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| Iveta Radicova, Prime Minister of Slovakia meets Angela Merkel in Bratislava, Slovak Republic |
In related news: According to the European Union energy commisioner gas consumers won’t suffer if Ukraine starts another transit war with Russia this winter.
Kiev blocked transit pipelines from Russia last January in a payment row, leading to power cuts across the EU. But Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs says they've agreed ways to avoid Ukraine altogether.AP: “Our gas storages are 100% full, we've increased all types of switching opportunities for countries which can't cover gas for a very long period. We also have emergency plans if they are needed. On the Russian side I believe there are also plans for increasing supply from other pipelines if there is a problem with one of them. During January there will be more gas flowing through the Yamal Europe pipeline. So it is important that both sides reunite and that the final consumer does not feel threatened at all.”
More background on the pipeline and it's significance (from wikipedia):On 18 December 1959, the 10th session of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), held in Prague, adopted a decision and an agreement was signed on construction of a trunk crude oil pipeline from the USSR into Poland, Czechoslovakia, GDR and Hungary.[2] Each country was to supply all necessary construction materials, machinery and equipment. In 1962, first oil reached to Czechoslovakia, in September 1963 to Hungary, in November 1963 to Poland, and in December 1963 to GDR. The whole of the pipeline was put into operation in October 1964. The first oil pumped through the Druzhba pipeline originated from the oil fields in Tatarstan and Samara (Kuybyshev) Oblast. In 1970s the Druzhba pipeline system was further prolonged at the expense of parallel lines.[3]
The pipeline begins from Almetyevsk in Tatarstan, southeastern Russia, where it collects oil from western Siberia, the Urals, and the Caspian Sea. It runs to Mozyr in southern Belarus, where it splits into a northern and southern branch. The northern branch crosses the remainder of Belarus across Poland to Schwedt in Germany.[2] It supplies refineries in Płock and in Schwedt. The northern branch is also connected by the Płock-Gdansk pipeline with the Naftoport terminal in Gdansk, which is used for oil re-exports.[4] In Schwedt the Druzhba pipeline is connected with the MVL pipeline to Rostock and Spergau.
The southern branch runs south through Ukraine. In Brody the Druzhba pipeline is connected with the Odessa-Brody pipeline, which is currently used to ship oil from the Druzhba pipeline to the Black Sea. In Uzhgorod the pipeline splits into lines to Slovakia (Druzhba-1 - original Druzhba route) and to Hungary (Druzhba-2). The line through Slovakia is divided once again near Bratislava: one branch leading in a northwest to Czech Republic and the other going southward to Hungary. The Druzhba-1 pipeline branches off toward Hungary at Ipeľ, crosses the Hungarian border at Dregelypalank and leads to Százhalombatta.[2] In Hungary, the Druzhba-1 pipeline supplies Duna refinery while Druzhba-2 supplies Duna and Tisza refineries.[5]
The Mažeikių refinery in Lithuania and Ventspils oil terminal in Latvia are connected to the main pipeline by the branch pipeline from Unecha junction in Bryansk Oblast. This branch has ceased operation in 2006 and is not likely to become operational in any time soon.
The part of Druzhba pipeline system, which runs via Belarus, is 2,910 kilometres (1,810 mi) long. The length of the pipeline in Ukraine is 1,490 kilometres (930 mi), in Poland in 670 kilometres (420 mi), in Hungary 130 kilometres (80 mi), in Lithuania 332 kilometres (206 mi), in Latvia 420 kilometres (261 mi), and in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic together around 400 kilometres (250 mi).[2][6]
The Druzhba pipeline currently has a capacity of 1.2 to 1.4 million barrels per day. Work is currently underway to increase this in the section between Belarus and Poland. The pipe diameter of the pipeline varies from 420 millimetres (17 in) to 1,020 millimetres (40 in).[3] It uses 20 pumping stations.
The Russian part of the pipeline is operated by the oil company Transneft through its subsidiary OAO MN Druzhba. In Belarus the operator is Gomeltransneft Druzhba, in Ukraina UkrTransNafta, in Poland PERN company, in Slovakia Transpetrol, in the Czech Republic Mero and in Hungary MOL.[7]
Schwechat–Bratislava two-way oil pipeline project was proposed in 2003. It would allow to supply the OMV owned Schwechat Refinery from the Druzhba pipeline.[7]
Robert Fico seems to continue his moderate reign. He is pushing through some measures that amend the labour code so that it is not heavily skewed to favour employers. His labour minister said that this simply puts slovakia on the same level of labour regulation as capitalist darlings like UK or Ireland. Quite how giving slovaks mainstream standards in the workplace is being dangerously left wing is not explained.I think that people who think that maternity leave is a threat to capitalism makes me wonder if some employers have any humanity left. Moderate social standards and capital can coexist and produce balanced & democratic societies like those found in Scandinavia and elsewhere where the fruit of capitalism is used to underpin enlightened societies and not go down the path of unstable militaristic taliban-esque regimes like the one plagueing the United States at the moment. The social ills that the US has accepted in order to gain a couple of percentage points of growth are an unacceptable trade-off. Only psychopaths can truly want societies that don't care about the fate of the individual i.e. without safety nets.
The richest irony of all is that in this century of the Self the checks and balances on capital that are being undermined everywhere, are the basic foundation upon which the social contract that allowed the prosperity of the past 70 or so years (i.e. after the war).
I also have a deep suspicion that most people who call for privatisation of healthcare or short-term contracts as the way of the future either are rich enough to not need the societal safety nets (and are therefore in a small atypical minority) or they are deluded fools who think they are the next Gordon Gekko... We are not all going to be rich.. Its impossible. Many will waste their life chasing these illusions and in the process they are creating a selfish cruel & consumeristic world to live in.
Government and the Market:
INTERVIEWER: Who knows best? government or the free-market system?
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH: I have no doubt on that. The correct balance is pragmatic. If the market system, as you call it, has its own things that it does very well, no one could question, for example, its ability to make automobiles or grow food or provide a large part of the substance of life. But then there's an area where it doesn't work, and the distinction between
the areas where it works and the areas where it doesn't work is the basis of sound policy.
We're not, as we talk, in the United States having a big, sometimes quite mindless, argument about education. Everybody agrees that education is a public service, or almost everybody, and has to be handled, financed by the state, by the government. On the other hand, there's nobody, so far as I'm aware, suggesting that the state should take over the manufacture of automobiles, which I just mentioned, or farm products, or a wide range of other things. So it's a practical judgment that has to be made in the specific case, and it doesn't lend itself to the kind of broad theory implied in your question.
INTERVIEWER: At the end of the day, is morality at the heart of economics?
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH: No, but it can be. We're talking today in a very rich country, at a very rich time, and at the time we talk a large part of the American population, 10, 15 percent, are living below the level of enjoyment. They're hungry, they're ill housed, they are sick, and very largely as the result of the lack of income, mostly as the result of the lack of income. I would like to see a minimum income for everybody so that you have a life-supporting safety net. I think it's something a rich country like the United States can afford. And I'm not the only one with that view. Conservatives will say that people endowed [that way] won't work. Well, that's quite possible, but I'm impressed with the fact that leisure, if you're rich enough, is also a very good thing. In the past, often I've walked through Harvard Yard and have had one of my colleagues say to me, "Ken, aren't you working too hard?" Excessive work, leisure can be very good for a college professor, or somebody of affluence. Work can be unnecessary.
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