CEO of Slovanet
munications services or their
parameters it is difficult to do so
without investments. In gen-
eral, prices for telecoms ser-
vices have been decreasing for
the last seven or eight years in
Slovakia. In terms of the resid-
ential segment, this is because
purchasing power here is not as
strong as in other EU countries
and when telecommunications
operators want to sell a bigger
amount of services they de-
crease their prices. In the seg-
ment of business clients, prices
are decreasing too, as the
formerly monopolised market
has become de-monopolised
over the last 12 years and prices
have decreased due to competi-
tion. I see the biggest challenge
in finding enough funds for in-
Photo: Courtesy of Slovanet
vestments to make services
better at the same price level
Slovakia is currently at, which
is one of the lowest in Europe.
With regards to the crisis, I
see two levels of impacts on
corporate and residential cli-
ents. While business clients
came a year ago with higher
pressure for a reduction in the
scope of services and also
prices, the demand for services
in the residential segment has
not decreased. But what has
been visible in the residential
area is that price has become
the number one criterion. This
means that when a household
changes its operator, 60 to 80
percent do so because of price.
Payment discipline also
worsened in both segments.
Nevertheless, the telecoms
sector has been hit relatively
little by the crisis from the
viewpoint of demand because
these are essential services and,
for example, a job seeker needs a
telephone and access to the in-
ternet to find a job. The crisis
rather affected additional high-
er value added services. Here
the decline was quite strong.
TSS: In recent years the Slovak
telecoms market has consol-
idated significantly. What are
the reasons behind this?
PM: Most economic sectors
in Slovakia have been undergo-
ing consolidation, in general.
Beginning eight to 10 years after
the fall of the communist re-
gime in 1989 a number of new
companies emerged. Local or
foreign investors and private
equity groups started to buy
them and then sold them to
strategic investors. This is a
common process that took place
in each society transforming
from a post-communist state
into a democratic country with
a market-driven economy. This
is one of the influences I see be-
hind the consolidation process.
The reason why consolidation
in the telecoms business has
been a bit stronger is that doing
business in this sector is finan-
cially very demanding.
See PM pg 9
Licence extension will be not free
MOBILE operators Orange
Slovensko and T-Mobile
(Slovak Telekom) will now
have to pay to extend their
GSM licences following a de-
cision by parliament on April
5, made via an expedited le-
gislative procedure, to
amend the Electronic Com-
munications Act. The change
means that the national reg-
ulator, the Telecommunica-
tions Office, will set and col-
lect fees for extension of mo-
bile operators’ licences to use
specific frequencies. The of-
fice should do so after public
consultations that citizens
and experts can comment on,
the SITA newswire wrote.
Alternative model for third operator
SLOVAKIA’S smallest mobile
operator, Telefónica O2 Slov-
akia, is sticking to a model
whereby its services differ
from the two other operat-
ors, Slovak Telekom, which
provides mobile services un-
der its T-Mobile brand, and
Orange Slovensko. These
two offer subsidised mobile
devices to clients who sign a
fixed-term contract for a
specific package of services.
O2, in contrast, does not of-
The licences currently
used by Orange Slovensko
and T-Mobile will lapse on
August 31, 2011. The two op-
erators each paid US$18 mil-
lion for the licences back in
the 1990s, according to the
Sme daily.
T-Mobile and Orange said
they regard the amendment
as having clarified the exist-
ing legislation and hope the
regulator will set the fees to
correspond with the situ-
ation in the market. Before
the amendment was adop-
ted, Orange indicated that it
would consider up to €5 mil-
lion for a 15-year licence to be
reasonalbe, Sme wrote.
fer such subsidised devices.
It confirmed its alternat-
ive approach with a new
product introduced in early
April. This offers clients the
opportunity to select from
several levels of a so-called
wallet and then use this to
pay for the services they ac-
tually use, meaning there is
no package of pre-defined
services which the customer
must stick to.
Compiled by Spectator staff

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30553
8 April 18 – 24, 2011 BUSINESS FOCUS

TEL: Data transfer volumes rise steeply FOCUS short

Continued from pg 6
The most recent entrant to
the Slovak market, Telefónica
O2 Slovakia which started its
commercial operation in Feb-
ruary 2007, said it extended its
customer base last year and
penetrated into new customer
markets. Because Slovakia’s
mobile market is nearly com-
pletely saturated, Telefónica
had almost no other choice but
to seek to capture customers
from other companies. The
overall penetration rate of SIM
cards in the Slovak market rose
by 6.2 percentage points over
the course of 2010 to reach 111
percent at the end of the year.
“Last year clients trans-
ferred almost 142,000 tele-
phone numbers from compet-
itors to O2,” René Parák,
spokesperson of Telefónica O2
Slovakia, told The Slovak Spec-
tator. “The total year-on-year
increase of O2’s client base
amounted to 59.2 percent over
a single year, to over 880,000.”
O2’s revenues rose by 50.5
percent to €111.7 million.
Future developments
Market watchers forecast
stronger interest in broadband
internet and data services and,
as was forecast at the world
mobile congress held in early
February in Barcelona, higher
sales of smart phones and tab-
let computers.
“It is possible to expect
that operators will massively
sell these devices and that
they will also have to offer ser-
vices adequate for these
devices,” Alojz Vlčko, a tele-
coms market watcher, told
The Slovak Spectator, adding
that consumers can also ex-
pect, for example, bigger and
cheaper data packages and
better roaming offers for those
leaving the country for holi-
days or other travel.
Hanker expects additional
decreases in prices for access
to the internet, though only
very gradually, and a more in-
tense focus on increasing
speeds. Vlčko added that tele-
com operators are more fo-
cused now on providing data
services for mobiles and other
devices.
“The volume of data trans-
ferred via mobile networks is
rising steeply and this trend
will certainly not cease this
year,” Vlčko said, adding that
because O2, as the last operator
in Slovakia, will launch its 3G
network later this year the
market may also see more sig-
nificant confrontations on
price.
Vlčko also noted that tar-
geting specific groups of users
is very rare in Slovakia, listing
students as an example, and
predicting that there is further
opportunity here. He also ex-
pects operators will prepare
products clustering mobile
and fixed-line telephony, mo-
bile and fixed data services and
television, the so-called triple-
play and quad-play packages.
“Operators may fight for
clients also through such
comprehensive packages with
better prices,” Vlčko said.
Hanker agreed with that
assessment, pointing out that
currently discounts for com-
binations of mobile products
and especially for combina-
tions of mobile and fixed-line
services are relatively rare or
do not exist at all.
Hanker and Vlčko do not
expect any swift launch of the
newest generation LTE techno-
logy in Slovakia, with Hanker
saying speeds provided by the
current 3G networks are high
enough for normal as well as
higher-level usage in Slovakia.
“Since all three mobile op-
erators have announced in-
vestments into HSPA+ techno-
logy, we can assume that we
will have to wait some time for
the launch of LTE,” Vlčko said,
while adding that that licences
and division of frequencies
must be resolved first.
Telefónica O2 Slovakia ex-
pects that additional custom-
ers will switch to its services
and Parák noted that the
launch of its 3G network in
June will be the company’s
biggest investment, adding
that O2’s ambition is to cover
as much as 33 percent of the
population in 24 towns across
Slovakia with its 3G network.
He also said that O2 had
entered the market segment of
small and medium-sized com-
panies and had registered an 11
percent market share in Feb-
ruary of this year.
Slovak Telekom expects
stagnation as well as regulat-
ory challenges to continue in
the Slovak telecoms market
throughout 2011, according to
Gargulák. ST sees opportun-
ity for growth particularly in
market segments such as di-
gital TV, mobile data services
and ICT (information and
telecommunication techno-
logies).
The Slovak government
has quietly signalled its plan
to sell its remaining shares in
ST and Gargulák expects that
the government will com-
municate in this regard with
ST’s majority owner,
Deutsche Telekom.
Orange expects 2011 to
bring developments similar
to 2010.
“The influences of direct
as well as indirect price regu-
lation will continue, which
create a need to motivate cli-
ents to use telecommunica-
tions services in an increas-
ing scope,” said Tóth.
Last year Orange invested
€71 million in new technolo-
gies and into its network, and
plans to increase its invest-
ments by about 40 percent
this year.
Cutting energy use in telecoms
SMART 2020, a global report
on information and commu-
nications technologies (ICT)
published in 2008, found that
the carbon footprint of ICT
makes up 2 percent of all
global greenhouse gas emis-
sions and that this volume
will almost double by 2020.
But since the ICT sector is
able to monitor and optimise
usage of energy, ICT could
save 15 percent of global
emissions in 2020, the report
suggested. This could be
achieved by smart motor sys-
tems, smart logistics, smart
buildings and smart grids;
the area of telecommunica-
tions infrastructure enjoys a
special position, it said.
“Our clients – mobile op-
erators, consume as much as
85 percent of their energy
needs on operation of their
communications networks,”
said Ľubomír Šoška, the dir-
ector of the Slovak branch of
Nokia Siemens Networks, at
a press conference in early
April.
He pointed out that en-
ergy makes up a significant
portion of the operating
costs of providers of com-
munications services. While
in developed markets energy
makes up to 10 percent of op-
erating costs, in developing
markets this can rise to
between 15 and 30 percent.
Šoška said he believes
that modern solutions and
technologies can enable sig-
nificant reductions in energy
consumption. He lists four
main ways to reduce the en-
ergy consumption of base
transceiver stations (BTS): by
using energy-savvy
products; by minimising the
number of stations thanks to
better coverage and higher
capacity; by minimising the
need for air conditioning;
and by using software that
enables energy use when
demand in the grid is low.
He predicted that such
measures may bring reduc-
tions in the energy intensity
of providers of telecommu-
nications services of up to 70
percent.
According to Šoška, new
technologies already enable
construction of stations in-
dependent from the grid
whose electricity needs can
be met by local renewable
sources, for example solar or
wind energy.
Compiled by Spectator staff

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More regulation of mobile tariffs may come.
REG: Expect more
Continued from pg 6
Slovak Telekom, which
provides mobile services un-
der its T-Mobile brand, is also
not pleased with regulations
advanced by national and
European authorities.
“On one side constant
investments into networks
and new modern technolo-
gies have been expected
from mobile operators but
the operators are simultan-
eously more and more lim-
ited in creation of prices
stemming from traditional
market mechanisms operat-
ing in fully competitive
markets,” Andrej Gargulák,
the spokesperson for Slovak
Telekom (ST), told The Slov-
ak Spectator.
Vlčko conceded that not
all regulatory interventions
turn out to be positive.
“If they [interventions]
reduce the margin inappro-
priately, they may affect [a
company’s] investment
activity, which in the end is
a disadvantage, especially to
the client,” Vlčko said.
The most recent entrant
into the Slovak market,
Telefónica O2 Slovakia,
which began commercial op-
eration in February 2007, be-
lieves that regulation has
improved the environment
in the telecommunications
market.
“We maintain that the
task of regulation is to secure
equal conditions for each
player in the market so that
the precondition of a healthy
competitive environment is
met,” René Parák, Telefónica
O2 Slovakia’s spokesman,
told The Slovak Spectator.
“The market environment of
the telecoms segment has
improved significantly in
Slovakia over the last few
years exactly because of
regulation.”
Parák said that when O2
entered the Slovak market,
the telecoms sector was lag-
ging behind other developed
European markets in many
areas, specifying that it took
25 days to migrate a tele-
phone number from one op-
erator to another and that
termination fees were
among the highest in the EU.
According to Parák, O2 be-
lieves that actions by
Slovakia’s regulator, the
Photo: Sme
Telecommunications Office,
helped to push down ter-
mination fees to the level in
developed European markets
and to cut the period re-
quired for transferring a
phone number to five days,
as well as reducing the fees
associated with doing so.
“In the end it was Slovak
users of telecommunications
services who profited from
the regulation,” said Parák,
adding that this applied not
only to O2’s customers but
those of its competitors who
also benefitted from reduced
prices and more lively com-
petition.
More regulation
in the future?
The Telecommunications
Office announced in late
December that one of its
goals for 2011 is to reduce in-
terconnection fees for all
three mobile operators in
Slovakia. It also will seek to
reduce the time for transfer-
ring one’s telephone number
to a new operator from five
days to just one.
More regulation might
also come from the European
Commission: it indicated as
early as last June its dissatis-
faction with competition
within the mobile market,
even though roaming prices
have fallen somewhat.
The first EC regulations
concerning roaming prices
were introduced in 2007 to
ensure that mobile phone
users would pay similar
roaming tariffs across the
EU. In July 2009, the EC ad-
opted revised rules that regu-
lated roaming prices further,
requiring that by July 2011
the maximum roaming
charges, by default, would be
35 cents per minute for calls
made from abroad and 11
cents for calls received while
abroad. The roaming rules
adopted in 2009 will apply
until the end of June 2012.
The EC is preparing a full
review of its roaming rules
to assess the extent to which
the objectives have been
reached and whether com-
petition is working for
roaming services, states an
EC media release from Feb-
ruary, noting that its review
should be completed by June
30, 2011.
BUSINESS FOCUS
PM: Broadband internet in sharp focus
Continued from pg 7
At first it arrives as a mar-
vellous business but later you
need more and more funds for
investments, which come
from banks or investors. And
only big players get the funds.
Moreover, in the telecom
business there is one special
way through which the state
spurs consolidation since tele-
com companies are using lim-
ited resources such as fre-
quencies, ownership rights to
lay cables, assigning of tele-
phone numbers and so on, and
their allocation is decided at
the state and political level.
This means that the telecom
business is not completely in-
dependent from the state.
Consolidation is almost com-
plete in the business client
segment. There are about five
significant players far ahead of
the others and here I do not
expect any big changes in the
foreseeable future. In the res-
idential segment there are also
about four or five significant
players – but this group is not
identical with those in the
business segment – along with
about 150 to 200 local pro-
viders. Here the opportunity
for further consolidation is
much larger, maybe even for
the next 10 years.
TSS: Slovanet has been an act-
ive player in the consolida-
tion process. What reasons
have driven this process
within Slovanet?
PM: During the last few
years we have acquired about
six local operators in various
towns. We are continuing this
process as far as our invest-
ment possibilities allow. Re-
cently we acquired M-
Elektronik, a local provider of
cable TV service with almost
10,000 clients. But I have to say
that due to the crisis we have
not been able to follow our de-
velopment plan since 2008 be-
cause of worse access to funds
for acquisitions. The situation
has now improved, but condi-
tions are far from those that
were present here three years
ago.
The driving force behind
acquisitions by Slovanet has
been to obtain infrastructure.
We can rent infrastructure
from the former dominant
telecom operator, Slovak
Telekom, but the terms it offers
are so disadvantageous to us
that we decided to create our
own infrastructure to provide
services to households. Be-
cause building a brand new
network would require
enormous investments with
too-long terms of return, buy-
ing existing networks along
with their clients – even
though these lines are not in
perfect technical condition –
proved to us to be a sensible
way. After the acquisitions, we
are able to enhance these lines
and continue selling services
provided on them to house-
holds. Through our acquisi-
tions we have achieved the
needed critical mass of clients,
which in our case means
40,000-50,000 clients, so that
the residential segment gener-
ates a profit for us, meaning we
are able to cover infrastructure
investments, costs of opera-
tion, and so forth from our rev-
enues.
Our ambition is to contin-
ue with this approach and ac-
quire other local providers.
Since penetration of the inter-
net is still low in Slovakia, we
see space for growth in this res-
idential segment.
TSS: What are alternative op-
erators’ conditions and posi-
tion in Slovakia?
PM: It is not worth crying
over spilled milk. The opera-
tion of the telecom regulator
has been poor for 15 years and
this has not improved even
though we constantly point it
out. Liberalising the market for
fixed-line voice telephone ser-
vice in Slovakia, enabling in-
terconnection between voice
networks of the dominant op-
erator and other operators, was
probably the last to be accom-
plished within the EU. This
gave the dominant operator
time to get prepared, which is
what it did, and it managed to
keep its clients. In countries
which liberalised this market
earlier, about 30-40 percent of
clients switched to other oper-
ators while in Slovakia I estim-
ate this to have been 15-20 per-
cent.
The second fundamental
thing is how the broadband in-
ternet market is regulated.
This is the market of local
metallic lines. Here Slovakia
has taken a completely atypic-
al direction in the so-called
local loop unbundling, which
should have been the second
step of liberalisation. In fact,
this step has not yet happened
in Slovakia. The referential of-
fer, i.e. the terms under which
the dominant operator leases
local loops to other providers,
does not enable us to provide
and sell services on them in a
way that is effective enough for
us. Actually, because no local
loop unbundling happened in
Slovakia liberalisation of the
market for access to the inter-
net happened in the way that
150 players emerged who built
their own networks, either Wi-
Fi, optic, optic-metallic, coaxi-
al and so on. This is why the
market is so atomised and
needs consolidation. As a con-
sequence Slovak Telekom
holds the dominant position in
fixed-line voice service as well
as in broadband internet. In
the latter I estimate it at 92 per-
cent in the residential seg-
ment. On the other hand, the
market has found its own way.
Alternative networks have
been built and already a signi-
ficant number of clients are us-
ing them. And I expect that
this share will grow. Of course,
this also has some disadvant-
ages because in many places
multiple cable lines have been
laid and the quality might have
been higher if we had had only
one infrastructure in each loc-
ation.
Even though there are
plenty of small, partial prob-
lems, I do not expect the tele-
communication regulator to
do something today to benefit
alternative operators. Form-
ally, it has set conditions for
operation of the dominant, as
well as alternative operators,
but these are not improving
the conditions for operation of
alternative operators. They are
unacceptable for us; they pre-
vent us from using regulated
prices for provision of profit-
able services and for develop-
ment of our operation.
In Slovakia I see a conflict
of interest as the state is the
owner of a 49-percent stake in
Slovak Telekom and simultan-
eously is the founder of the
regulator. This means that the
state on one hand receives di-
vidends [from Slovak Telekom]
and on the other hand it should
regulate the company’s profits
or revenues. The only solution
I see is for the state to sell its
remaining stake in Slovak
Telekom.
TSS: Does the position of an
alternative operator offer
any advantages over the
dominant operator?
PM: The word ‘alternative’
has been used less often over
the last one or two years. Basic-
ally we are a telecommunica-
tions operator like any other
and we can provide any service
in the same scope as the dom-
inant providers in Slovakia,
Deutsche Telekom and France
Telecom, except for mobile
services – but even this is pos-
sible to solve via virtual mobile
operators. The main strategy of
a so-called alternative provider
is to offer services in a faster,
more effective and more flex-
ible way, with better care for its
clients.
An alternative or a smaller
operator is more flexible and
can choose from more techno-
logies as it is not as bound to
those into which it has inves-
ted. We use this advantage
heavily – we use technologies
based on wireless, optic, and
metallic networks. Basically
we can offer the client the most
effective service for a reason-
able price. The most important
advantage is the quality of ser-
vices. Alternative providers are
usually smaller companies and
thus they are able to prepare ef-
fective and build-to-suit solu-
tions for clients. In terms of
business clients, bigger com-
panies usually have more fixed
settings and are not able to
provide a build-to-suit solution
for each client. In the residen-
tial segment, an alternative
provider has more flexibility in
creation of prices and it can
change a product faster. Qual-
ity is another important cri-
terion. If we do not have a
higher quality of services, a cli-
ent would have no reason to
switch providers.
TSS: Slovanet launched a
telecommunications devel-
opment and research project
in 2010. Can you tell us more
about it?
PM: This is a three-year
project focusing on primary,
not applied, research and we do
it in cooperation with the Min-
April 18 – 24, 2011 9
istry of Education. It is focused
on research of algorithms for
identificationof spam and sim-
ilar unwanted electronic mail
and it is called Spamia. Its aim
is to make headway in research
and development in this field
at the Slovak level as well as at
the global level and to move
these algorithms forward. We
launched a special workplace
in Banská Bystrica where our
research team is based. As we
also provide e-mail services,
we can provide a huge number
of e-mails for testing of these
algorithms so that there is not
only a purely academic look at
this issue. I am glad that we
have launched this project as
there are only a few real inter-
connections between business
and academia in Slovakia.
Apart from anti-spam
technologies we are also active
in developing solutions to pro-
tect children from unwanted
content on the internet. We
want to be innovative.
In general, development is
inevitable for an operator of
our size because we cannot af-
ford to buy all the software we
need. Actually, the only signi-
ficant software we have
bought is economic account-
ing software. The rest has been
developed by our people either
as brand-new programmes or
applications derived from free
software or codes.
TSS: One of your surveys of
client behaviour indicated
that Slovaks want to pay the
lowest monthly fees and
tend to subscribe for longer
periods. What do you think
this says about Slovaks as
consumers?
PM: I am sure that other
telecom operators have come
to the same findings. This
phenomenon, started by mo-
bile operators, is very strong in
Slovakia and I think that it is
stronger than, for example, in
the Czech Republic or Austria.
TSS: Development is very
fast in telecommunications.
Where might it be within
five years?
PM: If I knew this I would
make a lot of money on it. Alas,
I am not such a visionary. But
we can look at some countries,
for example the USA and
Canada or Western Europe
where the development is two
to three years ahead of Slovakia
to get a hint at what direction
we might be going. But what I
am completely sure of is that
there will be increasing de-
mand for broadband internet
access. Moreover, TVs will also
be used for services currently
received via a PC, for example
sharing photos, videos, online
games, social networks, etc.
Access to a fixed broadband in-
ternet line will become a ne-
cessity for every household.
Mobile internet will be a sec-
ondary option.
The segment of business
clients is conservative and the
migration to IP telephony is
almost complete here. I see
more focus on security and
here a lot of work could be
done.
10 April 18 – 24, 2011 NEWS

DEAL: Watchdog calls for new tender

Continued from pg 1
Political observers noted,
however, that questions of impro-
priety surrounding the contract
have put the SDKÚ in an unfortu-
nate position and are urging the
party to leave no questions un-
answered. Fair-Play Alliance, a polit-
ical ethics watchdog, said that the
best way to deal with the contro-
versy would be to cancel the con-
tract and start the procurement pro-
cess again with more transparency.
Three days after Fico made his al-
legations Radičová requested the
director of the Tax Directorate to ac-
cept new bids for office space in
Košice and added that if a cheaper of-
fer meeting all requirements is
submitted the current lease should
be cancelled. After meeting
Radičová, Mikulčík said he saw no
reason to resign because he said all
steps taken by the tax authority
were legal. He also stated that rent-
ing the building from Ščurka’s firm
would save the state about €3.5 mil-
lion in upcoming years.
Zuzana Wienk, the director of
Fair-Play Alliance, said that
whenever a state contract is signed
with a firm or person close to a polit-
ical party, the deal evokes questions.
“This is a fact that experienced
politicians should know,” Wienk
told The Slovak Spectator. “Thus,
they should do everything to avoid
suspicions and be able to prove that
the [political] ties in no way affected
their decisions.”
Wienk said the Tax Directorate
should seek the best and most ad-
vantageous offer while being able to
prove that it went through a fair and
transparent process. She added that
based on the information available
thus far, the tax office has not
shown that it actually searched for
the most advantageous offer.
The chairman of SDKÚ, Mikuláš
Dzurinda, defended the contract, as
quoted by the Sme daily, by asking:
“Should a member of SDKÚ be han-
dicapped or discriminated against?”
Sme also quoted Radičová as saying:
“Do you want to say that the 5,000
members of SDKÚ cannot apply for
anything in this society?”
Conflicting versions
Fico said on April 11 that his gov-
ernment had been seeking space for
tax offices in Košice and that via a
C LASSIFIEDS
tender it had found a better offer and
that an agreement on a future rental
was signed with VSH Development
in the spring of 2010. Fico added that
soon after the new government took
power VSH Development was sent a
letter notifying it that the state did
not have the necessary funds to con-
summate the lease. Fico charged that
Mikulčík then signed the deal with
Ščurka’s firm.
“What did they think; that
nobody would ever find out?” Fico
asked, as quoted by the TASR news-
wire, adding that Mikloš must have
been aware of what was happening
and then alleging that 20 percent of
the lease amount would end up in
SDKÚ’s accounts.
Mikulčík denied Fico’s allega-
tions and stated that the building
chosen by his management had been
considered as early as in 2008 and
that a government committee had
selected the offer made by Nitra In-
vest as the most advantageous at
that time.
“Regardless of the results of this
committee [decision] the manage-
ment of the Tax Directorate in 2010
opted for a much more expensive op-
tion and signed an obligation with
VSH Development,” Mikulčík stated
on April 11, as quoted by the SITA
newswire.
But Sme reported that it did not
find any evidence that Nitra Invest
had submitted any official offer in
the past and that in March 2008 Nitra
Invest did not even own the building
in question, which is on Rozvojová
Street in Košice.
Wienk told The Slovak Spectator
that the information published by
Sme seems to indicate that Mikulčík
did not tell the truth when he
claimed that Nitra Invest had been
involved in the competition in 2008.
“It is a very unpleasant issue for
the SDKÚ,” Grigorij Mesežnikov,
president of the Institute for Public
Affairs, told The Slovak Spectator,
adding, however, that Fico should
have put some facts on the table to
support his charge that the SDKÚ
would benefit from the rental
agreement. “Politically it will be
used against the SDKÚ and Smer will
keep repeating that this is a story of
cronyism, though in its scale it is in-
comparably smaller than what Fico
was handling under his rule.”
Mesežnikov said whether the is-
sue will cause harm to the party will
depend on how the SDKÚ explains
Miroslav Mikulčík of Slovakia's Tax Directorate.
the controversy to its supporters and
to the media as well what steps it
takes to answer the questions that
have been raised.
“It will be important to come up
with a solution, which means not
pushing one’s head into the sand but
understandably explaining the case
and if any wrongdoing emerges,
then fixing it,” Mesežnikov told The
Slovak Spectator.
Fair-Play Alliance suggested that
the best way to proceed in govern-
ment contracts such as this one is to
publicly disclose any potential con-
flicts of interest on the part of a bid-
der and the contracting public offi-
cials and to take appropriate meas-
ures to ensure that the process is
fully transparent.
Wienk recommended that the
Tax Directorate cancel the contract
and go through a public bidding pro-
cess once again, but this time by “do-
ing it right”.
“Of course, the firm owned by Mr
Ščurka has the right to bid as well,”
Wienk stated. “However, it must be
done in a way that the procurer is
able to responsibly avoid suspicions
that the [contract] order went to the
[business of the] party member only
because it is close to the party and
that it was disadvantageous.”
Photo: Sme
Shell firm in Cyprus?
On April 12 Ščurka rejected
Fico’s charges of party cronyism
and said that the Tax Directorate
had chosen the best offer, stating
that the building that was leased
has air-conditioning and large of-
fices and had been completely ren-
ovated.
The ownership structure of Ni-
tra Invest, entered into the Slovak
Trade Registry on July 6, 2004, has
also been questioned by the media.
According to the registry the firm is
co-owned by Ščurka and a company
based in Limassol, Cyprus with the
name TPE Holding I Limited.
In response to the reports that
Nitra Invest is co-owned by a Cypri-
ot shell company, Radičová presen-
ted a document on April 13 from the
Ministry of Economy and Tourism
of Cyprus which she said showed
that there are no Slovaks involved in
TPE Holding I Limited, SITA wrote.
In the past Ščurka was one of
the founders of the TA3 news televi-
sion channel but sold his shares in
2000 to Martin Lengyel, former
spokesman for Dzurinda when he
was prime minister.
On April 13, Sme reported that
the first business Nitra Invest at-
tracted after its establishment in
2004 came from a SDKÚ member,
Ferdinand Vítek, the former mayor
of Nitra, who tasked Ščurka’s firm
with buying property for the Nitra
Sever industrial park. Sme added
that it found no evidence that
Vítek had picked Ščurka’s firm via a
tender.
Milan Burda, a Smer MP, sub-
sequently charged that Nitra In-
vest had sold the property it ac-
quired for the industrial park to in-
vestors for a much higher price
than its purchase price. Burda
opined that Ščurka must have
earned between €17 million and
€33 million by handling the indus-
trial park property, Sme wrote.
Ščurka rejected these accusa-
tions also, stating that anyone
could have bought those land
plots but no one else had ventured
to do so.
He also stated that no political
contacts were involved in Nitra In-
vest getting the business but he did
not deny having cooperated on leg-
al affairs with ARON Consulting, a
firm which is co-owned by
Eleonóra Valentová, the wife of
Gabriel Palacka, the SDKÚ’s former
treasurer, whose name has been
linked to a number of questionable
SDKÚ financial transactions dating
back to his resignation from cabin-
et more than a decade ago, TASR
reported.
The three other parties in the
governing coalition said they ex-
pect a thorough explanation of the
Košice office lease.
The leader of Freedom and
Solidarity (SaS), Richard Sulík,
asked that the prime minister take
the same approach to the SDKÚ as
she took towards his party when
questions emerged last year about
the so-called Liberal House, an of-
fice building which SaS intended to
rent to its MPs, who would then
have used their state expense al-
lowance to pay their office rent.
“I do not see that there is any
direct parallel in the sense that the
money would be used for activities
of a political party,” said
Mesežnikov. “The difference is that
the Liberal House would have been
a project from which a political
party, SaS, would have profited.
Even though it was legal, the prob-
lem was that state funds would
have been used to support a politic-
al party.”

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C 3675

Abhijit Banerjee, left, and Biswajit Roy Chowdhury with their classical instruments.
Well-rooted musicians
can stretch their styles
BY ZUZANA VILIKOVSKÁ
Spectator staff
NORTHERN Indian classical
music is a very specific genre
that is not widespread even in
its home country as it is quite
difficult to learn and requires a
specific approach and unusual
instruments. But musicians
playing this kind of music of-
ten join together with other
performers to stretch the lim-
its of the music world, exper-
imenting with new combina-
tions and rhythms, finding
new audiences and bringing
more people to appreciate In-
dian classical music. In
March, members of the Ab-
hijit Banerjee Trio accepted an
invitation from Slovak jazz
drummer Martin Valihora and
the Shiraz agency to particip-
ate in the One Day Jazz Festiv-
al in Bratislava.
The festival is the “spir-
itual child” of Valihora, a
graduate of Berklee College of
Music in Boston, USA, who
has played with many
renowned world musicians
and recently became even
more popular performing
along with the legendary Col-
legium Musicum formation
and the Martin Chodúr Band.
At past festivals Valihora has
brought musicians of various
genres to perform with him
and his ever-changing Martin
Valihora Trio. This year he in-
vited Gypsy Classic as the
opening band as well as the
Indian Abhijit Banerjee Trio.
After the opening gig on
March 22, the Martin Valihora
Trio performed, followed by
the Indian musicians alone,
culminating with a joint
crescendo fusing classical In-
dian music with jazz, result-
ing in a galvanising perform-
ance interrupted with wild
applause and ending in a
standing ovation.
The organisers also offered
two screenings of a movie
about the Indian musical style
and two public discussions
with the musicians, one of
them with members of the
Slovak-Indian Friendship
Club, and added a concert in
the spa town of Piešťany. The
trio consists of Abhijit Baner-
jee playing the tabla drum,
Biswajit Roy Chowdhury play-
ing the sarode, an old classical
instrument, and Somnath Roy
playing the ghatam, also an
older type of percussion in-
strument. Each trio member
has performed with well-
known world musicians such
as Ravi Shankar, Trilok Gurtu,
and Ry Cooder and each com-
poses music, for movies as
well. The Slovak Spectator
asked them about their routes
from Indian classical music to
European jazz and other mod-
ern styles as well as about
their impressions of Slovakia.
The Slovak Spectator (TSS):
How did you find the Slovak
audience?
Abhijit Banerjee (AB):
You are a musical nation,
that’s for sure. A European
audience is not expected to
understand everything. An
Indian audience, when listen-
ing to Indian classical music,
usually also expresses their
impressions between the per-
formances; if we do some
really good things they clap,
stand up, and so forth and that
encourages artists and gets
the best out of them.
Europeans are not used to this
type of reaction; they usually
just sit and clap only at the
end. But nowadays, they even
sometimes clap in between.
That’s what we like and that’s
something we experienced in
Budapest as well as here in
Bratislava.
TSS: Is Indian classical mu-
sic developing, and if so,
how?
CULTURE
Biswajit R. Chowdhury
(BRC): It is not expected to de-
velop, to be modernised. Indi-
an classical music and Indian
modern music are two differ-
ent things; the classical music
has existed for hundreds of
years in its original form and I
am sure it will stay like that
for hundreds more. And even
if it does not stay, I don’t care –
my music goes with me.
When I die, I want to it to be
buried with me. The way I
play Northern Indian classical
music will die when I die.
However, I know that sarode
music will go on even without
me, maybe also be modern-
ised. It’s like with Liszt – after
he was gone, nobody was able
to play piano like he could. But
the instrument went on and
piano music has developed
ever since.
We don’t feel forced to
modernise, to adapt music to
modern fans. We play music
because we like it and we can-
not do anything else. It’s not a
profession, it’s a vocation. We
play with artists performing
other genres, like Martin, but
it does not change our classical
music, nor does it make it big-
ger or smaller. People like Ravi
Shankar popularised Indian
music and found it new audi-
ences but it did not change the
essence of the classical music.
There are influences from out-
side, but it takes a long time,
maybe centuries, for them to
bend the classical style. It is
the socio-cultural and com-
mercial pressures, political
changes that influence the
music more. The first role of
our classical music was devo-
tional, turning to God; then
pressure came to entertain
kings and rulers – and the mu-
sic took another turn. And
nowadays, the Bollywood
modern-Indian style is there to
entertain the masses.
Somnath Roy (SR): I
think that the music always
changes and has changed ever
Photo: Courtesy of Shiraz Agency
since. It enhances me to play
with other musicians, to open
myself to different styles.
AB: Actually, it’s not a
question of our choice or pref-
erence – the evolution is there
also in music and it develops
whether we want it or not. If
you choose good musicians to
perform with, you can bring
your idea to life, without get-
ting out of the rhythm, the
notes – this is the science.
How to produce this science is
art. Everywhere you go – ex-
cept for China and Indonesia –
there are seven notes; so the
fundamentals are the same.
SR: We even took Indone-
sian music and adapted it to
our Indian way. But what
cannot change is the root, the
essence.
AB: The sarode developed
from the rebaab, an even
older instrument, and my
percussion, the tabla, also
was not always there in In-
dia. Music develops and
nowadays, as people tend to
travel more and more, even
musical styles within differ-
ent regions of India that ten-
ded to be quite separate and
differentiated have been mu-
tually influenced.
BRC: One should first get
to know the music, the in-
strument, the history and
background of the specific
style, and only then should he
or she be allowed to try other
things, to learn new styles
and open up to them.
AB: Nowadays, thanks to
computers, everything is
quicker and more superfi-
cial, and everybody thinks
he can play music. But un-
less you learn your [musical]
system properly and unless
you are well-rooted in your
own music, you cannot
stretch out your branches to
other styles and collaborate
with other artists.
To read the entire interview,
please go to www.spectator.sk
LITERARY CORNER
Books in English now
available in Slovakia
Deliver Us From Evil. David
Baldacci. Pan Macmillan,
2010 (first published in the
USA in 2010).
This book is a follow-up
to The Whole Truth, a best-
selling suspense novel. Six
month after a very old man
died and his past secrets
were revealed, Shaw, the op-
erative from The Whole
Truth, witnesses the murder
of a mysterious man. He es-
capes by a hair's breadth
from an incident himself
and, with a new partner, be-
gins to realise that there has
to be another organisation at
work that rivals his own in
secrecy. Journalist Katie
James, who is working on a
story of international im-
portance, has meanwhile
been smuggled, uncon-
scious, to an undisclosed
destination. Katie and Shaw
re-unite against a secretive
enemy and lead the reader
around the world at break-
neck pace.
The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Thomas Hardy. Oxford
World’s Classics. Reissued
2008.
The main hero of this
classic novel of English liter-
ature, Michael Henchard, is
an out-of-work hay-trusser
who gets drunk at a local fair
and impulsively sells his
wife Susan and baby daugh-
ter. Eighteen years later
Susan and her daughter seek
him out, only to discover
that he has become the most
prominent man in Caster-
bridge. He attempts to make
amends for his past misdeeds
but his unchanged impuls-
iveness clouds both his rela-
tionships and his fortune in
business. The life-story of a
modern-day tragic hero has
been successfully televised.
This edition is the only
critically-established text of
the novel, based on a com-
prehensive study of the
manuscript and Hardy’s ex-
tensive revisions.
Infidel. My Life. Ayaan
Hirsi Ali. Pocket Books Ltd,
2008.
In this memoir, the in-
ternationally renowned au-
thor of The Caged Virgin tells
her life story, from her tradi-
tional Muslim childhood in
Somalia to her intellectual
awakening in the Nether-
lands, to her life under
armed guard in the West.
Hirsi Ali, now a politician
and champion of free speech,
burst into international the
headlines following the
murder of Theo van Gogh by
an Islamist who threatened
she would be the next. Hirsi
Ali was raised in a strict
Muslim family, survived
civil war, female circum-
cision, brutal beatings, ad-
April 18 – 24, 2011 11
olescence as a devout believ-
er, the rise of the Muslim
Brotherhood, and life in four
countries under dictator-
ships. She escaped from a
forced marriage and sought
asylum in the Netherlands
where she has fought for the
rights of Muslim women and
the reform of Islam. Under
constant threat, she refuses
to be silenced.
Concise Oxford English
Dictionary; 11th Edition,
revised 2008. Oxford Dic-
tionaries.
Its excellent coverage of
essential English vocabulary
and clear, accessible style
make this revised edition of
the Compact Oxford English
Dictionary of current English
ideal for general everyday
use. Usage notes on tricky
aspects of English help dis-
tinguish between commonly
confused words, as well as
giving advice on grammar.
The Effective English section
in the centre of the diction-
ary is packed with advice on
how to use English in a vari-
ety of situations, such as
writing CVs or letters of
complaint.
This revised edition has
been completely redesigned
and now contains even more
practical help with corres-
pondence.
The Finkler Question.
Howard Jacobson. Blooms-
bury, 2010.
The Finkler Question won
the Man Booker Prize for 2010.
Julian Treslove, a profession-
ally unspectacular BBC work-
er, and Sam Finkler, a Jewish
philosopher, writer and tele-
vision personality, are old
school friends. They've never
quite lost touch with each
other - or with their former
teacher, Libor Sevick, a
Czechoslovakian always more
concerned with the wider
world than with exam res-
ults. Now they dine at Libor's
central London apartment.
It's a sweetly painful evening
of reminiscence in which all
three remove themselves to a
time before they had loved
and lost; a time before they
had fathered children, before
they had prized anything
greatly enough to fear the loss
of it. And it's that very even-
ing that Treslove is attacked.
After this, his whole sense of
who and what he is will
slowly and ineluctably
change.
This column is a selection by
The Slovak Spectator of English-
language books recently released
in Slovakia; it does not represent
an endorsement of any of the
books selected. The column is
prepared in cooperation with the
Oxford Bookshop Bratislava,
located at Laurinská 9.
12 April 18 – 24, 2011
Rich but still not free
THE ORIGINS of Banská
Hodruša are connected with
Kerling Hill, where once a
medieval mining settlement
stood. From there, dwellers
moved to lower alti-
tudes, where they
founded Hodruša. In
the 14th century the
settlement grew
thanks to new resid-
ents from Germany.
The fate of Banská
Hodruša lay in its depend-
ence on Banská Štiavnica.
Hodruša’s rich and influen-
tial neighbour considered it
as merely a subordinate and
behaved accordingly. But
the Hodrušans were aware
of their power and import-
ance and wanted their inde-
pendence.
Their first attempt to
break free is mentioned in
Ján Cikker remembered
SLOVAKIA has just a few
classical-music composers
who are internationally
renowned, and Ján Cikker is
one of them. Apart from his
own works, he also adapted
and arranged folk songs (in-
cluding the Slovak national
anthem, which was origin-
ally a popular folk tune with
neutral lyrics), worked as a
repertory advisor to the Slov-
ak National Theatre, and
taught at the Conservatory
and Music Academy in Brat-
islava. This year, the country
commemorates his 100th
anniversary with a host of
events and programmes.
The Visegrad Group
(which includes the Czech
Republic, Hungary and Po-
land as well as Slovakia) has
joined forces to bring the
works of four renowned
composers and musicians
who have (or had) their an-
niversaries this year (last
year, in the case of Chopin):
the Hungarian Franz Liszt
(200th anniversary), the
Czech Antonín Dvořák (170th
anniversary), Pole Fryderyk
Chopin (200th anniversary in
2010) and Slovakia’s Cikker.
Weather updates and forecasts from across Slovakia
can now be found at www.spectator.sk.
In cooperation with the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute
1488, but Štiavnica sup-
pressed the rebellion for-
cibly and relations re-
mained unchanged. Four
years later, Hodruša sought
HISTORY TALKS
independence for a second
time. The leaders of the re-
volt ended up in prison, and
Hodrušans turned to King
Vladislas II Jagiellon of
Hungary, demanding the re-
lease of the prisoners and
the return of the town seal,
which had been deposited
in Štiavnica. A court refused
their demands and instead
confirmed Hodruša’s subor-
dination.
On March 23 a concert
was organised as a tribute to
Cikker within the Visegrad
Jubilee project in the Hall of
Mirrors in Bratislava’s Prima-
tial Palace. Apart from the
musical homage, the Ján Cik-
ker Award was given this year
to Professor Rudolf Macudz-
inski, a composer, musician,
and teacher of piano and
composition, who was a big
promoter of Cikker’s work.
Macudzinski’s son Silvio ac-
cepted the award on behalf of
his father who died in 1986.
The pieces played by the
The Slovak Chamber Orchestra honours Cikker.
CULTURE
However, the insurgents
did not give up and a delega-
tion of four travelled to Buda,
intending to persuade the
king personally. Their ac-
tions were inter-
preted as mutiny
and they were all
hanged. Banská
Hodruša never
managed to get
rid of its depend-
ent position.
In this postcard from the
Austro-Hungarian period we
can see the historical centre
of the town. In the upper
right corner is the Wachthaus
built in 1536. The permanent
guard service was located
here, tasked with warning
the town of the potential ar-
rival of Ottoman forces.
By Branislav Chovan
Slovak Chamber Orchestra of
Bohdan Warchal on this oc-
casion included works of Ilja
Zeljenka, Antonín Dvořák,
and - of course - Ján Cikker.
Peter Michalica played violin
and Ján Hajnal piano.
The Ján Cikker Founda-
tion – which also operates
the Ján Cikker Museum –
has planned numerous na-
tionwide events for the
whole of 2011 in connection
with this outstanding mu-
sical personality.
By Zuzana Vilikovská
Photo: TASR
Western SLOVAKIA
Bratislava
l CLASSICAL MUSIC: Veľko-
nočná hudba v rodine J. S.
EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE
Bacha / Easter Music in the
family of J. S. Bach – The Sol-
amente Naturali ensemble,
specialising in old music and
headed by Miloš Valent, plays
the works of Heinrich Bach,
Johann Christoph Bach and
Johann Sebastian Bach to-
gether with the Vo-
calensemble Polyharmonique
choir and I. Clerix (soprano),
A. Schneider (alto), S. Gähler
(tenor) and M. Lutze (bass).
Starts: April 19, 19:00;
Dvorana concert hall, Zochova
3. Admission: €5. Tel: 02/2047-
5233; www.filharm.sk.
THE INTERNATIONAL jazz project Komeda - The Innocent Sor-
Bratislava cerer is the work of Polish saxophone player Adam Pieronczyk,
l CLASSICAL MUSIC:
Organový recitál / Organ recit- who invited US saxophonist Gary Thomas to cooperate. Their
al – Martin Bako plays organ cast of players is completed by Nelson Veras (Brazil) on guitar,
works by Franz Liszt, whose Max Mucha (Poland) on contrabass and Lukas Zyta (Poland) on
birth 200 years ago is being drums. The concert on April 19 at 20:00 in Klub za Zrkadlom,
celebrated this year across the Rovniankova 3 in Bratislava, will be a tribute to an icon of Polish
whole region where he lived, jazz, Krzysztof Komeda Trzcinski. Tickets for €5 (in advance) and
worked and left his imprint. €7 can be purchased through www.ticketportal.sk. For more in-
Starts: April 24, 18:30; St
formation, please visit www.kzp.sk. Photo: Courtesy of KZP
Martin’s Cathedral. Admis-
sion: €5-€7. Tel: 02/5293- 3321;
www.ticketportal.sk. Open: Mon-Fri 9:00-21:00, Open: weekdays 8:00
Sat 9:00-13:00 until May 10; -16:00; Regional Cultural Cen-
Bratislava Institut Français, Sedlárska 7. tre, Horný Val 20. Admission:
l EXHIBITION: Čierna skrinka Admission: free. Tel: 02/5934- voluntary. Tel: 041/5625-956;
2011 / The Black Box 2011 – This 7705; ifb.ambafrance-sk.org. kulturnecentrum. zilina.net.
exhibition offers the second
edition of a review of unreal- Trnava Nová Baňa
ised or significantly modified l LIVE MUSIC: Fermata - Cer- l MUSEUM: Spomienky na
projects by Slovak graphic de- esit Tour 2011 – A concert by Zambiu / Memories of Zambia
signers such as Nagy, Drličiak, legendary Slovak rock band – An exhibition created from
Matis, Brezinová, Liška, Mis- Fermata (F. Griglák, P. the private collection of Milan
trík, Chmelíčková, Gavalda, Prieložník, F. Frešo, I. Skovay), Jeřábek, who worked in this
and others. who have set out on a tour African country in 1970s and
Open: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00 that will delight old fans and 80s. It includes items like but-
until April 29; Galéria Medi- is sure to secure the group terflies, a python’s skin, the
um, Hviezdoslavovo Square some new ones. world’s biggest coconut (a
18. Admission: free. Tel: Starts: April 20, 19:00; Coco de Mer) aboriginal cloth-
02/5942-8570; www.vsvu.sk. Kino Hviezda. Admission: ing and jewellery, and more.
€10. Tel: 02/5293-3321; www. Open: Mon-Fri 8:00-16:00
Bratislava ticketportal.sk. until May 31; Pohronské mú-
l EXHIBITION: Partizáni /
Partisans - Šymon Kliman –
This exhibition of photo- Central SLOVAKIA
zeum, Bernolákova 2. Admis-
sion: €0.50-€1. Tel: 045/6855 -178;
www.pohronskemuzeum.sk.
graphs portraying partici-
pants in the Slovak National Žilina
Uprising is a result of a joint l FOLKLORE EXHIBITION: Eastern SLOVAKIA
effort by the French Insti- Čas veľkonočný / Easter Time –
tute and the Central An exhibition of folklore pro- Košice
European House of Photo- duction by people who still l LIVE MUSIC: Joëlle Léandre
graphy. Kliman also presen- stick to the traditional way of – A concert by a prominent
ted his subjects through making things associated personality of ‘new European
sound recordings and texts. with Easter in Slovakia. music’ brings this French con-
trabass player, composer and
improviser, who has collabor-
ated with numerous artists.
Starts: April 19, 19:00;
Východoslovenská galéria/
Eastern-Slovak Gallery,
Hlavná 27. Admission: €3.
Tel: 02/5293-3321; www.
ticketportal.sk.
Tatry
l EASTER PROGRAMME: This
set of events and perform-
ances organised for Easter
comprises a Calvary, i.e. a
meeting of believers above
Starý Smokovec, a perform-
ance by Swiss troubadours
from St Moritz, a rock-pop-
jazz concert and an Easter
ILLUSTRATOR and cartoonist Adolf Born is one of the greatest Feast including folk dances to
representatives of Czech graphic art. Among his most popular live music.
works is a children’s cartoon movie, Mach a Šebestová. Starts: April 21-24, vari-
The exhibition in the At the Sitting Angel Gallery, at Starý trh 53 ous venues, from Starý
in Kežmarok, presents his works in cooperation with the
Smokovec to Zamkovský
Chalet and Climbers’ Chalet
Czech Centre. Until May 5, they can be seen on weekdays in Horný Smokovec. Admis-
between 12:00 and 18:00 and on Saturdays from 10:00 till 13:00. sion: free. More info:
For more information, please call 052/4522-153, or visit www.vysoketatry. cz.
www.galeriauanjela.sk. Photo: Courtesy of GUA By Zuzana Vilikovská
N A M E D A Y A P R I L 2 0 1 1
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Valér Jela Marcel Ervín Slavomír Vojtech Juraj
EASTER SUNDAY
April 18 April 19 April 20 April 21 April 22 April 23 April 24
A Slovak’s name day (meniny) is as important as his or her birthday. It is traditional to present friends or co-workers with a small gift,
such as chocolates or flowers, and to wish them Všetko najlepšie k meninám (Happy name day)