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


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