Summary of newsmakers from the previous day – 26.1.2006

Obviously bird flu will „visit” also Slovakia

The National Anti-infection Commission in Slovakia met under a leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture Zsolt Simon to update measure in context of the risk of bird flu spread in Slovakia. As Simon informed, Slovakian veterinary authorities analyzed 1555 samples from wild open space and from farm breeding last year. All tests for bird flu were negative. The European Commission has recently decided that it is necessary to carry out as many as five kinds of analyses to confirm and precisely identify a type of virus which, according to Simon, can be secured in Slovakia. They will get 4 to 5 million crowns for it.

Hesitations of EU over “green energy”

The European Union tries to reduce dependency on the import of petrol and gas by a higher support of production of biomass and bio-fuels as a “green alternative” to fossil fuels. In a discussion of the Ministers of Agriculture of the EU on a new operational program for 2006 – 2010, which took place on the 23rd January 2006 in Brussels, however, also reservations were heard against excessive bureaucracy, a relatively low motivation of farmers and foresters, as well as fears of Brazilian competition in bio-fuels production. The Union supports now growing of energy plants by a sum of 45 euro per hectare. The support can concern as many as 1,5 million hectares, but last year it was used only on a third of the area.

Shut-down of second block of JETE will drag on; technicians found out other problems

A shut-down of the second block of the Nuclear power station Temelín (JETE) will drag on by several days. This night workers found out a hand-armature leak on the deaeration routing of the third steam generator. “Technicians cool the second block now to identify precisely the lacks, to investigate the whole event and to repair that”, the JETE spokesman Milan Nebesář opened it to the ČIA.

Farmes have a spoiled mood due to Paroubek’s rabbits

Farmers went away disappointed from a meeting with Paroubek yesterday. The discussion at Karlsbad town council on a governmental project of a fight against unemployment elicited resentment in them. They had supposed that the government wants to support middle agricultural entrepreneurs and not small gardeners and growers. The Premier wants to decrease a high unemployment by part-time jobs.

Source: Agris, 27.01.2006