Culture Committee Didn't Deal with Situation in FPU Council, Was Inquorate

Bratislava, January 14 (TASR) - A special session of the parliamentary culture and media committee didn't deal with the situation in the the Council of the Arts Support Fund (FPU) on Tuesday afternoon, as not enough MPs arrived and the committee wasn't quorate. The issues that should have been discussed at the special session will therefore be shifted to a regular committee session. Approval of a parliamentary survey at the fund should have been high on the agenda of the session. "Committee members and other MPs have received plenty of complaints from FPU applicants regarding the fund's functioning in the past couple of months, when the fund's council often wasn't quorate," said committee vice-chair Zora Jaurova (Progressive Slovakia/PS). She added that the fund's council at its last meeting approved the rules of procedure and submitted a draft of the new FPU statute, which she believes is at odds with the law. Convening of the special committee session was initiated by opposition MPs. They justified the need to hold it not only by the situation in the fund and its council, which they view as leading towards the deliberate destruction of the public-service institution by the Culture Ministry, but also by the call of the professional community, local government and the academic community, who warn that the planned changes to the FPU statute might damage the current grant system and negatively affect regional culture. The opposition MPs also pointed out that several nominees of the Culture Ministry may have been nominated unlawfully, as documents proving that they met the requirements for holding the post in the FPU Council are missing. ko/mcs