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Vol. 17, No. 16 Monday, April 25, 2011 - Sunday, May 1, 2011 of this issue

NEWS
Constitutional ties
Internet
A vote by MPs in neigh-
bouring Hungary to adopt a
new constitution has
paywall
sparked anger among some
politicians in Slovakia who
accuse Budapest of assert-
erected
ing extraterritorial
powers.
pg 2 BY MICHAELA TERENZANI
Spectator staff

Labour Code advance?

THE DAY of the thin grey stripe has ar-
The government, employ-
rived. Now appearing above content on
ers and unions seem to be
some of Slovakia’s biggest online news
inching towards an agree-
providers, the stripe indicates that users
ment on a revised labour
will soon – though not quite yet – have to
law despite loud complaints
pay to view the content beneath it. The
from employer associations
appearance of the stripe marks the launch
and trade unions.
of a unique multi-site paywall which is
pg 4
about to divide the Slovak internet into
‘free’ and ‘premium’ content.
OPINION See PAY pg 3
Weighing her words
The Mikulčík affair suggests Prime Minister Iveta Radičová, Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš and SDKÚ chairman Mikuláš Dzurinda met on April 19
that Prime Minister Iveta
Radičová should weigh her
words more carefully – but
to thrash out their differences over whether Tax Directorate boss Miroslav Mikulčík should resign. Photo: Sme
Sprucing up
also that she enjoys a
stronger position than she
might realise.
pg 5
Tax boss quits as PM Slovakia for
hockey fans
BUSINESS FOCUS
A rising tide
After a slight recovery in
refuses to back down BY MICHAELA TERENZANI
Spectator staff
2010, insurers in Slovakia THE HEAD of Slovakia’s Tax Direct- April 19. “I will remain in the post of
are hoping customers will orate, who earlier this year nodded prime minister only if there is no FOR TWO weeks in May, Slovakia will of-
buy more policies in 2011, through a five-year, €6.6-million of- BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ cloud or shadow of suspicion re- ficially turn into the ‘Hockey Republic’
especially given last year's fice leasing deal with a firm co- Spectator staff maining over the transparency of according to the official campaign now
losses from severe weather. owned by a regional official of the this government,” she said, as under way to promote the Ice Hockey
pg 6 ruling Slovak Democratic and Chris- quoted by SITA. World Championship.
tian Union (SDKÚ), resigned on Radičová and Finance Minister Then, on April 20, Radičová was Each year in spring, most Slovaks
April 20. A day earlier, SDKÚ leaders Ivan Mikloš, both members of the late arriving at a regular session of turn into enthusiastic fans, cheering on
Going online had appeared to agree that SDKÚ, had earlier clashed head-to- cabinet. She confirmed that her their national team at the champion-
Direct sales channels like Slovakia’s public-finance watchdog head over the fate of Mikulčík, mak- tardiness was related to Mikulčík’s ship: ice hockey is perhaps the country’s
the internet, telephone would decide his fate via an audit of ing the other ruling coalition continued presence. most popular sport.
and SMS are viewed as the deal. parties edgy and opening the door to Asked if she had threatened to In 2011 the excitement will reach a
having potential for in- Miroslav Mikulčík, who had res- speculation about a power struggle resign over the affair, she stated: “I fever pitch since the championship is
surance companies when isted a call by Prime Minister Iveta within the SDKÚ. have unambiguously said that I will taking place in Slovakia for the first
selling to tech-savvy cus- Radičová for him to resign, saying Radičová hinted that the SDKÚ not lead a government over which time. But questions linger about wheth-
tomers. he saw no reason to go, announced audit deal was little more than a such a shade is hanging.” er the country is fully prepared to host
pg 7 on April 20 that he had decided to face-saving exercise in a comment such an event.
quit in order to avoid becoming the she made following a meeting with
subject of a political power struggle. ruling coalition partners later on See SDKÚ pg 2 See ICE pg 3
CULTURE
Dead documentaries
A film festival in Košice has
declared documentaries
Inflation exceeds EU average hk}ly{pzltlu{

6XdbegZ]Zch^kZ\j^YZidi]Z
dead – despite it being ded- odology, the harmonised in- flation will approach 4 per-
icated to them. The reason?
The description is too limit-
ing, according to one Czech
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ
Spectator staff
dex of consumer prices. Infla-
tion in Slovakia was higher
than the EU average of 3.1
cent in the medium term, and
could jump well above that
level in individual months.
'%&&
filmmaker.
pg 11
percent, and the 2.7-percent
average across the eurozone.
However, market watch-
ers also suggest that the de-
>XZ=dX`Zn
INFLATION has joined ex-
hausted treasuries and climb-
Neighbours Hungary and Po-
land posted higher inflation
velopment of inflation in
Slovakia has specific causes.
LdgaY
SELECT FOREX RATES
€ benchmark as of April 20
ing jobless rates on the list of
worries for many European
rates than Slovakia, while the
rate in the Czech Republic
“Slovakia last year recor-
ded a very low inflation rate; 8]Vbe^dch]^e
Union countries. was lower. the Slovak government adop-
CANADA CAD 1.38 HUNGARY HUF 264.05 Prices in Slovakia are now Recent developments in ted a package of consolida-
CZECH REP. CZK 24.17 JAPAN JPY 120.13 growing as fast as they did commodity markets, where tion measures and regulated ;gZZ[dghjWhXg^WZgh
RUSSIA RUB 40.84 POLAND PLN 3.97 during the pre-crisis period, prices for some food products prices have been hiked,” Eva
GREAT BRITAIN GBP 0.89 USA USD 1.45 and in March inflation are approaching their 2008 Sadovská, an analyst with l^i]i]ZcZmi^hhjZd[I]ZHadkV`HeZXiVidg
touched its highest level peak, have prompted concern Poštová Banka, told The Slov-
since November 2008: 3.8 about the eventual impact on ak Spectator. HiVgi^c\6eg^a'.i]Z\j^YZXVcVahd
percent year-on-year, as
measured by the EU’s meth-
prices in Slovakia. Market
watchers predict annual in- See PRICE pg 4
WZk^ZlZYdca^cZVilll#heZXiVidg#h`
2 April 25 – May 1, 2011
Supreme Court judge dies
A FORMER vice-president of
Slovakia’s Supreme Court,
Judge Juraj Majchrák, was
found dead in the garage of
his home in Bratislava on
April 14. His death has been
ruled a suicide but the police
are continuing to investigate
the circumstances.
“In this connection we
have launched a criminal
prosecution in the matter of
the crime of participating in
a suicide,” said Tatiana
Kurucová, spokesperson for
Bratislava’s police, as quoted
by the SITA newswire. She
did not specify why the pro-
secution was started and who
it might be targeted against.
Poll puts Smer support at 43.2%
BOTH parliamentary opposi-
tion parties, Smer and the
Slovak National Party (SNS),
experienced small drops in
voter support in the most re-
cent poll conducted by Medi-
an SK that was released on
April 18.
Smer would still have
taken top spot if an election
had been held in March 2011,
polling 43.2 percent support,
a decline of just over one per-
centage point from last
month’s poll. The SNS had
the support of 5.9 percent of
those polled compared to 6.5
percent in February.
Most-Híd was the only
party of the quartet in the
ruling coalition to lose sup-
port in the March poll com-
pared to February as it was
100 days of online public contracts
SLOVAK state, regional and
municipal governments
have been required to pub-
lish all their contracts, paid
invoices and orders online
for the past 100 days. The re-
quirement, which took effect
on January 1, was designed
to improve transparency in
how public money is spent
and has been called a show-
case initiative by the gov-
ernment and has aided the
media in reporting some
questionable spending at
Slovak ministries and state-
run companies.
Transparency watchdogs
have called the new re-
quirements the strongest
anti-corruption measure
taken by the current gov-
ernment and have compared
its possible effects on corrupt
practices in Slovak politics to
the so-called “info-law” – the
law on public access to in-
formation – passed in 2000 by
the first government of
Mikuláš Dzurinda.
Since the law came into
effect over 2,200 contracts
have been published on the
Central Register of Con-
tracts, a website where state
ministries, their budgetary
Majchrák was a known
critic of Supreme Court
President Štefan Harabin.
He had been the presiding
judge on several important
cases, including the so-
called ‘acid gang’ case in
which the bodies of
murder victims were dis-
solved in acid.
Majchrák served as the
vice-president of the Su-
preme Court beginning in
1999, and in 2000 he was
elected president of the As-
sociation of Judges of Slov-
akia. He retired early from
the court last year after be-
ing diagnosed with a seri-
ous illness.
backed by only 5.1 percent
of those who responded,
just above the 5-percent
threshold needed to enter
parliament and down 1.4
percentage points from
February.
The Slovak Democratic
and Christian Union (SDKÚ)
gained nearly 3 percentage
points over the poll taken in
February and garnered
17.1-percent support in
March. The Christian Demo-
cratic Movement (KDH) saw
its polling numbers increase
slightly from February’s 9.2
percent to 10.1 percent in
March. The Freedom and
Solidarity (SaS) party also
polled slightly better, at 9.9
percent in March compared
to 9.1 percent in February.
organisations and public-
service institutions publish
their contracts, according to
Peter Bubla, the Justice
Ministry’s spokesperson. Re-
gional and municipal author-
ities are required to publish
contracts on their own web-
sites. Smaller municipalities
without websites must pub-
lish their contracts on the
website of the Business Bul-
letin, which has so far posted
720 contracts.
Beginning on May 1 a
temporary directive becomes
effective which requires
municipal and regional au-
thorities to publish only con-
tracts over €1,000, while
other government institu-
tions must publish contracts
for €3,000 and more. The dir-
ective came in response to
perceived bureaucratic diffi-
culties caused by the new re-
quirement and will remain
in force until the Justice
Ministry proposes an
amendment to the public ac-
cess to information law that
will make the publishing of
contracts and invoices easi-
er, Bubla said.
Compiled by Spectator staff
NEWS
Slovakia stung by
Orbán’s constitution
BY MICHAELA
TERENZANI
Spectator staff
THE EYES of much of Europe
turned once again to Hungary
on April 18 when its parlia-
ment passed an amendment
to the country’s constitution,
dubbed as conservative, con-
troversial and problematic by
the world’s media as well as
by the parliamentary opposi-
tion to Hungarian Prime Min-
ister Viktor Orbán. Slovak
politicians also poured their
share of cross-border criticism
on the government and par-
liament dominated by Orbán’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda
Fidesz party.
The new constitution is
expected to be signed by Hun- tution they say will cement
garian president Pál Schmitt the power of Fidesz beyond its
on April 25 and will take effect current term in office.
on January 1, 2012. Critics Critics said they see sever-
have levelled particular criti- al problematic points in the
cism at aspects of the consti- new constitution and one is
SDKÚ: NKÚ was lined up to decide
Continued from pg 1
Radičová later added that she had in-
sisted on transparency on behalf of the
ruling coalition.
When the story first erupted, Radičová
defended Mikulčík’s actions, but later
turned against him, saying that he had
given her false information about the leas-
ing deal. However, Mikloš directly contra-
dicted the prime minister’s call for
Mikulčík to resign by telling the media on
April 18 that the tax chief should remain
in his job.
“I do not want to be a tool in any power
struggle, be it in relation to the opposition
or within the ruling coalition,” Mikulčík
wrote in a statement announcing his
resignation quoted by the SITA newswire
on April 20. “I do not want to get the fin-
ance minister, whom I respect immensely,
and the prime minister into any conflict
and this is why I decided to quit my job.”
On April 19, Radičová, Mikloš and SDKÚ
boss Mikuláš Dzurinda appeared to have
reached a compromise: Radičová and
Mikloš would respect the results of an audit
of the deal to be conducted by Slovakia’s
Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ), which over-
sees the use of public funds. Observers
promptly noted that sometimes it takes six
months or longer for the NKÚ to produce an
official opinion and that Radičová in the
end had had to back away from her call for
Mikulčík to resign. Analysts said they ex-
pected Robert Fico and his Smer party, the
largest opposition group in parliament, to
make hay from the situation.
“Undoubtedly, Fico will vigorously use
this situation for his benefit,” political
scientist Miroslav Kusý told The Slovak
Spectator. “He will continually remind
Radičová of this situation while using any
weakness in the ruling coalition, which
unfortunately its parties keep displaying.”
Fico said on April 19 that after Easter
his party will submit a proposal for a no-
confidence motion in Radičová. He needs
30 MPs to sign the proposal in order to
force Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulík
to summon an unscheduled parliament-
ary session.
Photo: TASR
the change in the name of the
country from the Republic of
Hungary to just Hungary,
which they say is reminiscent
of the pre-World War I era and
affects those countries that
Tensions in the SDKÚ
The SDKÚ’s leadership met on the
morning of April 19 to seek a solution to
the stand-off. Later in the day, Radičová,
Mikloš and Dzurinda withdrew to dis-
cuss the matter further in private.
After an hour-and-a-half of talks
they agreed that the prime minister
could maintain her position that
Mikulčík should resign, but that she
would also respect the authority vested
in the finance minister. Dzurinda told
the media he did not think that Mikulčík
remaining in his post would weaken the
prime minister in her position.
“The SDKÚ backed the prime minis-
ter and we fully respect all her
statements,” Dzurinda said, as quoted by
the Sme daily.
Earlier on April 19, Mikloš had said
that he was aware of his responsibility
in dealing with the building lease deal
but added that as the responsible min-
ister he alone would handle those re-
sponsibilities and would not yield to
media pressure.
Mikloš admitted that one of pos-
sible options was that the prime minis-
ter would propose his own recall. He
stated that he had agreed with
Radičová that until April 18 neither of
them would release additional state-
ments about the case.
According to Mikloš, Radičová ex-
plained the change in her position, and
her subsequent call for Mikulčík to go, by
saying that “those pressures increased”.
But Mikloš said he did not agree that
ministers should bend to such pressures.
“We should not be solving such is-
sues based on pressures because that is
the beginning of the end,” Mikloš stated,
as quoted by SITA.
Responding to speculation about
the eventual outcome of the crisis,
Mikloš said that he is not interested in
assuming the prime minister’s chair.
He also stated that he is not in con-
flict with Radičová and that their
opinions differ only over this particu-
lar issue.
were once part of Greater
Hungary. The new constitu-
tion will also widen the scope
of laws requiring two thirds
support in parliament, which
observers have labelled a
method through which Fidesz
can stretch its power beyond
its current election term. The
constitution establishes the
Hungarian forint as the offi-
cial state currency, meaning
that a switch to the euro in
the future would require a
constitutional amendment.
Extraterritorial effects?
According to statements
from Slovak government rep-
resentatives, the most prob-
lematic part of the new con-
stitution is the stated obliga-
tion of the Hungarian gov-
ernment to care for the mil-
lions of ethnic Hungarians
living beyond its borders.
See LAW pg 9
Mikloš has insisted that Mikulčík
acted in the public interest when he
signed the contract earlier this year to
rent an office building in Košice from
Nitra Invest, a firm co-owned by Ondrej
Ščurka, the chairman of the SDKÚ
branch in Nitra.
“It was not a government crisis,
since it did not concern all the ruling
parties,” Kusý told The Slovak Spectat-
or. “Of course the other parties were
very carefully watching and had certain
concerns.”
Radičová early on presented a very
unambiguous stand, said Kusý, adding
that it was within the finance
minister’s remit to decide what would
happen next to Mikulčík.
“She is the prime minister, with
much wider authorities than the minis-
ter, and once she uttered such a stand
she got into a position from which it
was rather difficult and unpleasant to
concede,” said Kusý.
The case, which has prompted sig-
nificant tension within the ruling coali-
tion, was brought to the media’s atten-
tion by Fico on April 11, when he
presented it as a story of party
cronyism.
He alleged that some of the money
from the deal would end up in the
SDKÚ’s accounts, though he presented
no evidence to back up this claim.
Mikulčík immediately responded
that the contract with Nitra Invest was
completely in line with applicable laws
and would save the state money.
On April 15, Nitra Invest announced
that it was withdrawing from the con-
tract, stating that it did not want any
further suspicions to affect its name.
Political observers noted that ques-
tions of impropriety surrounding the
contract have put the SDKÚ in an unfor-
tunate position and have urged the
party to leave no questions unanswered.
Fair-Play Alliance, a political ethics
watchdog, earlier said that the best way
to resolve the controversy was to cancel
the contract and start the procurement
process again, with full transparency.
 NEWS April 25 – May 1, 2011 3

Smile! PAY: Trial version

began on April 18
Tourists are coming! Continued from pg 1

On April 18, 2011, Piano

BY MICHAELA
TERENZANI
Spectator staff
THE PREPARATIONS for the
upcoming Ice Hockey World
Championship have not trans-
formed Bratislava into a shiny
European metropolis
overnight. But tourism ex-
perts still believe that the city
can appeal to the foreign
guests who are expected to
flood the city for two weeks – if
only service providers, who
have something of a reputa-
tion for being grumpy, treat
the hockey fans with honesty
and a smile.
The Slovak Spectator spoke
to Peter Belinský, the general
director of the Slovak Tourist
Board (SACR), about the Play
Fair and Don’t Forget the Smile
campaigns. The first is based
on a code of ethics which pro-
viders of tourist services can
sign to declare they will treat
their customers honestly; the
second is based on a kind of
game in which restaurants
and other establishments are
marked with a sticker depict-
ing a smiling forget-me-not
flower which is intended to
remind staff to keep smiling
and be kind to their customers.
The Slovak Spectator (TSS):
What effects do you expect
Don't forget to smile.
these campaigns to bring?
Peter Belinský (PB): The
aim of the two campaigns is to
encourage the biggest possible
number of service providers to
be welcoming and homey,
which would result in the
number of satisfied visitors to
Slovakia increasing. But they
should also provoke debate on
this issue among experts. A
smile in the first place is a
symbol, but it is also like a
boomerang. It returns to the
service provider when happy
customers come back again.
Tourism is an experience for
the visitor, but the daily bread
of the entrepreneur. And both
should be left satisfied. The
task of the forget-me-not is
Photo: Sme - Gabriel Kuchta
therefore to remind them that
very often it doesn’t take
much to make tourists happy,
just an increase in the will-
ingness of staff.
TSS: Have service providers
shown an interest in the
campaigns?
PB: As of today [April 19]
we have 69 establishments
who have signed the code of
ethics through the municipal
office in Bratislava. They will
be sent the forget-me-not
stickers. In Košice the mayor
sent a letter in which he called
on about 800 establishments
to join the code of ethics and
the forget-me-not project.
When the championship is
over, the forget-me-not initi-
ative will be spread to other
Slovak towns and those who
are interested will be able to
apply via a special website,
www.nezabudniusmev.sk.
TSS: How will you make sure
that foreign visitors under-
stand what the symbol of
the campaign means?
PB: We will inform foreign
tourists with information fly-
ers, posters in public trans-
port, and through tour operat-
ors. We will explain to them
the sense of the campaign and
will tell them where to get
small forget-me-not stickers
which they will then stick on
boards in the restaurants
where they were happy with
the service.
TSS: What other activities
will SACR undertake during
the Championship?
PB: We will have 14 spe-
cialised information stands in
Bratislava, Košice and Vienna.
In this way we will promote
among the fans the typical
Slovak tourist products and
destinations, such as healing
spas, UNESCO monuments,
castles, and others. There will
also be a media campaign
promoting Slovakia’s tourist
attractions during the cham-
pionship, on Czech Television
and the Austrian radio station
Arabella.
Media, as the service is being
branded, launched the pay-
wall as a trial service. The
eyes of online publishing ex-
perts worldwide will now be
on Slovakia as Piano prepares
to switch from trial stage to
full operation on May 2. For
now, the content that parti-
cipating publishers have
marked as premium is still
free to access and the read-
ers of nine Slovak news
websites can create users
accounts which will allow
them to continue browsing
content behind the paywall
without any charge for an-
other week after the system
begins full operation.
After that, however,
every registered user will be
asked to pay a monthly fee of
€2.90 to access content
marked as premium. Altern-
atively, users can pay €0.90
weekly or €29 annually.
On the day the trial ver-
sion of the service was
launched, 34 services were
included, provided by nine
media outlets which decided
to charge for their premium
content via Piano.
The Sme daily will charge
for access to the opinion sec-
tion of its website, the flash
version of its print edition
which is available from mid-
night every day, full access to
the Sme archive, and a pack-
age of premium services
from the motoring site
natankuj.sk. Most interact-
ive features on the Sme web-
Private TV channel JOJ is
so far the only Slovak broad-
caster to take part in the
project, offering an ad-free
version of its website to Piano
users. In addition, the
medialne.sk news portal,
which covers the media in
Slovakia, is putting part of its
content behind the paywall,
as is the MeToo.sk video
portal. The specialised
monthly magazine PC Revue
is granting paying users full
access to reviews and
products sections, full access
to all articles from the print
version of the magazine, as
well as a flash version of the
print edition.
Tomáš Bella, the chief
executive of Piano and
founder of the project, be-
lieves that Slovakia is an
ideal country to test this
world-first service, since
there are relatively few me-
dia outlets in the market and
thus a large proportion of
them can be persuaded to
participate. Recent surveys
have also shown that the
Slovak internet-using popu-
lation would be willing to
pay a monthly fee of about €3
in return for unlimited ac-
cess to added-value content
on key Slovak news sites.
Indeed, dozens of readers
contacted Piano on the first
days after the service was
launched. The company said
many of them wanted to
know whether they would be
able to include the payment
on the invoice from their in-
ternet service provider.
“This is what we will

ICE: Slovakia becomes 'Hockey Republic' site will also be covered by

Continued from pg 1
The first faceoff will be on April 29
and the competition will continue until
the final championship match on May
15. The venues are the wintersport stadi-
ums in Bratislava and Košice but all the
Slovak team's matches will be played in
Bratislava.
Orange Arena ready
The wintersport stadium in the cap-
ital city, now called the Bratislava Or-
ange Arena, completed a major recon-
struction only a few weeks ago and now
can accommodate 7,200 fans. The final
inspection papers authorising use of
the stadium were recently signed by
the local authorities.
Bratislava mayor Milan Ftáčnik
symbolically handed over the keys to
the stadium to the organisers of the
championship on April 11.
“When we started with the recon-
struction of the arena two years ago
there were many voices of doubt,” said
Igor Nemeček, the head of the Slovak
organising committee.
The reconstruction began amid me-
dia reports that it was overpriced and
following the change in government in
2010 it was not clear whether the state
would ante up the remaining funds to
finish the work. Now, however, the
Bratislava Orange Arena has three
rinks and an icemaker that organisers
say is the largest in Europe.
Interestingly, the maintenance
manager of the stadium, Jozef Brezina,
admitted to the Sme daily that there is
one small talisman – a coin – under the
ice of the main rink where the Slovak
team will play all their matches and
where the championship game will be
held.
Security issues
The championship will require very
strict and sophisticated security meas-
ures. According to Interior Minister
Daniel Lipšic, the Slovak police force is
ready for any security challenges that
might arise. While visiting the stadium
recently, the minister told the media
that about 200 police officers have passed
specialised training given at the site.
Around 650 police officers and 100
police vehicles from other regions of
Slovakia will join the Bratislava and
Košice forces during the championship.
Police Corps President Jaroslav Spišiak
said there will be about 700 police of-
ficers on duty in Bratislava every day,
and announced that Interpol and Euro-
pol had also responded to his invitation
and will have officers present in the
country.
“The staff of these agencies will have
all their databases with them,” Spišiak
said, as quoted by the Sme daily, stress-
ing that this will make it easier to detect
suspects and unwanted persons who
might seek to attend the event.
“We can identify every person who
might seem dangerous right at their
seat,” Spišiak said.
Sprucing things up
for the tourists
Criticism has mounted that foreign
fans coming to Bratislava and Košice
might be less than impressed by the
conditions in the cities when they ar-
rive. Some minor transport improve-
ments in Bratislava, which the city said
were costing about €200,000, were be-
ing completed on the eve of the cham-
pionship. They included reconstruction
of tram tracks near the main railway
station and reconstruction of the un-
derground pedestrian tunnel at
Trnavské Mýto, near the Bratislava Or-
ange Arena.
The Bratislava city council, in co-
operation with the city's five municipal
districts, volunteers and students from
local schools, has also initiated a volun-
teer effort to spruce up many public
areas in the city.
In Košice, the city is preparing for
the influx of tourists mainly via trans-
port and parking solutions, security
measures and information service
points. Additional cultural activities
will also be organised in the city.
Mayor Richard Raši said that the
championship is a kind of dress re-
hearsal for the city’s forthcoming role
as European Capital of Culture in 2013.
“We have a keen interest in making
everything work well so that the champi-
onship also becomes the best invitation
for the events that will be a part of the
Košice – European Capital of Culture 2013
project,” Raši told The Slovak Spectator.
the paid-for Piano system.
From May 2, posting more
than three comments a day
in online debates on sme.sk,
adding online classified ads,
or extra services like re-
questing professional med-
ical help from online doctors
will require an up-to-date
subscription.
The Pravda and
Hospodárske Noviny (HN)
dailies will charge to access
their opinion sections, and to
allow participation in online
debates on their websites. In
addition, HN will also put its
full online archive behind
the paywall, but will now
make all its printed supple-
ments and magazines avail-
able online and promises to
provide an ad-free version of
its website to paying readers.
The Šport daily will also
offer an ad-free version for
Piano subscribers, as well as
early access to all its art-
icles, and full access to its
archives and online debates.
Šport is also promising ex-
clusive staff articles for pay-
ing customers.
The Týždeň weekly will
also be ad-free for those who
pay, and will grant Piano
subscribers early access to
all print-edition articles,
full access to its video sec-
tion and the opportunity to
post comments.
have to deal with as soon as
possible after the start,”
Bella told The Slovak Spec-
tator, adding that interest
in the service had exceeded
his expectations.
“Paradoxically, we are
getting a lot of e-mails from
retired people worried about
whether they will be able to
handle the payment
technically,” Bella said.
Some people also wrote to
criticise Piano for threaten-
ing freedom of speech.
“We are trying to explain
to them that it will be better
for them if there are more
media so they can select
from more sources of in-
formation, rather than hav-
ing everything for free which
would cause some media to
quit, thereby making the se-
lection poorer,” Bella said.
But some observers re-
main sceptical about the tim-
ing of a paywall for news
websites, since they say
people are financially ex-
hausted in the current post-
crisis period.
“It's necessary to say
about the consumer beha-
viour of the Slovak popula-
tion that it is sensitive to
swings in the prices of
goods and services,” Pavol
Karász of the Prognosis In-
stitute of the Slovak
Academy of Sciences told
the TASR newswire.
4 April 25 – May 1, 2011
SaS rejects support for ESM
FREEDOM and Solidarity
(SaS), one of the ruling co-
alition parties, will not
support Slovakia’s particip-
ation in the European Sta-
bility Mechanism (ESM) in a
parliamentary vote, party
leader Richard Sulík told a
press conference on April
20, as quoted by the SITA
newswire.
“We are the only parlia-
mentary party which has de-
cided not to be drawn into
false solidarity,” Sulík said,
as quoted by the Sme daily.
“We haven’t forgotten that
in the first place we are here
for the citizens of Slovakia, to
defend their interests and
not the interests of foreign
banks that have been earn-
ing high interest from loans
for irresponsible countries
for long years.”
Slovak banks passed stress tests
BANKS in Slovakia passed
the latest stress tests that the
National Bank of Slovakia
(NBS) carried out in the
second half of 2010.
“In principle, the stress
tests that we conducted con-
firmed the fact that the Slov-
ak banking sector is stable,”
NBS supervision department
head Vladimír Dvořáček told
a press conference on April
18, as quoted by the SITA
newswire.
In the macro-stress test-
ing of Slovakia’s financial
sector, the central bank sim-
ulated two scenarios.
The first foresaw a negat-
ive development caused by
growing doubts about the
sustainability of the public
finances of selected eurozone
members, which would lead
to increased uncertainty on
financial markets and a drop
Via Bona awards given out
ORIGINAL projects with
strong stories behind them
were honoured at the Via
Bona 2010 awards ceremony
sponsored by the Pontis
Foundation to recognise re-
sponsible and philanthropic
businesses, according to
Petra Nagyová, the
foundation’s PR manager.
Spišská Nová Ves-based
company Embraco Slovakia
scored twice: it received the
Award for Long-Term Posit-
ive Corporate Impact for its
project to support the ma-
ternity department at the
local hospital over 12 years,
and an honourable mention
for its exemplary approach to
citizens during the floods
that hit the region last year.
“We cancelled some
shifts and let employees go
home and stay with their
families in the tough
situation,” Norbert Brath of
Embraco said, adding that
The ESM is a tool de-
signed by the European Uni-
on to provide stability to the
euro by assisting member
states with possible loans if
they encounter serious sov-
ereign debt problems.
European leaders agreed
to the mechanism at a sum-
mit in March and it now re-
quires approval by national
parliaments.
It is now questionable
whether ESM can win ap-
proval in the Slovak par-
liament, as without sup-
port from SaS the coalition
government will need to
find support among opposi-
tion MPs.
Smer, the largest oppos-
ition party, has not offi-
cially stated its position on
the European Stability
Mechanism.
in foreign demand as a result
of declining economic
growth.
The second scenario was
based on rising inflation res-
ulting from excessive
growth in commodity prices
and loose monetary policy by
the Federal Reserve in the
United States.
The Slovak banking sec-
tor remained stable overall
under both scenarios, but the
potential negative impact of
the second was judged to be
stronger, said Dvořáček.
According to the results
of the tests, if the first scen-
ario actually took place four
banks would find themselves
losing money in 2011 and
2012, while in the event of
the second scenario six
banks would report losses
during the same period, SITA
reported.
employees were still paid
their normal wages.
The Main Award for
Large Corporations went to
Orange Slovakia for its com-
prehensive approach to re-
sponsible business, while
the Award for Socially Re-
sponsible Market Operations
was awarded to Tatra Banka.
The Award for Respons-
ible Approach to Employees
was granted to Orion Nova, a
company which employs
young people who have
grown up in orphanages, a
project which was started
two years ago by the Dutch
boss of the company, Iwan
Hoffmans.
“I couldn’t get more mo-
tivated people, and I’m afraid
I wouldn’t find them at the
labour office,” Hoffmans
said.
Compiled by Spectator staff
from press reports
BUSINESS
Partners inch towards
a revised Labour Code
ployees, severance payments,
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ holiday entitlements and no-
Spectator staff tice periods. For most em-
ployees, the probationary
period would remain un-
changed at three months, but
a probationary period as long
THE TUG-OF-WAR over the fu- as six months would be per-
ture form of Slovakia’s labour mitted for management staff
legislation is not over yet, even if the amendment is ap-
though Labour Minister Jozef proved, TASR wrote.
Mihál expressed total satisfac- The draft amendment
tion with the course of tripart- would also introduce so-called
ite talks held on April 19 shared posts, making it pos-
between the government, em- sible for an employer to divide
ployers and unions. work usually designated as
In late March, trade union only one job position between
members took to the streets two employees.
arguing that the proposed The code would also in-
changes to Slovakia’s Labour troduce a so-called competi-
Code would result in a decline tion clause which would
in the economic and social permit a company to sign a
status of employees. Employ- contract forbidding an em-
er association responded that ployee from doing the same
they preferred negotiations Labour Minister Jozef Mihál Photo: TASR kind of work with a competit-
over street protests but also or for a maximum period of
complained that the draft [negotiations],” stated the of- called differentiated minim- one year after separating
proposed by the ministry ficial release from one of um hourly wage, which from his or her employer.
would not end what they Slovakia’s employer associ- would vary based on the char- The proposal would give
called legislative barriers to ations. acteristics and demands of a an employer the option of ne-
job creation. The RÚZ stated that em- particular job. gotiating a combination of
After the latest tripartite ployers’ expectations had The government says one severance pay and a layoff no-
negotiations Mihál said that not been fulfilled and that of its intentions in drafting a tice period with an employee
he sensed satisfaction among “Slovakia has missed a revised Labour Code is to and it would scrap the current
the social partners. But the re- chance to fundamentally make the law more family- obligation to provide employ-
sponses of the unions and improve its business envir- friendly, giving both employ- ees with both a notice period
employer associations indic- onment as well as the situ- ers and employees the option and severance pay.
ate that the minister might be ation in the labour market”. to work flexible hours based The draft amendment
alone in his impressions. Slovakia’s Federation of on their own particular needs. would automatically entitle
“Employers associated Employers’ Unions (AZZZ) also The TASR newswire repor- employees who are aged 33
within the National Union of said the talks did not meet its ted that changes were agreed and older to 25 days of annual
Employers (RÚZ) express expectations because the La- at the April 19 meeting in holiday.
fundamental disagreements bour Ministry failed to re- many areas, including proba-
with yesterday’s tripartite move from the draft the so- tionary periods for new em- See CODE pg 9
PRICE: 4-percent inflation predicted
Continued from pg 1 said Eduard Hagara, senior research ana- Food products, along with beverages,
lyst with ING Bank. are 7 percent more expensive when com-
“These factors, which have a pro- Hagara, however, noted that statist- pared to last year, Fojtík said. Transporta-
growth influence, are making us differ- ics already show that the growth of these tion prices come second in the price-
ent from other economies and caused a prices is starting to affect other categor- growth race, up 6.2 percent year-on-year.
jump in inflation at the beginning of this ies of goods and services. He suggests In third place come prices for education,
year.” that this could be a reflection of higher rising 4.4 percent – but Slovaks are, on av-
Nevertheless, the main reason for the costs, but may also be down to the erage, low spenders on education, accord-
growth in inflation is the rise in com- delayed effect of the new-year rise in ing to Fojtík.
modity prices on world markets, which value added tax. “Since the development of inflation in
has affected prices in all economies in “Retailers had two difficult years the eurozone is similar, the European
the same way, she added. during which they had to deal with low Central Bank (ECB) has started reducing
“The rapid growth of the prices of consumer demand and cheap competi- the expansiveness of its monetary policies,
food commodities on world markets has tion from neighbouring countries,” and in order to slow down the develop-
to a certain degree been included in the Hagara explained, adding that he ex- ment of prices it carried out its first hike in
prices of goods, and in some cases this pects inflation will approach the the basic interest rate in almost three
has yet to happen,” Sadovská said. 4.0-percent level this year. years,” Fojtík said. “In Slovakia, as in the
Meanwhile, World Bank President Sadovská increased her prediction eurozone, we expect inflation to peak in
Robert Zoellick warned in mid-April that for inflation in Slovakia, forecasting that the middle of the year, followed by a mod-
current world prices for food products are it will end up being around 3.8-3.9 per- erate slowdown in the growth of prices.”
36 percent higher than at the same point cent for the whole year. However, Fojtík added that other
last year. The overall price growth is also Sadovská also said that she expected factors, such as natural disasters that
being fuelled by turmoil in North Africa inflation would breach the 4-percent threaten agricultural production, could
and the Middle East. level for several weeks. undermine this scenario.
“We have already experienced the Andrej Arady, economist with VÚB
Slovakia’s numbers largest jump,” Sadovská said, adding Banka, noted that regulated prices recor-
that the most significant month-on- ded only 0.1-percent growth, similar to
The cost of alcohol, tobacco and food month growth, in January, is now be- February, and said their share of the
climbed fastest in March, with annual- hind Slovakia. “We expect that month- month-on-month growth in consumer
ised inflation accelerating from 3.3 per- on-month the prices of goods will con- prices was only minimal.
cent in February to 3.6 percent in March, tinue to grow by a couple of tenths of a “Within the ‘core’ goods, the prices of
as measured by the Slovak Statistics Of- percent, similar to developments in Feb- which aren’t regulated, food and fuel have
fice, which uses national methodology. ruary or March.” recorded the fastest growth, but compared
“As in previous months, the main Boris Fojtík, an analyst with Tatra to last month the prices of alcohol and to-
factor behind the speeding inflation was Banka, stressed that food-price inflation bacco have also joined them, growing 1.5
the growing prices of food and fuel, contributes more than a third of the percent compared to the previous month,”
which was in line with expectations,” whole year-on-year increase in prices. Arady said.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
SNS vice-chair Andrej Danko comments on the newly-passed Hungarian constitution
BY LUKÁŠ FILA
Special to the Spectator
“I EMPHASISE that while I’m
finance minister, it will be
only and only (len a len) the
minister who makes person-
nel decisions within this
department,” said Ivan
Mikloš on Monday, in reac-
tion to Prime Minister Iveta
Radičová’s demand that Tax
Directorate head Miroslav
Mikulčík leave his post.
Unfortunately, Mikloš is
not the country’s only politi-
cian with a big ego. And that
is one of the key reasons why
the government nearly col-
lapsed this week.
Mikloš, who said in his
statement that despite
Radičová’s demand he sees
“no relevant reason for
Mikulčík’s resignation”,
clearly wanted to show not
only that he will take no or-
ders from Radičová, but also
that his judgment is better
than the prime minister’s.
Tax Directorate head Miroslav Mikulčík resigned on April 20.
“Viktor Orbán is one huge dictator in the centre of Europe,
comparable with any dictator in North Africa.”
Len a len
SLOVAK WORD
OF THE WEEK
Not a usual attitude for a cab-
inet member.
On the other hand it was
unfortunate for Radičová to
demand Mikulčík’s resigna-
tion while Mikloš was en
route to the US and the two
of them had an agreement
not to comment on the issue
until he was due to return
two days later. She explained
her sudden change of heart
by referring to “growing
OPINION
pressure”, but it is hard to
imagine what sort of pres-
sure she had in mind when
all the relevant facts of the
case were known well before
Mikloš’s departure. And one
weekend of bad media cover-
age really isn’t that intoler-
able. Unless you really can’t
stand negative publicity.
It is hard to guess what
was going through
Mikulčík’s mind throughout
the last couple of days. But
staying in office even
though the head of govern-
ment asks you to go requires
quite a bit of self-esteem.
SDKÚ boss and former
prime minister Mikuláš
Dzurinda must be enjoying a
new-found sense of import-
ance, since he played a key
role in negotiating a final
agreement.
Yes, transparency,
policy, and conflicting polit-
ical interests played a role in
the scandal and its outcome.
But in no way was it len a
len a matter of the two of
them.
Photo: TASR
Weighing her words
THE HEADLINE and the lead
paragraph of the story about
the boss of Slovakia’s Tax
Directorate, Miroslav
Mikulčík, and the contro-
versial €6.6-million office
leasing deal that he ap-
proved for a firm co-owned
by a regional official of the
ruling Slovak Democratic
and Christian Union (SDKÚ),
changed dramatically in the
run-up to Easter.
Finally, on April 20,
journalists settled for a
theme which might be
summarised “Mikulčík’s
head rolls; Radičová
remains”, with a note that
Mikulčík’s resignation
came after mounting ten-
sion within the SDKÚ and
the prospect that Prime
Minister Iveta Radičová
might actually have
resigned if he had remained
in his job. Radičová con-
sidered Mikulčík’s depar-
ture the only way to erase
the suspicions of non-
transparency hanging over
her government.
On April 19, the local
media was full of stories
suggesting – some indirectly
and some quite straightfor-
wardly – that Radičová was
not strong enough to push
through her call for
Mikulčík’s resignation. On
that day, Radičová, Finance
Minister Ivan Mikloš and
SDKÚ boss Mikuláš Dzurinda
offered a compromise which
suited Mikloš and Mikulčík
but placed Radičová in a
weakened position, appar-
ently unable even to pull
strings in her own SDKÚ
party.
The trio announced that
both Radičová and Mikloš
would respect the results of
an audit of the deal to be con-
ducted by the country’s pub-
lic finance watchdog, the Su-
preme Audit Office (NKÚ). In
the context of Slovak politics,
this approach would have al-
lowed Mikulčík to linger for
several more months in his
post, waiting for media pres-
sure to calm and, perhaps,
the public to forget.
April 25 – May 1, 2011 5
Radičová crossed a polit- trust were raised much
ical line when she originally higher. This is why disap-
backed the Tax Directorate pointment at any hesitation
deal, despite it obviously fa- by the prime minister when
vouring one of her SDKÚ col-
leagues, while party leader
it comes to issues of
cronyism or transparency
will always be sharper than
it would be with a Robert-
EDITORIAL
Fico-type government.
Predictably, Fico has
been hyperactive since he
managed to drag the case
centre stage. He is now try-
ing to talk up a parliament-
ary vote to oust Radičová.
None of this makes Fico’s
own period in power any less
troubled. His reign has been
forever inscribed in the pages
of Slovakia’s political history
as a time of dubious tenders,
short-lived ministers, happy
cronies and even happier
donors. But being different
from the Fico government is
no longer enough; nor is it
enough to use more refined
rhetoric or simply not to have
Ján Slota and his sidekicks as
political allies.
Radičová should prob-
BY BEATA BALOGOVÁ ably weigh her words and
Spectator staff their timing more carefully,
because for a prime minister
– especially if she is believed
to have political integrity – it
Mikuláš Dzurinda defended it is more difficult to undo
by asking: “Should a member their effect than it is for the
of SDKÚ be handicapped or typical, chameleon-like
discriminated against?” Al- politicians who change their
though Radičová argued that shape and colour as the situ-
she had been given the wrong ation requires.
information, she is the prime The ruling coalition
minister and the words of a knows that Radičová is still
prime minister can be decis- their key to staying in power,
ive not just for ministers or and though her transparency
the whole government, but talk might be inconvenient
for public trust in the for those who need to find
country’s leadership. ways of channelling money
The public’s ears have into friendly pockets they
grown used to fables about know Fico is breathing down
officials who uncondition- their necks and will use any
ally act in the public interest chance he gets to take back
– even if this interest hap- the wheel. Perhaps Radičová
pens to benefit friends and should have used this know-
family, or means a political ledge from the very begin-
party gets a euro or three ning of the tax boss story. Not
richer – but are ‘unfairly’ tar- only would it have spared the
geted by the media. media the trouble of chan-
But when the govern- ging their leads and headlines
ment of Radičová paved its with each twist and turn, but
way to power with pledges to it would have better protec-
champion transparency, the ted what she needs in order to
stakes in terms of public defy Fico: her integrity.
   





     
 

 
      
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6 April 25 – May 1, 2011

INSURANCE
Popularity of insurance sold BUSINESS FOCUS Next issue:
online and by phone rises

No insurance for damaged BUSINESS TRAVEL

graves and gravestones IN SLOVAKIA

Flooding highlighted Institutions and associations in the

insurance sector
Ministry of Finance, www.finance.gov.sk
Minister: Ivan Mikloš

insurance gaps Slovak Insurance Association (SLASPO),

- a professional association of commercial insurance
companies. A total of 20 companies held licences to sell
insurance in Slovakia as of December 31, 2010. Of these, 12
Slovak insurers were universal insurance companies, five were solely life
insurers and three were non-life insurance companies.
hope economic The Slovak Insurance Association represents 19
growth will insurance companies and three branches of foreign
insurance companies.
boost sales President: Marek Jankovič
www.slaspo.sk

BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ Slovak Insurers’ Bureau (SKP)

Spectator staff
AFTER a decrease in premi-
ums in 2009 the Slovak in-
surance sector reported slight
growth last year. Insurance
companies hope that a grow-
ing economy will bring them
new business – and that the
extensive floods that hit
Slovakia in 2010 will prompt
more property owners to in-
sure their assets against ad-
verse impacts from severe
weather and other risks.
Based on preliminary
results, commercial insur-
ance grew last year, with a
rise in premiums written of
roughly 2 percentage points
to €2.066 billion, according
to the Slovak Insurance As-
sociation (SLASPO).
“The development of the
insurance market in Slov-
akia in 2010 was within
Flooding in Slovakia was one of the main challenges for insurers last year.
SLASPO’s expectations,”
Jozefína Žáková, the
association’s director gener-
al, told The Slovak Spectat-
or. “The Slovak insurance
market showed a general
tendency to stop contract-
ing and even a mild revival.
Based on unaudited results,
compared with the 4-per-
centage year-on-year decline
in premiums written in
2009, the sector reached
2-percent growth in 2010.
However, it is necessary to
say here that the basis for
Photo: Sme
comparison is the low level
from 2009.”
According to SLASPO,
premiums written in life in-
surance grew by 6 percent
while non-life insurance re-
ported a drop of 2.6 percent.
See RISK pg 8
- the bureau is established by law and administers the
Insurance Guarantee Fund, works as an information
centre, and represents Slovak insurers in international
institutions dealing with liability insurance.
www.skp.sk
Slovak Association of Insurance Mediators (SASP)
www.samp.sk
The Association of Financial Agents and Advisors
(AFISP) www.afisp.sk
Some insurance companies
in Slovakia
Allianz-Slovenská Poisťovňa, www.allianzsp.sk
AXA, www.axa.com
Generali Slovensko Poisťovňa, www.generali.sk
Groupama Poisťovňa, www.groupama.sk
ING Životná Poisťovňa, www.ingpoistovna.sk
Komunálna Poisťovňa, Vienna Insurance Group,
www.kpas.sk
Kooperativa Poisťovňa, Vienna Insurance Group,
www.kooperativa.sk
MetLife Amslico, www.metlifeamslico.sk
Poisťovňa Slovenskej Sporiteľne, www.pslsp.sk
QBE Insurance (Europe) Limited, branch office for
Slovakia, www.qbeeurope.com/slovakia

Insurers await EU's Solvency II rules Union Poisťovňa, www.union.sk

New regulatory
framework could have
far-ranging impacts
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
THE SLOVAK insurance market is care-
fully watching the unfolding of a new
European regulatory framework known
as Solvency II. Though its aim is to en-
sure that insurance and reinsurance
policies underwritten by insurance
companies are financially sound and
can withstand adverse events so that
policyholders are protected, some in-
dustry experts are concerned that the
additional capital requirements may
push some popular insurance products
out of the market. Since the process of
preparing the Solvency II rules is not
complete, insurance firms in Slovakia
and other EU countries must still wait
until final documents are adopted and
then implemented to assess what im-
pacts the new regulatory framework,
which now has a target implementation
date of January 1, 2013, rather than Oc-
tober 31, 2012, might have on the insur-
ance industry.
Jozefína Žáková Photo: Courtesy of SLASPO
The Slovak Spectator spoke to Jozefína
Žáková, the director general of the Slovak
Insurance Association (SLASPO), about
why the European Commission is prepar-
ing Solvency II and what its potential im-
pacts could be in Slovakia.
The Slovak Spectator (TSS): What im-
pact on the Slovak insurance market do
you expect from the new Solvency II
regulatory framework? Could its im-
plementation affect the number of in-
surance companies doing business in
Slovakia?
Jozefína Žáková (JŽ): Solvency II is
a new legal and regulatory framework
for the European Union’s insurance
market that introduces more sophistic-
ated and stricter rules in insurance,
even when compared with the banking
sector. It changes requisites for the cap-
ital requirements of insurance compan-
ies, not only in terms of their amounts
but also in terms of their calculation and
setting. Capital has to correspond with
the risks that an insurance company is
undertaking on the basis of an insurance
policy but also to other risks to which it
is exposed. Solvency II introduces fair
market rules in insurance, which regu-
lators and supervisory authorities act-
ing in the insurance market would pur-
sue. This means creation of a fair com-
petitive environment in which under-
capitalised firms with insufficient
know-how, unfair practices that harm a
client, and deformations of competition
which disadvantage other insurance
companies in the market, and which in
the end harm the whole insurance mar-
ket, do not have a place in Europe.
With regards to its impact, Solvency II
could affect the number of insurance
companies operating in Slovakia, espe-
cially if planned implementing measures
require inappropriately large capital from
insurance companies. This might lead, for
example, to the transformation of some
insurance companies into branches.
See JŽ pg 9
Uniqua Poisťovňa, www.uniqua.sk
Wüstenrot Poisťovňa, www.wuestenrot.sk
Insurance fraud
trending higher
THE INSURANCE sector has
reported an upward trend in
fraudulent activities by poli-
cyholders. Slovakia’s largest
insurer, Allianz-Slovenská
Poisťovňa reported an almost
one-third increase in the
number of claims examined
based on suspicions of fraudu-
lent behaviour in 2010 com-
pared to 2009. Other insur-
ance companies reported sim-
ilar experiences and insurers
said that last year’s floods are
particularly behind the trend
as many people attempted to
purchase an insurance policy
only after their property had
been damaged.
“Last year 911 non-life in-
surance claims were ex-
amined due to suspicion that
an insurance fraud was
committed, an annual in-
crease of 27 percent,”
Jaroslava Zemanová, the
Source: Book of Lists 2010, SLASPO
head of Allianz-Slovenská
Poisťovňa's department of
control and special activities,
wrote in a press release.
In 2009 the insurer had
examined 716 suspicious in-
surance claims, up 15 percent
from the previous year.
“We can see that the
number of insurance frauds
has been continuously
increasing,” she wrote.
In 2010 Allianz-Slovenská
Poisťovňa reviewed 494 sus-
picious claims seeking a
damage payment under a
compulsory auto liability in-
surance policy, 281 cases in-
volving property insurance
and 136 cases involving com-
prehensive auto insurance.
The aggregate damages in
these reviewed claims
amounted to €5.9 million.
See CLAIMS pg 8

Popularity of online
insurance rises
But not all
insurance
products can be
bought online or
over the phone
BY JANA LIPTÁKOVÁ
Spectator staff
FORGOTTEN to buy travel in-
surance and have already left?
No problem. All a forgetful
traveller has to do is pick up
the phone or go to the website
of an insurance company of-
fering online insurance
products and buy one. This
avoids the need to visit the of-
fices of an insurance company
and means insurance can be
bought at any time of the day
or night. Insurance compan-
ies see sales channels such as
this as having great potential,
and plan to extend the scope
of the products they sell on-
line and by phone much fur-
ther. Travel, accident and
compulsory car liability in-
surance are the most popular
insurance products currently
sold online or by phone in
Slovakia. On the other hand,
the law prohibits some insur-
ance policies from being
agreed remotely, in particular
those for life insurance.
“For direct insurance, i.e.
contracts closed via the inter-
net, a text message, or a tele-
phone helpline, it is import-
ant that the products are
simple, comprehensible for
the client and have an attract-
ive price,” Judita Smatanová,
spokesperson for Union
Poisťovňa, told The Slovak
Spectator. Union Poisťovňa,
one of the pioneers in direct
insurance in Slovakia, offers a
range of direct insurance
products from car insurance
through travel insurance to
accident insurance. “The cli-
ent can choose a policy accord-
ing to his or her needs, buy it
around the clock and,
moreover, obtain attractive
discounts.”
Generali Slovensko, an-
other insurance company,
sees non-life insurance such
as compulsory car liability
insurance, household insur-
ance or travel insurance as
appropriate for sale online or
by phone.
“On the other hand, it is
impossible to buy life insur-
ance via the internet,” Zuz-
ana Hliváková, Generali
Slovensko’s spokesperson,
explained to The Slovak
Spectator. The laws that pro-
hibit online sale of life insur-
ance comprise regulations
under the Insurance Act, the
Act on Protection of Personal
Data and the Act on Legalisa-
tion of Incomes from Crime
and the Fight Against Organ-
BUSINESS FOCUS
Travellers like to purchase insurance online. Photo: ČTK
ised Crime. These acts to- Apart from travel insurance,
gether create various duties young people are also inter-
for insurance companies ested in liability insurance,
which mean that clients where they make up almost 45
need to sign life insurance percent of customers.
policies in person. Union Poisťovňa’s posit-
Among the products that ive approach to the internet
insurance companies in Slov- as a potential sales channel
akia offer online or over the was confirmed by its launch
phone are travel insurance, of online accident insurance
insurance to mountain hikers earlier this year. Over the
to cover the cost of rescue in next few weeks the company
the event of an emergency, will also allow clients to buy
household insurance, build- comprehensive car insur-
ing insurance, liability insur- ance online too, and in the
ance, liability insurance of an second half of 2011 it plans to
employee when carrying out launch online insurance of
his or her job [to cover dam- family houses, apartments
ages caused to the employer], and household goods.
compulsory car liability in- Union Poisťovňa is also
surance as well as compre- developing text messaging
hensive car insurance. (SMS) as a sales channel. It
Allianz-Slovenská started to sell selected insur-
Poisťovňa as well as Union ance products via SMS in
Poisťovňa report that travel 2007, the first insurer in
insurance is their most popu- Slovakia to do so.
lar online product. The latter “A[nother] novelty is the
also reports sound results first accident insurance via
from its online compulsory SMS, which we launched in
car liability insurance service mid April,” said Smatanová,
launched in 2009. adding that clients can buy
In 2010, as many as 35 per- accident insurance for risky
cent of all Union Poisťovňa groups of tourists and sports.
clients bought travel insur- Union plans to further de-
ance policies via the internet. velop insurance via SMS. It
These accounted for 28 per- says it will boost the range of
cent of the firm’s aggregate insurance products it sells
premiums. In terms of com- via this distribution channel
pulsory car liability insur- as well as improve the ease
ance, one in every ten policies with which SMS purchases
was agreed online. can be made.
Allianz-Slovenská Poisťov– Allianz-Slovenská Poisťov–
ňa reports that currently more ňa is also extending its range of
than 30 percent of its online online insurance products.
clients are young people up to “With regards to people’s
age 30. Compared with 2010 increasing interest in the in-
this represented an increase of ternet we are developing oth-
over one half. Young people er products, both simple and
use the internet to buy travel more complicated,” Lucia
insurance in particular, a re- Muthová, spokesperson of Al-
flection of their interest in lianz-Slovenská Poisťovňa,
travelling abroad, the com- told The Slovak Spectator.
pany wrote in a press release. “More products may be put
online as early as this year.
Also via the distribution
channels of the internet and
the phone we are trying to of-
fer clients a more extensive
portfolio of our products.”
Online is for 'modern' clients
That the internet and the
telephone are attractive en-
vironments for the sale of in-
surance products has been
proved by the arrival of the
first insurer on the Slovak
market to sell its products
solely via the internet and by
phone. The company, Gener-
tel, entered the Slovak market
in October 2010, the SITA
newswire reported.
In the initial stage, Gener-
tel has focused on compulsory
car liability insurance, but it
plans to gradually add other
non-life insurance products
to its portfolio, for instance
accident or travel insurance.
Genertel is a subsidiary of
the Hungarian firm Genertel
Biztosító a member of the
Generali group which con-
trols Generali Slovensko
through PPF Holding.
However, Genertel is develop-
ing its activities on the Slovak
market independently of
Generali Slovensko, accord-
ing to SITA.
The new market player
says it intends to address
“modern” clients.
“The car liability insur-
ance market shows potential
among those clients open to
new technologies, and who
do not need personal contact
when selecting the most ad-
vantageous products,” said
Miroslav Chovan, director of
the Slovak arm of Genertel In-
surance, as quoted by SITA.
By the end of 2010 the in-
surer had sold over 5,000 car
liability insurance policies.
“We are pleased with the
number of clients,” said Petar
Dobric, a member of the board
of directors of Genertel, as
quoted by SITA in mid Janu-
ary. “The results of our sur-
veys, showing that Slovaks
are not afraid to prefer new
sales forms over traditional
means, were thus confirmed.”
According to a survey
conducted by Media Research
for Genertel, more than 23
percent of Slovak drivers
would use an online insurer
to buy compulsory car liabil-
ity insurance. The survey also
showed that even though
Slovaks are interested in qual-
ity of service, price is the most
decisive factor, Doprava a Lo-
gistika magazine wrote.
Based on results in Slov-
akia to date, Dobric regards
the project as very successful.
“We are an insurer for re-
sponsible drivers who do not
cause car accidents and do not
drive expensive cars,” he said.
“To these people we can offer
really reasonable prices.”
April 25 – May 1, 2011
FOCUS shorts
Entrepreneurs are underinsured
MOST business entities op-
erating in Slovakia do so
without sufficient insurance
coverage according to Alli-
anz-Slovenská Poisťovňa,
which estimated that only 30
percent of businesses had
adequate levels of insurance
coverage, the SITA newswire
wrote in November.
The insurer reported that
the aggregate number of in-
surance claims caused by
natural disasters increased
by several times in 2010,
amounting to about 50,000
claims and damages of al-
most €40 million. Of these,
only 1,400 claims involved
business insurance. Mojmír
Vedej, the head of the de-
partment of corporate clients
at Allianz-SP, deduced that
there were much higher
damages among businesses
but that these policyholders
did not have adequate insur-
ance coverage.
According to Vedej,
businesspeople often do not
realise the potential risks
Concerns about insuring state assets
A STATEMENT by the Fin-
ance Ministry that it is not
necessary for the state to
have commercial insurance
policies over the long term
and that some state institu-
tions and bodies should ter-
minate their policies was
met with disagreement from
many of these organisations,
the SITA newswire wrote in
late February.
The ministry prepared a
proposal for what it called a
systematic solution for in-
suring state assets with
commercial insurance com-
panies, stating that it prefers
to retain the funds currently
paid for insurance for cover-
age of potential damages, re-
commending at the same
time that some insurance
policies be terminated.
The ministry reported
that during the last five years
the state paid €41.6 million
in premiums to insure its as-
sets but reimbursed insur-
ance claims amounted to
MetLife Amslico opens new office
METLIFE Amslico, one of the
biggest life insurance com-
panies in Slovakia, opened a
new headquarters in Bratis-
lava in mid April. More than
200 people from three com-
panies (for life insurance,
funds and services) will work
in the new premises in the
Eurovea complex on the
Danube embankment.
The office will also serve
as a sub-regional centre for
four countries in central
Europe (Slovakia, the Czech
Republic, Hungary and
Ukraine) with more than 1.8
million clients, the com-
7
they might encounter. Small
entrepreneurs, made up
mostly of self-employed per-
sons, are often most unfa-
miliar with the potential
risks. And Vedej noted that
many of the self-employed
are former employees who
were forced by their employ-
er to start a trade business
and carry out the same activ-
ities, with the same risks as
before, but now do so as a
self-employed person. Vedej
emphasised that it is the
self-employed tradesperson
who now bears responsibil-
ity and who needs to pur-
chase an insurance policy
and from this viewpoint Al-
lianz-Slovenská Poisťovňa
sees this business segment
primed for growth.
Allianz-SP stated that it
has also noticed fraudulent
behaviour in this segment of
its business and noted that
it has had a success rate of
about 60 percent in uncover-
ing fraud in suspicious
claims.
only €5.2 million.
The Slovak Insurance As-
sociation (SLASPO) said that
it does not agree with the
ministry’s perception of the
effectiveness of insurance,
stating that insuring assets
is not meant to act as an in-
vestment and it is impossible
to calculate an economic re-
turn analysis as the ministry
had done.
“Not covering state as-
sets, with a value reaching
billions of euros, with com-
mercial insurance is a hazard
with potentially heavy losses
which especially threaten as
a consequence of climate
changes,” SLASPO wrote in a
statement.
Among those state bodies
disagreeing with the Finance
Ministry’s proposal is the
Culture Ministry which ar-
gued that the value of some
items of cultural heritage is
incalculable. The Ministry of
Agriculture also stated it is
against the proposal.
pany wrote in its press re-
lease.
MetLife currently
provides insurance cover to
more than 450,000 house-
holds in Slovakia.
MetLife Amslico,
formerly Amslico AIG Life, is
part of MetLife, the largest
life insurance company in
the United States. MetLife
acquired AIG last year and
the Amslico AIG Life branch
in Slovakia was part of the
transaction.
Compiled by Spectator staff
from press reports
8 April 25 – May 1, 2011
RISK: New EU rules
will impact insurers
Continued from pg 6
Premiums in compulsory
car liability insurance re-
mained almost unchanged,
decreasing by 0.5 percent.
Other segments of car in-
surance reported an aggregate
annual decline of 6 percent.
Žáková pointed to the up-
ward trend in life insurance,
with new business in this
segment growing by 9.7 per-
cent. The share of life insur-
ance premiums written in-
creased from 52.36 percent to
54.50 percent of aggregate
written premiums.
In the segment of non-life
insurance Žáková detects as
behind the fall, the now fading
economic and financial crisis,
whose actual as well as psycho-
logical consequences for non-
life insurance, especially in the
business sector, persisted
longer than in the case of life
insurance. In the case of car ac-
cident insurance, the situation
was affected by relatively low
prices for new vehicles and the
predominance in terms of
sales of used cars over new
vehicles. These factors de-
pressed prices and forced car
owners to consider whether to
seek car accident insurance,
according to Žáková.
Allianz-Slovenská
Poisťovňa, the biggest insur-
ance company in Slovakia, re-
ported an annual 1.3-percent
drop in premiums to €520.79
million in 2010, according to
the SITA newswire.
“Our results for last year
were affected by floods and
heavy rains,” company
spokesperson Lucia Muthová
told The Slovak Spectator. “In
2010 we paid out about €36 mil-
lion to clients hit by adverse
weather, and the number of
claims exceeded 50,000.”
Insurance companies
within the Vienna Insurance
Group in Slovakia, i.e. Koop-
erativa, Komunálna
Poisťovňa and Poisťovňa Slov-
enskej Sporiteľne, reported an
aggregate increase in premi-
ums of 3.2 percent, to €659
million. Generali Slovensko
reported a drop in premiums
of 4.3 percent, to €195.5 mil-
lion, according to SITA.
Generali Slovensko said it
performed well in the non-life
and property insurance seg-
ments, for example house-
hold insurance.
“This is also linked to the
floods, which have caused
Slovakia the biggest damage
of the last 20 years in terms of
the extent of insurance
payments,” Vladimír Bezděk,
director general of Generali
Slovensko, told The Slovak
Spectator. “Generali Slov-
ensko paid out damages ex-
ceeding €7.52 million.”
On the other hand, last
year’s floods and the damage
they caused led more people
to seek insurance.
Recent natural disasters have spurred interest in property insurance.
Last year’s natural
disasters, which caused
estimated damage
exceeding €500 million,
should be a warning for
all owners of real estate.
Jozefína Žáková
“Based on a marketing
survey conducted among cli-
ents of our insurance com-
pany, news about floods and
damaged houses led many
people to realise the need to
insure their assets or review
existing policies,” said
Bezděk. “The statistics reflect
this trend. In 2010, 56 percent
of clients of Generali Slov-
ensko added more coverage to
existing insurance policies
covering real estate house-
hold contents. In the segment
of insurance of property – i.e.
real estate and household –
Generali Slovensko reported a
28 percent annual increase in
new business.”
Expectations for 2011
Based on continuing eco-
nomic growth and the expec-
ted further revival of key in-
dustrial segments, SLASPO is
hoping the insurance market
will continue growing.
Žáková sees prospects for
growth in property insurance
as well as life insurance.
“Last year’s natural dis-
asters, which caused estim-
ated damage exceeding €500
million, should be a warning
for all owners of real estate,”
said Žáková. “Disasters also
hit regions where such
events have never been ex-
pected and thus nowadays
nobody can be sure.”
According to Žáková, the
experience of many people
who suffered damage is that
compensation from sources
BUSINESS FOCUS
other than insurance com-
panies, if they even get them,
is too little to replace dam-
aged or destroyed assets. Thus
she sees insurance as one of
the few effective solutions.
She advises that it is import-
ant not only to insure real es-
tate, but also to re-assess
whether the insured sum
covered by existing policies is
in line with current price
levels, and whether all risks
are covered. If not, the
policies need updating, she
suggested.
Insurance companies see
space for further growth in
life as well as non-life insur-
ance in Slovakia.
“Insurance has growth
prospects in the Slovak
market,” said Bezděk of Gen-
erali Slovensko. “This is
proven by indicators such as
the volume of premiums
versus GDP, which in Slovakia
is several times lower than in
western EU countries. Thus
growth is possible in spite of
the economic decline.”
Generali Slovensko ex-
pects that the negative devel-
opment of the last few years
will continue this year in car
insurance. On the other hand,
interest is rising in property
insurance. Bezděk also ex-
pects higher interest to result
in lower prices. In life insur-
ance he expects a moderate
acceleration in spite of the
economic decline, whose ef-
fects are now fading.
New EU legislation
Insurance companies are
waiting to see what effect
new EU legislation will have
on their operations. Allianz-
Slovenská Poisťovňa as well as
Generali Slovensko, even
though they well-placed as
the biggest firms on the local
market, point out that im-
plementation of the new
European regulatory frame-
work known as Solvency II
will be demanding in terms of
capacity and IT technologies.
Photo: Sme - Ján Krošlák
“Already the EU market is
reporting a lack of experts,
especially actuaries and ac-
turial risk managers,” said
Bezděk, adding that the im-
pact on clients might be
double-edged since the
changes could mean that
long-term products contain-
ing options and guarantees
become more expensive,
while at the same time the
probability of insurance com-
panies getting into financial
difficulties and thus endan-
gering customers is reduced.
“For the insurance market
this may mean a wave of mer-
gers and acquisitions and cap-
ital requirements which
cause some insurance com-
panies to be transformed into
branch operations.”
In the view of Allianz-
Slovenská Poisťovňa the new
regulation is a big interven-
tion in the functioning of the
insurance market and might
have a negative short-term
impact on the whole sector,
according to Muthová.
Insurance companies also
describe as ‘unfortunate’ a
ruling by the European Court
of Justice that means in-
surers will be not able to
charge different premiums
for men and women. The
change may come into effect
in December 2012.
SLASPO voiced deep con-
cern over the ruling in a press
release on the issue. It poin-
ted out that gender is a legit-
imate factor when setting
premiums and insurance
payments. SLASPO will con-
tribute to an analysis of the
effects of the ruling on clients
and insurance companies
which the CEA European in-
surance and reinsurance fed-
eration is to prepare.
“The creation of prices in
insurance is based on the fair
setting of risk. ... Excluding
one of the basic risk factors
goes against the very basis of
the insurance business and
insurance coverage of the
client,” the association wrote.
CLAIMS: Firms
say fraud is up
Continued from pg 6
Last year Generali Slov-
ensko uncovered what it
called 8,940 fraudulent at-
tempts to claim damages ex-
ceeding €4 million, the in-
surer wrote in its press re-
lease. Compared to 2009 this
was an increase of 35.3 per-
cent. Generali Slovensko
wrote that it continued to see
the highest likelihood of
fraudulent behaviour in its
auto insurance business and
in Bratislava Region, report-
ing that policyholders tried
most often to fraudulently
receive excess reimburse-
ment based on fictitious
damages which did not occur
as claimed by the policyhold-
ers. The next most common
fraud was an attempt to in-
crease the amount of dam-
ages to be recovered. The
third most common fraudu-
lent acts involved concealing
facts or giving false informa-
tion when policyholders
failed to report, for example,
consumption of alcohol or
another violation of law.
Generali Slovensko
provided the example of a
policyholder who purchased
a €33,000 insurance policy
for a wooden shed in a Roma
settlement and then declared
flood damage to a cellar even
though there was no cellar.
Generali Slovensko wrote
that it is continuing to im-
prove its mechanisms to un-
cover frauds and it reported
its success in uncovering
fraudulent acts as exceeding
70 percent of the examined
suspicious cases.
Floods brought
more fraud
“If we look at the trends
we see in this segment, we
can say that the floods and
extensive rains in 2010 indir-
ectly affected insurance
fraud,” Zemanová stated.
FOCUS short
No insurance for gravestones
THE RECENT strong winds
that hit the High Tatras in
the first half of April dam-
aged more than forests and
roofs. A cemetery in the
town of Vysoké Tatry had
more than 60 gravestones
damaged or completely des-
troyed, the Sme daily wrote.
Many people whose relat-
ives are buried in the
cemetery are in despair be-
cause they have no insur-
ance and town officials said
its funds are needed to repair
municipal property.
None of three largest in-
surance companies in Slov-
akia offer insurance for
graves or gravestones.
Lucia Muthová, spokes-
person of Allianz-Slovenská
Poisťovňa, gave as an ex-
ample a claim presented by a
policyholder for damage to a
family house. Total damages
to the household caused by
the rain were claimed as
€3,000. But further examina-
tion by the insurer revealed
that the roof was under ex-
tensive reconstruction dur-
ing the rain and that as
much as four fifths of the
roof was covered only with a
plastic sheet.
“The damage of the
household was caused by the
insufficient [roof] covering
and thus the claim was
turned down,” said Muthová.
On the other hand,
people living in regions en-
dangered by floods have re-
ported problems in obtaining
flood insurance policies.
“Insurance companies
have mapped out the situ-
ation very well and when in-
suring houses in the village
they are very careful,” said
Jozef Adamkovič, the mayor
of Sady nad Torysou village,
which was hit by floods sev-
eral times last year, as cited
by the Pravda daily in mid
February. “They [insurers]
either do not want to sign an
insurance policy with the
people or they ask for such
high premiums that insur-
ance does not pay off.”
People are not covered for
damages to automobiles in
all circumstances and
Muthová explained that auto
insurance does not cover
vehicles that are wilfully set
on fire.
“Deliberate ignition of a
vehicle is excluded from car
accident insurance,” said
Muthová, adding that an in-
surer pays damages only for
cars that are secondarily
damaged by the torched car.
Compiled by Spectator staff
from press reports
“We had this product
several years ago,” Lucia
Muthová, spokesperson of
Allianz-Slovenská Poisťovňa,
told the daily. "But because
the price seemed to be too
high people stopped being
interested in it. Now we do
not insure graves and
gravestones.”
Generali Slovensko does
not offer insurance on graves
and gravestones either.
After their recent experi-
ences, some people now ap-
pear more interested in in-
surance for gravestones.
Compiled by Spectator staff
from press reports
 NEWS / BUSINESS FOCUS April 25 – May 1, 2011 9
CODE: Employers see no victors LAW: Slovak MPs,
Continued from pg 4

Employees who have

worked for a company for at
least one year but less than
five years would continue to
have the current notice period
of at least two months. Em-
ployees who have worked for
a company at least five years
but less than 10 years would
be entitled to at least a three-
month notice period; those
with 10 but less than 20 years
of service would receive at
least a four-month notice
period; and those with 20 or
more years of employment
would have a five-month no-
tice period, the SITA news-
wire reported.
Clash on bargaining
Disagreements, however,
were reported concerning the
possibility of negotiating
longer notice periods in a col-
lective agreement.
“We propose and insist
that within collective bar-
gaining it would be possible
to extend the standard notice
period by three months at
most,” Mihál stated, as
quoted by SITA.
Mihál was reported to
have yielded ground on the
ministry’s initial ideas on how
to define dependent work un-
der the law and apparently
also withdrew his idea to ad-
just the dates of some state
holidays so that they fall adja-
cent to weekends.
The Sme daily reported
that the minister also agreed
not to change the rules that
currently require employers
to provide food vouchers to
employees and had scrapped
the idea of permitting the pos-
sibility for notices to be
transmitted electronically.
RÚZ stated that it partic-
ularly disagrees with the
ministry’s ideas on the no-
tice period, arguing that the
recently proposed changes
to the payroll tax system
would require payroll levies
to also be paid on severance
pay and that this approach
will significantly increase
layoff-related costs by as
much as 35.2 percent, which
according to RÚZ would res-
ult in less incentive to hire
new employees.
At the same time RÚZ
stated its opinion that the
proposed changes to the La-
bour Code under discussion
do not justify the protest ac-
tions that have been organ-
ised by the unions.
“The current dialogue
over the Labour Code does not
have any victors but unam-
biguously has its losers: the
unemployed in Slovakia,”
said Jozef Špirko, the vice-
president of RÚZ.
AZZZ added that employ-
ers have thus far failed in
their attempt to remove the
requirement that employers
request approval from the dis-
trict labour and social affairs
office when they plan to layoff
a physically-impaired person.
AZZZ also said it disagreed
with the proposal that em-
ployees who have worked 20
years or more for a company
should be entitled to a five-
month notice period, saying a
four-month notice period
would suffice, SITA reported.
Miroslav Gazdík, the pres-
ident of Slovakia’s Confedera-
tion of Trade Unions (KOZ),
said the unionists are plan-
ning another series of protests
to be held on May 1 as well as
on the opening day of the Ice
Hockey World Championship,
Sme reported.
ministers respond
Continued from pg 2
Slovak Foreign Minister
Mikuláš Dzurinda, from the
Slovak Democratic and Chris-
tian Union (SDKÚ), held a
press conference on the day
the Hungarian parliament
passed the new constitution
and assured the media that
Slovakia's authorities re-
mained actively engaged on
the issue.
Dzurinda said Slovakia
opposes the concept in the
new constitution that cre-
ates collective rights for
ethnic Hungarians outside
the country. He added that
he would not like the focus
of this topic to be diluted by
discussion of other aspects
of the constitution that
also have been called prob-
lematic.
Dzurinda stated he wants
that the stated constitutional
responsibility of the Hun-
garian government for ethnic
Hungarians living beyond its
borders, including the estim-
ated 500,000 living in Slov-
akia, along with support for
their collective self-govern-
ment and the possibility that
voting rights will be exten-
ded to ethnic Hungarians liv-
ing outside Hungary, are the
constitutional changes they
consider most problematic.
SaS also objected that
Orbán had acted unilaterally
in pushing the constitu-
tional changes forward and
said it believes this was not
in accordance with bilateral
treaties signed by Hungary
and Slovakia.
Béla Bugár of Most-Híd
had the most moderate reac-
tion, saying Slovakia should
wait and see how Hungary

JŽ: Some products could vanish
Continued from pg 6
TSS: What influence do you expect
Solvency II might have on insurance
products and their prices? Which
products might the new regulatory
framework impact the most?
JŽ: It is too early to precisely quanti-
fy additional costs that insurance com-
panies will have in relation to Solvency
II because the final form of the EU’s legal
norms, which will affect these costs, will
be known only in the autumn of this
year. But already it is possible to say that
if European regulators, within the pre-
paration of implementing measures, fur-
ther increase capital requirements of in-
surance companies at odds with the ori-
ginal objective of Solvency II, we can ex-
pect a partial withdrawal of insurance
companies from selling some products or
a hike in insurance premiums.
TSS: What advantages will Solvency II
bring to insurance companies’ clients?
JŽ: The principle based in the EU dir-
ective called Solvency II aims to tighten
regulation of insurance companies in or-
der to protect the client (the consumer)
from troubles that an insolvent insur-
ance company might cause. Thus, it is
necessary on one hand to stress that the
new regulatory framework would bring
comfort to clients of insurance compan-
ies by making the insurance market
more transparent, and this will probably
pertain to insurance products too.
On the other hand, it may happen
that some popular insurance products
could disappear from the market because
they would become uneconomic for the
insurance companies.
TSS: How are Slovak insurance com-
panies advancing in their preparations
for eventual implementation of
Solvency II?
JŽ: Slovak insurance companies,
with few exceptions, are daughter
companies of large insurance and fin-
ancial houses. Such firms have qualified
teams of experts, including staff from
Slovak companies, dealing with
Solvency II. These teams are preparing
for implementation of Solvency II for
all units of a company.
SLASPO is intensively participating
in preparations, too. We launched a
working group of experts from SLASPO’s
member insurance companies that deals
with methodology of application, fore-
seeing various effects, evaluation of im-
plementation proposals and so on. It
elaborates remarks and comments which
are then sent to the CEA, the European
insurance and reinsurance federation
made up of national associations of in-
surance companies, in Brussels which
then tries to affect the creation of norms
in the European bodies.
TSS: Last year you voiced a concern
about some of the EC’s planned im-
plementation measures and its tend-
ency to further tighten rules for in-
surers and require additional capital
requirements because of the economic
crisis. Were your concerns warranted?
JŽ: Our concerns have been partly
confirmed because the implementing
measures have really tightened the ori-
ginal objectives of the directive. On the
other hand, it is necessary to say that
some sharp edges have been smoothened
and compromises have been reached in
many areas.
But the legislative process is still go-
ing on while the definitive approval of
the large amendment to the directive
called Omnibus II is expected in a short
period of time.
The implementing measures, which
will bear the name ‘delegated acts’ are
also in the completion phase.
Thus, the insurance companies are
now under great pressure because the
changes they will have to carry out are
huge in themselves and the degree of
uncertainty stemming from the unfin-
ished legal norms does not add any
peace.
The fact that it was necessary to
amend the Solvency II directive even be-
fore its transposition into the legislation
of individual member countries shows
how complicated this process is.
to make sure that “only the
laws of the Slovak Republic
are valid in Slovakia”.
He added that the For-
eign Affairs Ministry has
been in touch with Knut Vol-
lebaek, the High Commis-
sioner for National Minorit-
ies of the Organisation for
Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE). Dzurinda also
said he is trying to arrange a
meeting with his Hungarian
counterpart, János Mar-
tonyi, in Slovakia.
Slovak politicians
raise their eyebrows
The Freedom and Solidar-
ity (SaS) party and the Chris-
tian Democratic Movement
(KDH), both members of the
ruling coalition, declared
Viktor Orbán Photo: Reuters
uses the new constitutional
powers in practice.
“I don’t think we should
react to everything,” Bugár
said, as quoted by the TASR
newswire, adding that it is
Hungary’s constitution, not
Slovakia’s.
Opposition Smer party,
which led Slovakia’s previ-
ous, nationalist-oriented
government, reacted more
harshly, stating that Hun-
gary might have revisionist
tendencies and called on all
Slovak politicians to act
jointly “to build a barrier that
would respond to some art-
icles of the Hungarian
constitution”.
“I do not rule out that it
will be necessary to pass an
amendment to the Slovak
constitution, for which we
need to prepare well, discuss
it and gain very broad agree-
ment of all Slovak political
parties,” Smer leader Robert
Fico said, as quoted by the
SITA newswire. Fico added
that if the Hungarian consti-
tution poses “an absolute at-
tack against the territorial
integrity [of Slovakia]”, then
the Slovak constitution
should have responsive lan-
guage about Slovakia’s territ-
orial integrity.

C LASSIFIEDS

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● Bold or capital bold letters tel: +421 2 59 233-311
+ € 0.3/word fax: +421 2 59 233-319
2
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or
C 3675 C 3573
10 April 25 – May 1, 2011
The mills of Horné Orešany
HORNÉ Orešany in the Small
Carpathians is known as a
locale that makes
quality wine. It is
less known that
there were several
grain mills in this
municipality and
historical records indicate
that Orešany residents con-
structed the first mills on the
Parná River in the 17th cen-
tury. But it is possible that
they existed even earlier.
Grain milling was hard
work and was not always
hk}ly{pzltlu{
Weather updates and forecasts from across Slovakia
can now be found at www.spectator.sk.
In cooperation with the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute
profitable so the mills
changed owners quite often.
HISTORY TALKS
Five or even six mills op-
erated at the same time in
Orešany so it is no wonder
that in 1668 a millers’ guild
was established in the town.
About 15 teamsters were also
involved in the local flour
trade, transporting wheat
CULTURE
from Sereď and Trnava to be
milled in Orešany. From
there, the flour was
distributed to Brat-
islava, Nitra, or
even beyond the
Carpathians to
Moravia.
This postcard shows one
of the flour mills that also
worked as a sawmill. The im-
age comes from before 1896
and is the oldest postcard pub-
lished so far in History Talks.
By Branislav Chovan
SP90553
Western SLOVAKIA
Bratislava
l MINORITY FESTIVAL:
Týž-deň nových menšín /
New Minorities Week – The
sixth year of this festival in-
cludes a performance of
Emigrantes in the Meteorit
Theatre on April 28 and The
Queensday on April 30 in the
Dunaj Culture Centre. The
week comprises workshops,
music, the opening of an art
exhibition and live concerts
including a performance by
the Allstar Refjúdží Band on
May 1.
Starts: April 28-May 4;
several venues. Admission:
various. More info: www.
citylife.sk and www.
kcdunaj.sk.
Bratislava
l LIVE MUSIC: Ruggero Robin
& AMC Trio – Ruggero Robin is
an Italian guitar player with
exquisite mastery of the in-
strument who has cooperated
with many pop, rock and jazz
musicians. AMC Trio draws on
a diversity of musical inspira-
tions.
Starts: April 29, 20:00; Hla-
va XXII, Bazová 9. Admission:
€7. More info: hlava22.sk.
Bratislava
l LIVE MUSIC: Bossanova -
Lazaro & Boris Čellár – Within
another of his projects, guitar
player Boris Čellár has invited
the Cuban singer and instru-
mentalist Lazaro de Jesus
Hodelina to complete a band
performing playful, slightly
jazzy Brazilian rhythms.
Starts: April 27, 19:00; Loď
Theatre, Tyršovo Embank-
ment. Admission: €7.
Tel: 0903/449-650; www.
lodteatro.sk.
Bratislava
l EXHIBITION: Igor N. Kal-
inauskas Silin - Spirit, Flesh,
Blood – The theatre director,
who became a musician,
philosopher and painter, ex-
hibits his mostly abstract
works focusing on his spir-
itual perception of the world.
Open: Evenings until May
11; lobby of the new building
of the Slovak National
Theatre. Admission: free.
More info: www.snd.sk.
THE STATE Chamber Orchestra / Štátny komorný orchester
conducted by Leoš Svárovský celebrates spring with a
Veľkonočný concert / Easter Concert in which it performs the
oratory works of Mozart, Hummel and Mascagni. The festive
concert takes place on April 28 at 19:00 in the House of Art Fatra
in Dolný val 47 in Žilina. Tickets cost €8-€11 and can be purchased
through www.navstevnik.sk. For more information, please call
041/2451-111 or go to www.skozilina.sk.
N A M E
Monday Tuesday
Marek Jaroslava
EASTER MONDAY
April 25 April 26
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)
EVENTS COUNTRYWIDE
Every last Friday in the month, a bike ride is organised around
the centre of Bratislava called Critical Mass. It lasts 90 minutes
at the most and the pace is relatively sedate. The aim is to show
that cyclists belong to the city and are equal road users. People
can join the next ride in the capital on April 29 at 18:00, begin-
ning at SNP Square. Participation is free. For more info, please
go to www.criticalmass.sk.
Nové Zámky
l CLASSICAL
Komorné koncerty / Chamber
Concerts – Jozef Lupták on
cello and Ivan Šiller on piano
play, within the House Con-
certs series, works by
Schubert, Martinů, Bartók
and Stravinsky.
Starts: April 28, 18:00;
Galéria umenia (Art Gallery),
Bjoernsonova 1. Admis–
sion: voluntary. More info:
www.galerianz.sk.
Komárno
l JAZZ MUSIC: Spring Jazz
Days – This year the renowned
jazz festival will play in sever-
al venues. The Komárno Con-
cert Hall offers the local
Komárňanský Dixieland Band,
singer Katka Koščová and
Hungarian band Budapest Bár.
Starts: April 28, 17:30; Gen.
Klapka Square. Admission:
free. More info: hudba.
zoznam.sk.
Central SLOVAKIA
Banská Bystrica
l CLASSICAL MUSIC:
Photo: Courtesy of ŠKO
D A Y A P R I L
Wednesday Thursday
Jaroslav Jarmila
April 27 April 28
Photo: Sme - Tomáš Benedikovič
Jarný koncert / Spring Concert
MUSIC: - Within the 51st Banská
Bystrica Musical Spring
Jaroslav Pehal sings bass and
Branislav Malatinský per-
forms on piano the works of
Franz Liszt and Franz
Schubert, and Ján Cikker’s ad-
aptations of Slovak folk songs.
Starts: April 27, 18:00;
Central-Slovak Museum, SNP
4. Admission: €7. Tel: 048/
4156-052; www.pkobb.sk
Brezno
l CIRCUS: Cirkus Aleš – Mark-
ing the onset of warmer
weather, circus artists have
already set out on tour. Cirkus
Aleš offers trained beasts of
prey, buffaloes and other at-
tractions.
Starts: April 25, 11:00,
14:00 and 17:00. Admission:
€7 -€12. Tel: 0902/401-090;
www. cirkus-ales.sk.
Eastern SLOVAKIA
Košice
l EXHIBITION: Francúzska
klasická moderna / Classic
The Modern Art from France –
After being shown in Bratis-
lava, this exhibition, which
was put together with the
help of the French Institute in
Slovakia, introduces the
works of a range of artists,
many of which have never
been seen in Slovakia before.
Open: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00
until May 29; Východo-
slovenská galéria, Hlavná 27.
Admission: €2. Tel: 055/6817
-511; www.vsg.sk.
Prešov
l EXHIBITION: Zlatý súdok /
Golden Keg – The 17th year of
this international competi-
tion of cartoons, focused on
the motif of beer, display a
wide variety of perceptions.
Open: Tue-Fri 9:00-17:00,
Sun 14:30-18:30; Šarišská ga-
léria, Hlavná 51. Admission:
€0.50-€1. Tel: 051/7725-423;
www.sgpresov.sk. www.
muzeum.sk.
By Zuzana Vilikovská
– M A Y 2 0 1 1
Friday Saturday Sunday
Lea Anastázia
Leo MAY DAY
April 29 April 30 May 1

The kindergarten in Lunik IX, as shown in the British documentary movie Lunik IX.
The documentary is
dead: long may it live!
BY DOMINIKA
UHRÍKOVÁ
Spectator staff
“DEATH to the documentary”
was the slogan of the 2nd
DOCsk festival, Slovakia’s
only event devoted entirely to
documentary films, which
took place in Košice between
April 13 and 16.
The main theme of the
event – expressed via its seem-
ingly paradoxical slogan – was
inspired by Jan Gogola Jr, a
Czech filmmaker who rejects
the term “documentary film”
because he believes it fails to
encompass all the aspects of
the genre, explained Ľuboš
Bišto from the DOCsk team.
Gogola, who attended the
festival in person, said during
a lecture there that categor-
isation of artistic genres is the
result of our feeble attempt to
capture the world and that
“we cannot discover new ap-
proaches in film, theatre and
literature unless all labels and
delimitations die out
completely”.
A selection of Gogola’s
films was screened within a
special section entitled Long
Live Film.
Other sections included
Family Portrait, featuring
movies portraying Slovak
families; Focus, presenting
movies by fledgling director
Paula Ďurinová; and Grey
Eminence, dedicated to an-
other guest of the festival,
Mišo Suchý, a US-based Slov-
ak director.
In total, 60 movies were
showcased at DOCsk, includ-
ing 14 premieres.
One of the highlights of
the programme was the
premiere of Lunik IX, a fea-
ture documentary by British
director Michelle Coomber
about a kindergarten in the
middle of the eponymous
Roma ghetto on the out-
skirts of Košice, which was
held in the very place where
it was shot.
A scene from The Line-Up.
“When we first visited
Lunik IX, we were immedi-
ately fascinated by the con-
trast between the
neighbourhood’s gloomy
reality and the joyful atmo-
sphere at the kindergarten,”
said Dana Wilson, the pro-
ducer of the film. “We there-
fore decided to make this
movie to encourage those
who live in Lunik IX to be-
lieve in their own future and
help others understand that
these people deserve to be
treated with dignity.”
The festival also featured
an exclusive premiere of the
first episode of a planned
24-part TV series about the
history of Slovak cinema, to
be aired on Slovak Television
(STV) later this year.
This first episode, directed
by award-winning Slovak
filmmaker Peter Kerekes, fo-
cuses on the role of public
houses in Slovak movies.
Among the other topics
dealt with in the upcoming
series will be Sex and Eroti-
cism, Slovak Princesses, Fear,
and Jánošík (a folk hero often
referred to as the “Slovak
Robin Hood”), said Barbara
Janišová Féglová from the
Slovak Film Institute, a co-
producer of the series.
“We wanted to avoid the
elitist, academic ‘talking-
heads’ style, and tried to find
CULTURE
Photo: Courtesy of DOCsk
a more attractive framework;
hence our decision not to fol-
low a chronological scheme,
but instead devote each epis-
ode to a particular theme,”
Féglová explained.
In addition, visitors to
DOCsk were allowed a
glimpse into the origins of
the documentary genre as
practised in Slovakia
through a series of unique
screenings of The Line-Up, a
newsreel produced in the
period of the 1939-45 pro-
Nazi Slovak State. It is con-
sidered to be the first locally
produced documentary.
The shots were selected by
film critic Petra Hanáková
and provided by the archives
of the Slovak Film Institute.
“I deliberately excluded
from my selection all that
was hard-core propaganda,
potentates and high politics;
instead, I wanted to focus on
everyday life, culture and
period curiosities, though
propaganda was not com-
pletely absent from these
domains either,” Hanáková
observed.
Going beyond
conventions
Róbert Rampáček, who
was responsible for the pro-
gramme, said that apart from
familiarising the audience
Photo: Courtesy of DOCsk
with both the past and the
latest trends in domestic doc-
umentary film production,
one of the main aims of the
DOCsk team was to “create a
platform for filmmakers to
exchange ideas and discuss
their works”.
Therefore, the programme
also included several lectures
and meetings where directors
presented their projects cur-
rently in development.
“In the future, we wish to
expand this idea, and organ-
ise similar meetings at least
twice a year,” Rampáček told
The Slovak Spectator.
He added that the ulti-
mate goal of DOCsk is to be-
come a year-long initiative
rather than a one-off event,
and perhaps to make Košice –
which will be a European
Capital of Culture in 2013 – a
national hub for document-
ary filmmaking.
As part of this effort, film
fans can look forward, for ex-
ample, to free open-air
screenings of documentary
movies in Košice, as well as in
other cities around eastern
Slovakia, this summer, his
colleague Ľuboš Bišto added.
“Until recently, not much
attention has been paid to
documentary films in Slov-
akia, presumably because
they are not as interesting for
the media as feature films
with higher budgets and at-
tractive casts,” Martin Ciel, a
film critic and associate pro-
fessor at the Academy of Per-
forming Arts in Bratislava,
who was among the guests,
told The Slovak Spectator.
“I am therefore very glad
that the attitude towards this
genre has been changing
thanks to events such as
DOCsk, particularly now
when – in line with the slo-
gan of the festival – the strict
borders between different
film genres have finally star-
ted to disappear, and Slovak
documentary filmmakers
have dared to experiment and
go beyond conventions,” Ciel
concluded.
April 25 – May 1, 2011
Slovaks raise money for Japan
A YOUNG student at the
Academy of Fine Arts, Mária
Vaculová, felt the urge to
help people in disaster-
stricken Japan and to ex-
press solidarity in some way.
Together with the parsonage
of the Big Evangelical
Church, the platform of
Kresťania v meste (Christi-
ans in the City) and support
from the American and Ja-
panese Embassies, she or-
ganised a benefit concert on
April 1 in the 2,000-seat Big
Evangelical Church that
raised almost €5,000 in vol-
untary contributions.
The programme began
with a minute of silence for
the victims of the Japanese
earthquake and tsunami, fol-
lowed by performances by
musicians Martin Valihora,
Oskar Rózsa, Eugen Vizváry
and Anita Soul and their
groups. Valihora said he had
previously toured in Japan
and felt personal grief. Af-
terwards, the Japanese am-
bassador to Slovakia, Yoshio
Nomoto, expressed his grat-
itude to the performers and
audience. The ZOE Christian
Chamber Orchestra per-
Robert Vano to open photo gallery
SLOVAK-BORN photograph-
er Robert Vano, who found
fame abroad, has returned to
Slovakia after an absence of
44 years. He emigrated dur-
ing communism and never
really returned except for a
few hours in passing. Now he
said he intends to open a gal-
lery in Bratislava that will
open its doors to young,
promising photographers to
meet, exhibit and exchange
experiences while building
their photographic skills and
portfolios.
During a recent visit to
Bratislava, Vano not only re-
called his youth and com-
mented on all the changes
the city has undergone, but
also gave the first glimpses
into the photographers’ café
and gallery that will open.
“Earlier, [Slovak] photo-
graphers were limited by
politics; currently they are
limited by money and know-
ing business criteria,” he told
the SITA newswire. “I would
like to make a vibrant, living
space for young people
where they could meet and
sit for long hours without be-
ing bothered by the staff to
pay or being treated as a
nuisance. I also would like to
teach those interested how
Photographer Robert Vano.
11
formed Handel’s Messiah
and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons,
followed by the Hope Gos-
pel Singers performing sev-
eral gospels tunes such as
He’s Able. Mária Čírová
pleased visitors with her
very timely song O pomoc
volám (I Call for Help) as
well as singing Amazing
Grace, one of the concert’s
highlights. Concert-goers
were encouraged to send
additional money and per-
sonal greetings through the
Slovak Red Cross.
On April 20, the City
Theatre of P.O. Hviezdoslav
staged another Concert for
Japan, as a culmination of its
100 Hours for Japan series
that lasted from April 16 to
April 20 and drew much at-
tention with an imitation
sakura tree in the middle of
Laurinská Street. The final
concert presented Japanese
musicians playing Japanese
composers as well as Lehár
and Bach. The Slovak folklore
ensemble SĽUK and Capella
Istropolitana completed the
programme. The admission
price was a voluntary contri-
bution.
to make and sell their
pictures.”
He thinks talented Slov-
aks now have very little
chance of becoming well-
known unless they go abroad,
and added that local photo-
graphers are not taught how
to finish their photographs
or, most of all, how to evalu-
ate their work and sell it.
“They do not know how
much a photo costs, they do
not have their own identity,
nobody tells them to take a
picture of just one thing, and
they do not know how to
frame pictures,” Vano said.
He added that poor finishing
work can destroy all the pre-
vious artistic effort and that
it is not enough to produce a
photo on a home printer.
In addition to workshops,
discussions and meetings fo-
cused on turning local photo-
graphy in a better direction,
he said his future gallery will
also focus on films and film-
making. It will be located
downtown . “I would like it to
be open late, as in the even-
ings galleries are already
closed and potential artists
have nowhere to go to have a
chat,” Vano said.
Compiled by Spectator staff
Photo: Új Szó - Tibor Somogyi
12 April 25 – May 1, 2011 FEATURE

AROUND SLOVAKIA compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports

Eagle
census
completed
IN FEBRUARY the Raptor
Protection of Slovakia
(RPS) association (Ochrana
35 Old Town dog dravcov na Slovensku)
made its annual winter
“eagle census” in coopera-
owners pardoned tion with participating or-
ganisations from several
countries.
THE Staré have been paid and also re- “More than 30 census-

1 Mesto (Old
Town) district
of Bratislava
granted gen-
eral pardons to 35 dog owners
who registered their pets
only in February even though
the original deadline was
January 31.
“Those residents who
used the general amnesty
and registered their dog after
the deadline avoided a fine
from the district office,”
Staré Mesto mayor Táňa
cords the dog’s identity. City
police are authorised to check
whether owners have paid
the fee and if an owner fails
to produce a tag, a fine of
€165 can be imposed.
The general pardon peri-
od was also used by 12 people
who exchanged damaged or
lost tags for valid ones
without charge. Staré Mesto
also supported people who
had adopted a dog from a
shelter by providing free re-
gistration for a year when
takers working in Slovakia
spotted a total of 52 indi-
vidual Eastern imperial
eagles (Aquila heliaca),
seven Golden eagles
Ján Píry checks the purity of the beer layers. Photo: SITA (Aquila chrysaetos) and six
White-tailed eagles (Hali-
aeetus albicilla),” Jozef
Glass layered with eight Chavko of RPS told the
SITA newswire.
The Eastern imperial
beers sets a Slovak record eagle has about 47 couples
nesting in Slovakia and the
Golden eagle has about 90
A CURIOUS re- the new Slovak record. The cheered the main “hero” of couples. In winter both

Rosová told the SITA news-
wire. All dog-owners with
permanent residence in Brat-
islava must register their
pets and pay a certain annual
amount that varies according
to district and other factors:
fees are lower for pensioners
and house owners, as well as
for dogs used to guard com-
pany premises. Dogs that as-
sist disabled people can be
registered for free.
After registration, each
owner receives a metal tag
which proves that the fees
they presented a document
from a shelter proving the
origin of their dog. Only 15
dogs were adopted from
shelters in all of 2010 but 13
dogs from shelters were re-
gistered in January and Feb-
ruary this year.
By the end of February,
Staré Mesto had collected re-
gistration fees of €39,494
from dog owners, 11 percent
more than last year. 2,073
dogs were tagged, compared
to 1,928 legally registered
pooches in 2010.
2
cord was set in
the western
Slovak town of
Senica on
March 9 when
eight different beers were
layered in one glass: Master,
Birell, Pilsner Urquell, Šariš,
Velkopopovický Kozel, Šariš
Red, Gambrinus and Topvar.
The record setters, eight
brewers from Topvar, layered
the glass by colour by using
four light beers, one half-dark
beer and three dark beers, five
of which were draught beers
joined by three bottled beers.
The glass, holding 0.3
litres, maintained its coloured
layers after it was carefully
and gradually filled, and each
beer could be visually differ-
entiated. This was the basis of
main initiator of the record
attempt was brewer Ján Píry.
He said, the Slovenské
rekordy website told The
Slovak Spectator, that his
work in addition to mixing
hops, malts and yeasts was
“about communication with
people” such as restaurant
managers, hoteliers, bar-
tenders and publicans.
Píry explained that the re-
cord attempt required know-
ledge to decide the best order
in which to layer the beers in
the glass so that the brands
and types did not mix and
would maintain separate lay-
ers. While Píry was using his
physical skill to carefully pour
the beers, the other team
members checked the tem-
peratures of the beers and
the competition.
Tension culminated in the
next hour as to whether the
layers would remain separ-
ated and that single glass of
beer became one of the most
photographed in the world by
the media as well as by brew-
ery workers admiring the res-
ult. The record was certified
by the Book of Slovak records.
Along with the certificate,
the Book of Records noted that
achieving this result was very
demanding and it may not be
beaten anytime soon, while
also noting that the competi-
tion proved that each beer has
specific features, in addition
to its name and taste, which
differentiate it from others.
For more information see
www.slovenskerekordy.sk.
species use lowlands close
to their nesting territories.
The White-tailed eagle
is the biggest nesting rap-
tor in Slovakia and there
are only about seven
couples nesting here even
though in winter months
their number increases to
several dozen.
RPS said that the census
of eagles is very important
as it is essential to monitor
the number of birds and
their development trends.
“We believe that for
next year’s census we will
manage to electrify even
more people to get involved
and with their help we will
record even more interest-
ing results,” Chavko told
the TASR newswire.

EU funds history route for Spišská Belá

A PROJECT An electronic tourist guide

Walking a dog in Bratislava.
3
called Histor-
ical Journey
through the
Town of
Spišská Belá
will be launched in May. The
local government received
financing from the EU’s Oper-
ational Programme for Cross-
Border Cooperation, Poland-
Slovakia, for the period 2007 –
2013. The total cost of the
project will be more than
€54,000, with 5 percent co-
financed by the town, 10 per-
cent from the state budget
and the remainder coming
from the EU.
The main goal of the
project is to preserve the cul-
tural and historical heritage of
the Spišská Belá region by cre-
ating tourist and educational
materials. An educational
route will be constructed to
Photo: TASR serve both domestic and for-
St Anna's Church and bell tower in Strážky.
eign tourists, the TASR news-
wire wrote. It will include
promotion of local services
and interesting sites for tour-
ists so that the region’s visitor
offering is as comprehensive
as possible.
Photo: SITA
Part of the historical route
will include informative pan-
els at selected historical stops,
a multimedia tourist guide, a
folding tourist map and also
large exterior maps at the
most frequented tourist sites.
will be available for rent at the
mansion in Strážky, in the J.
M. Petzval Museum and in the
information centre, according
to the plan, which states that
the project will be completed
by the end of 2011.
The route will show tour-
ists the 20 most interesting
sites of the region from a his-
torical point of view, the SITA
newswire wrote. Apart from
monuments such as the Goth-
ic Roman Catholic Church of St
Anthon the Pilgrim, the man-
sion in Strážky, Renaissance
bell towers in Strážky and
Spišská Belá, the route will
lead tourists to a former Jew-
ish synagogue, a mill, and the
Church of St Valentine and tell
visitors more about influential
people who were born or
worked in the region. The hope
is that visitors will stay at least
one day in Spišská Belá.