NEW MINISTER OF LABOR TAKES OFFICE

UNCLAS BRATISLAVA 000853 SIPDIS FOR EUR/NCE, INR/B, AND S/ES-O E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL LO SUBJECT: NEW MINISTER OF LABOR TAKES OFFICE REF: BRATISLAVA 815 ¶1. (U) Following the resignation of Ludovit Kanik (reftel), President Gasparovic approved the appointment of Ms. Iveta Radicova as the new Minister of Labor, Social Affairs, and Family; she officially took office on October 17. Prior to her appointment as Minister, Radicova was the director of the Sociological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and was executive director of an NGO handling social policies. Radicova is the only female member of the cabinet. BIOGRAPHIC NOTES ¶2. (U) Radicova was born December 7, 1956, in Bratislava. She studied sociology at Bratislava's Comenius University from 1975 - 1979, and upon graduation worked on family policy for the Institute of Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. She did postdoctoral studies in 1990 at Oxford University in the UK, and worked extensively in academia during the following decade. Radicova founded the S.P.A.C.E. foundation (an NGO working on social policies) in 1992, which she headed until her appointment as Minister. Radicova was a Fulbright Scholar in the United States in 1998-1999, where she did research on social justice, human rights, social citizenship and social policy at the New School of Social Research in New York. VALLEE NNNN