BRATISLAVA, November 9, (WEBNOVINY) — As of 2013, concessionaire fees paid by viewers and listeners to the merged public service television and radio RTVS according to the so-called socket law are to become history after President Ivan Gasparovic has signed on Wednesday an amendment to the Law on Radio and Television of Slovakia. Parliament passed the revision on October 21. The amendment replaces payments for services to the public provided by Slovak Television and Slovak Radio (so-called concessionaire fees) and also contributions flowing into RTVS coffers based on a contract with the state with a direct subsidy from the state budget set as fixed percentage of GDP. Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer originally planned to increase the salary of RTVS director from four-fold of the average wage in the national economy to seven-fold but parliament refused to give such pay rise to the RTVS director. The annual contribution to RTVS will be calculated based on Slovakia’s GDP and will represent 0.142 percent of GDP according to the revision. As RTVS budget is formed before the GDP figure is known the contribution will be calculated based on the GDP two years ago.
Qualified foreigners interested in living in Slovakia will be able to apply for the so-called EU Blue Card, according to the bill on border control and residence of foreigners which the president has signed into law midweek. The Blue Card is to allow foreigners to live and work in Slovakia. The law will consider individuals with university education or with more than five years of practice in a field comparable to university education as qualified migrants. The cost of the card is to represent 165.50 euros and it will be valid for three years. Applicants will need to document guaranteed income of at least a 1.5-fold of the average Slovak income in the respective segment of the economy. In some cases, such as teachers or research workers, income of at least 1.2-fold of the average Slovak economy will be sufficient. One of the aims of the law is also to make the lives of Slovaks living abroad easier – as well as facilitate reuniting families. On the other hand, it is to make the regime of illegal migration, human trafficking and illegal work much stricter. The draft also proposes an employer who illegally employs foreigners to be obliged to pay the costs of their deportation from Slovakia.
The president also signed bill on some measures concerning environmental burdens from the workroom of the Environment Ministry. According to it, as of the beginning of next year, originators of environmental burdens will be obliged to deal with the environmental pollution they are responsible for. The objective of the bill is to define the originator of an environmental burden in line with the “polluter pays” principle. If the originator is unknown or has ceased to exist, the law sets a mechanism that will define a responsible person who will have to handle the environmental burden. Originators of environmental pollution will be obliged to secure plans and realization of works to eliminate the burden, geological environmental survey, redevelopment of the environmental burden, and monitor geological factors of the environment. If the polluter ceased to exist or can not be identified, regional environmental offices will determine in administrative proceedings the person that will have to eliminate the burden. Based on the new law, Slovakia will be able to use EU funds to eliminate its environmental burdens, which was not possible before. Furthermore, municipalities will be able to draw resources to eliminate burdens from the Environmental Fund as of next year. According to results of preliminary studies and estimates, there are approximately 30,000 potential pollution sources in Slovakia, while 1,845 localities constitute a severe hazard to human health and the environment.
SITA