European Parliament's InfoBus in Kosice
The day before a further ten countries joined the EU, the European Parliament (EP) started off an interesting project. Ten parliamentary representatives arrived in
Slovakia on April 30th aiming to spend ten days visiting several Slovakian cities with the EP's InfoBus, drawing the public's attention to the upcoming elections to the Parliament.
These will be taking place in Slovakia on June 13th. Last Friday they brought the InfoBus to Kosice, as the first city in their marathon of meetings with the
citizens of Slovakia, accompanied by the Head of the EP's Information Office in Slovakia, A. Fulmini. They provided people in Kosice with comprehensive information about the elections to the EP,
distributed information leaflets and handed out souvenirs. The InfoBus completes its journey on May 9th in Bratislava.
Kosice people celebrate Slovakia's entry to the EU
Just after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 people started talking about the possibility of the then Czechoslovakia joining the European Union. That might be possible
in ten to fifteen years, predicted the pundits. To the Czechs and Slovaks those predicted ten to fifteen years sounded excessively long, but they got what they wanted after fourteen years.
For the majority of people on our continent, then, this May Day was not only the traditional Workers' Day but also became a symbol of the expansion of Europe, as the
fifteen states of the European Union were joined by another ten. Most of Europe was in festive mood on the eve of this event. People went out into the streets to celebrate the historic moment,
and together with the people of other European cities this included the people of Kosice. Just before midnight the participants in the event were greeted from the stage by the Mayor of the City
of Kosice Zdenko Trebula, the Chairman of the Kosice Regional Council Rudolf Bauer, the Rector of the Technical University Juraj Sinay, representatives of Kosice's partner cities and other
guests, and representing the principal sponsor U. S. Steel Kosice was Vice-president Human Resources Miroslav Kiralvarga.
"Welcome, Europe!" was the shout from the stage and from the people down in front of it, having counted down the last few seconds of Friday evening. There followed
the Slovak national anthem, and after it the anthem of the European Union.
Specialists confer on metallography
From Wednesday to Friday of last week (April 28th-30th) the Academia Congress Center at Stara Lesna in the High Tatras was the venue for the 12th international
metallography symposium METALOGRAFIA 2004.
Over the three days more than 230 specialists from sixteen countries in Europe, the USA, Japan and Thailand concerned themselves with the material aspects of
constructions and technological equipment.
U. S. Steel Kosice was represented at the conference by GM Research and Development Robert A. Frascarelli, researchers Andrej Lesko, Peter Kalmar, Atila
Drotar, Alica Maslejova and Lucia Hrabcakova, and Quality Management Division representative Jan Gregor, and there was a colleague from the USS Technical Center in Monroeville, Head of the
Metallography and Surface Analysis Dept. Michael Simko. They presented one joint lecture on common research by Kosice and American researchers, one lecture from the Technical Center in
Monroeville, and four contributions originating from cooperation between the R&D and QM divisions.
Bear quintuplets' adoptive parents visit Kosice Zoo
For the bear quintuplets at Kosice Zoo, which feature in the Guinness Book of Records, all's well with the world - and on Thursday afternoon last week the representatives of their adoptive parents had this confirmed to them. They met at the Zoo on the eve of the grand opening of what is now its eighteenth summer season, to look around the facilities of the newly-built bear enclosure, and included in their number was USSK Vice-president for Personnel and Organization Issues Martin Pitorak.
