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WELCOME! Welcome to the official portal of the Visegrad Group, the regional alliance of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. :::: more about the Visegrad Group
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NEWS FROM THE VISEGRAD GROUP:
21/07/2010
The Visegrad Group prime ministers met on the occasion of passing of the group's presidency from the Republic of Hungary to the Slovak Republic.
01/07/2010 07/05/2010
The International Visegrad Fund (IVF) launched a new program of research fellowships at the Open Society Archives (OSA) within the Central European University in Budapest. Heads of both institutions--IVF's Executive Director Petr Vágner and OSA's Director István Rév--concluded the agreement in the presence of the Czech Foreign Minister, H.E. Jan Kohout, in Prague on 7 May 2010. The program titled Visegrad Scholarship at Open Society Archives will enable scholars, researchers, artists and journalists to use the collection of the OSA during their fellowship stays of up to 2 months. Altogether 10 fellowships are available annually--8 reserved for citizens of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries and 2 available for non-V4 applicants. More information:
03/03/2010
Extended V4 Foreign Ministerial Meeting with the Participation of Baltic States, Eastern Partnership Countries, Belgium, Spain and Representatives of the European Commission, Budapest 2 March 2010:
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CURRENT NEWS:
Czech Greenpeace warns against bisphenol in baby bottles Czech Greenpeace activists started collecting signatures on a petition demanding that the hazardous bisphenol-A (BPS) content be banned in materials for baby bottles, outside the Health Ministry in Prague centre on Thursday. The activists are to hand over the petition to the ministry. Five mothers with toddlers also took part in the meeting to support the Greenpeace action. They showed up baby bottles that do not contain the hazardous substance. 02/09/2010 Czech army to dismiss 700 civilian employees The Czech Defence Ministry will dismiss 700 civilian employees and delete 350 soldiers' vacancies by the year's end, which is to save hundreds of millions of crowns, ministry spokesman Jan Pejsek has told CTK. The defence sector has to save finances over the economic recession. Its budget will be cut by some five billion crowns next year in line with austerity measures taken by the centre-right coalition government. 02/09/2010 Klaus to visit US in late September, give speech in UN Czech President Vaclav Klaus will pay a week-long visit to the United States on September 21-27 and is scheduled to give a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, his spokesman Radim Ochvat confirmed to CTK on Thursday. He will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg at the traditional meeting of supreme politicians at the UN headquarters. Klaus will also attend a banquet hosted by President Barack Obama. 02/09/2010 Czech local elections contested by 111 parties, movements The posts of members of towns and villages' assemblies will be sought by candidates from 111 parties and movements, 20 more than four years ago, in October, according to the information published by the Czech Statistical Office on Thursday. The number of the parties that have nominated their candidates for members of assemblies in town parts and districts has increased from 47 to 56. This year, 208,300 candidates will seek election to local assemblies. 02/09/2010 Czech FinMin dismisses corruption allegations Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek on Thursday dismissed Prime Minister Petr Necas's statement that corruption at the Defence Ministry had appeared in the mid 1990s when Kalousek was deputy defence minister. Necas hinted at the latest corruption scandal, involving Jaroslav Kopriva (Christian-Democrats KDU-CSL), who was dismissed as deputy defence minister on Wednesday. 02/09/2010 CCTV, Facebook point to Chinese suspect in Norwegian student murder Budapest Police (BRFK) said on Thursday that CCTV camera recordings and other evidence at hand, including an internet message, were strong proof a Chinese man murdered a 21 year-old Norwegian female student at a hostel in the city centre, senior police official Jozsef Szigeti told Hungarian and Norwegian journalists on Thursday. BRFK's Homicide Department is carrying out an investigation on suspicion that Zhao Feng, a 26-year-old Chinese citizen was the perpetrator, he said. 02/09/2010 EP's Socialists-Democrats to hold session in Budapest The Group of the Progressive Alliance of the Socialists and Democrats of the European Parliament will hold a session in Budapest on November 15-18, Hungarian MEP Csaba Tabajdi told MTI on Thursday. The meeting will focus on the situation of fundamental rights and rule of law in EU member states, issues around the Roma and a planned conference on the Western Balkans. The group is scheduled to have a meeting with the government to discuss Hungary's upcoming EU presidency in January-June next year. 02/09/2010 Hungarian team on way to climb 6th highest mountain in Himalayas A team of Hungarian climbers is on its way to make an attempt at 8,201-metre Cho Oyu, the world's sixth highest mountain in the Himalayas, this month, their press chief told MTI on Thursday. The team is currently at the border of Tibet with Nepal, where it will spend the night, said Szabolcs Vincze. In a "warm-up" exercise the expedition will climb to reach the base camp at 5,340 metres in Mount Everest next week. 02/09/2010 Hungary to join International Anti-Corruption Academy Hungary will join the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) that held its founding conference in Vienna on Thursday. The IACA will provide training, research and cooperation to police forces, court bodies, NGOs, researchers and private companies. It will offer a comprehensive approach to fighting corruption. The founding countries, including Hungary, will sign the organisation's founding documents later on Thursday. 02/09/2010 MTI photo exhibition on 1989/94 opens in C Romania An exhibition showing political changes during the 1989-1994 period on photos mostly from the Hungarian News Agency MTI's archives opened in central Romania's Targu Mures on Thursday. The pictures have been selected from the 6th volume of a photo album series MTI has published under the title "Pictures of an Era." The 264 images on show evoke major political events from the beginnings of post-communist transformation in 1989 until the eve of the second free parliamentary elections in May in 1994. 02/09/2010 Poles increasingly indebted The total of overdue debts grew by 15 percent to 21.97 billion zlotys in the second quarter of 2010, according to the newest report prepared by InfoDlug market researcher. Over 1.92 million people in Poland have problems with paying their debts, while the average overdue debt reaches 11,395 zlotys. The biggest percentage of high risk clients constitute "petty savers" whose debt do not exceed 2,000 zlotys, while most solid bank clients are people above 60, the report said. 02/09/2010 Polish gov't to discuss 2011 budget on Friday The government on Friday will discuss next year's budget, the Government Information Centre CIR reported. The finance ministry has proposed that the deficit should amount to PLN 40.2 billion. A source in the finance ministry told PAP on Thursday that next year's revenues from privatisation are planned at the level of PLN 15 billion versus PLN 25 billion envisaged for this year. GDP growth is to be at 3.5 pc and the annual average inflation at 2.3 pc. 02/09/2010 Komorowski, Accoyer on Weimar Triangle Cooperation within the Weimar Triangle (France, Germany, Poland) dominated Thursday's talks in Paris between Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and French National Assembly President Bernard Accoyer. Komorowski told a press conference that he hoped for lifting the Weimar Triangle meetings onto the presidential level as this could enhance understanding between Triangle members. He added that the Weimar Triangle was a well-proven instrument which helped Poland in its EU accession, and should be continued. 02/09/2010 Auschwitz Museum to renew permanent exhibition The permanent exposition devoted to Jewish martyrdom on display in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum will undergo modernisation. The exposition will be closed to visitors from November and will reopen at the end of 2012, the Auschwitz Museum said. 02/09/2010 Most Poles want independent local candidates Most Poles in a CBOS survey (52 percent) would prefer to vote for independent candidates in this autumn's local elections, 22 percent preferred party-affiliated runners. 26 pc offered no opinion. 66 percent declared they would vote in the ballot. 40 percent said they would vote for current city mayors and community heads, 38 percent said they would rather back a new candidate. 02/09/2010 Slovak Interior Min briefs parl c'ttee on Bratislava shooting investigation Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic on Thursday briefed members of the parliamentary committee for defence and security on all the information gathered so far concerning the shooting rampage that claimed the lives of eight people in Bratislava on Monday. Lipsic assessed the police action against the gunman, 48-year-old Lubomir Harman, as successful and heroic. He said that he was ready to submit a draft bill aimed to tighten rules for gun possession at a parliamentary session in October. 02/09/2010 Slovakia average monthly pay up by 3.6 pc to EUR 758 in Apr-Jun 2010 The average monthly salary in Slovakia increased by 3.6 percent on the year to 758 euros in the second quarter of 2010, the Statistics Office announced on Thursday. Compared to the previous quarter, the figure rose by 0.9 percent. The average nominal salary for the first six months of 2010 went up by 2.8 percent year-on-year to 741 euros per month, the Office said. 02/09/2010 Slovak economy fuelled by higher inventories and exports, says analysts Foreign demand and the revision of inventories have led the expansion of Slovakia's economy, which grew by 4.7 percent year-on-year and by 1.2 percent on the previous quarter in the second quarter of this year, analysts said on Thursday. Foreign demand soared by 16.5 percent year-on-year in the second quarter. 02/09/2010 Slovaks still seek work abroad The two years registering a decline in Slovaks leaving the country to work abroad have come to an end, the Slovak Statistics Office said on Thursday. "In the second quarter of 2010, we registered a 4.7-percent jump in the number of labour migrants abroad, especially targeting the Czech Republic and Austria," said Ivan Chrappa of the Office's labour and salaries department. The number of workers abroad stands at 130,500, or 5.6 percent of the country's total manpower. 02/09/2010 Slovak FinMin targets budget deficit of 4.9 pc of GDP in 2011 The goal of the Finance Ministry is to bring the public-finance deficit down to 4.9 percent of GDP in 2011, said Finance Minister Ivan Miklos (SDKU-DS) at a press conference on Thursday. Miklos said the deficit should drop to 3.9 percent in 2012 and to 3 percent in 2013, allowing Slovakia to meet the European budgetary rules. He blamed the current high deficit on the "spending and stealing of the former government." 02/09/2010
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