Parliament is enagaged in a marathon debate on revisions to the Slovak Constitution. The session opened on Tuesday 6 February and is expected to run into the following week. In a speech on Thursday, Premier Mikuláš Dzurinda insisted that the changes were required to enable Slovakia to join the EU and NATO. He denied that they represented a threat to Slovak sovereignty.
The leader of the Slovak National Party (SNS), Anna Malíková, says that under article seven of the new constitution international agreements could be signed which would override domestic law. The government was able to go ahead with the debate after the the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK) dropped its earlier objections.
Dzurinda was adamant that the coalition had not given in to any form of Hungarian blackmail. In particular, he said they had not given in to SMK demands with regard to altering the preamble to the Constitution. The SMK wanted to see the wording changed from "We, the Slovak nation," to "We, the citizens of Slovakia." Dzurinda claims that the revised Constitution maintains all that was good in the 1992 document, and simply brings it up to date.
Mafia boss sentenced
Banská Bystrica Mafia boss Mikuláš Černák was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years imprisonment by the Supreme Court when it confirmed his conviction on two counts of extortion. The court referred two other convictions, for murder and hostage-taking, back to the regional court in Banská Bystrica for further consideration.
Černák had appealed to the Supreme Court following his conviction and sentencing to 15-and-a-half years at the regional court last year. A key witness in the trial who recanted his testimony against Černák has been arrested along with his lawyer and charged with perjury. Alexander H changed his story, saying that the Polish businessman allegedly killed by Černák had been killed by another man who is now dead.
The Chief Investigator, Jaroslav Ivor, says there is a video recording of a meeting in which H's lawyer advises him to demand a Sk35m (USD 745,000) bribe to change his testimony. Armed police maintained a highly visible security operation around the Supreme Court building in Bratislava during the hearings.
Pushing to join NATO
The government is to spend an extra Sk469m (USD 1m) on its plans for joining NATO. A fact-finding mission from the military alliance is expected in Slovakia next week to draw up a report on the country's progress towards membership. The newly-appointed Defence Minister, Jozef Stank, says he wants to build a broader political consensus on defence matters.
Stank's new deputy, Rastislav Kačer, has been placed in charge of negotiations with NATO. He says Slovakia has much to learn from the experience of its neighbours in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.
Trade unionists protest
Traffic in the centre of Bratislava was brought to a standstill by a lightning protest of trade unionists on Tuesday 6 February. The two thousand demonstrators, bussed in from across the country, were protesting at the breakdown of negotiations between the engineering union (KOVO) and employers over pay rates in the engineering sector.
A KOVO spokesman said they were also protesting at the Government's failure to live up to its objectives of reducing unemployment and raising wages.
And in other news...
- Criminal charges against former Premier Vladimír Mečiar for the illegal payment of bonuses to cabinet ministers have been dropped. The supervising prosecutor found that a collective cabinet decision had been taken to pay the bonuses, and Mečiar could not be held individually responsible. The Government paid Sk13.8m (USD 300,000) in illegal bonuses to cabinet ministers between 1995 and 1998.
- Slovak businesspeople are forced to spend up to two per cent of their company's earnings on bribes paid to state officials, according to a report in the newspaper Sme. The problem is said to stem from a lack of transparency in the regulations dealing with the issue of licences, particularly import licences, and those issued for the export of military equipment. Research conducted by the World Bank suggests that more than half of those issued with export and import licences had resorted to personal contacts, political influence or bribes.
- Eleven tonnes of diesel oil leaked into the Little Danube near the massive Slovnaft oil refinery in Bratislava on Monday 5 February. Firefighters from the Slovnaft plant dammed the river, which is a branch of the River Danube, and pumped the diesel from the surface. It is not known how much damage was done to the environment. It appears that the damage may have been caused by someone attempting to steal oil
from a pipeline.
Robin Sheeran, 9 February 2001
Moving on:
Sources:
TASR (Slovak Press Agency)
SITA (Slovak News Agency)
ČTK (Czech News Agency)
Pravda
Republika
Slovak Spectator
SME
Today's updated headlines from Slovakia and the Czech Republic
Powered by moreover.com
Read CER's review of
last week's news from
Slovakia and the Czech Republic
Read CER's review of
last week's news from
Slovakia and the Czech Republic
Return to CER front page
