EurActiv launches Slovak version of EU policy portal

The special guests of the launching event included Mrs. Monika BeHová, Chairwoman of the European Integration Committee of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (NC SR), Mr. Ján Figel, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the NC SR and Commissioner nominee, and H.E. Juraj Migas, General Director of the Department of the Bilateral Co-operation of the Slovak Foreign Ministry and former Ambassador of the SR to the EC. Among the 50-odd guests were several leading Slovak political and media figures invited by Publisher Ivan Stefunko and Editor-in-Chief Radovan Geist.  Representing EurActiv.com were Publisher Christophe Leclercq and Marketing Director Flex Branders. 

EurActiv.sk has been publishing news and analyses on EU policy issues since September 2003. The portal's content comes partly from articles translated from EurActiv.com and partly from its own Slovak sources. To date, EurActiv.sk has published over a thousand articles and some 5,500 links to various documents on the web with relevance to the portal's readers. 

In his speech,  Slovakia 's Commissioner candidate Jan Figel described EurActiv as "a symbol of representation of the European Actors in  Slovakia ". Mr Migas said that EurActiv.sk was the start page on his computer's web browser, adding that the Slovak portal guaranteed access to quality information about EU affairs to the local audience.

EurActiv is working to extend its CrossLingual network of EU policy portals to the EU's new Member States. Under the project co-funded by the Commission, EurActiv concludes partnership agreements with established media publications or NGOs in the accession countries for the joint publication of EU policy information.

Links to web articles regarding the launch:

Bleskovsky ,  Banky ,  mediaportal ,  SME online  

Note to the editor:

EurActiv.com is the leading private sector portal on EU Affairs. With more than 1 million page views per month, the site is an important working instrument for the majority of EU Actors (institutions, industry federations, NGO's, think tanks, the press and others) involved in defining or influencing EU policies.

General sponsors of the EurActiv portal are: the European Commission's eContent and IST programmes, CEPS, Microsoft,  Toyota , DuPont, Honeywell and  Turkey in  Europe . Section sponsors of EurActiv are:  BP,  Bulgarian Mission,  Edelman ,  Eucomed,   ExxonMobil,  Gallup , Hydro ,  Lockheed Martin, Pfizer , Solvay,  Squire Sanders &  Dempsey ,  US   Mission . Plus special support from DG Education and Culture, and ERT - The European Round Table of Industrialists.

EurActiv also has 60 "content partners" (NGOs & think tanks) as well as ca. 500 "contributors", providing their policy positions for free publication, up to the editorial team. Input welcome: editor@euractiv.com .

Within the CrossLingual project, EurActiv's content in three languages is available for syndication to "EU Actors"' websites and intranets. Central and Eastern European partners have also started translating and localising EurActiv news for their national audiences. The CrossLingual project is supported by the eContent programme of the European Commission, DG Information Society. It is prepared in cooperation with Systran, DB Scape, Telelingua, the Centre of European Policy Studies, the International Federation of Journalists and seven policy portals in Central and Eastern Europe.  

EurActiv policy sections are open to further sponsoring, either by corporations wishing to enhance their reputation as constructive EU Actors, or by service providers conveying their specific expertise. For more, see www.euractiv.com/en/sponsors.