Mayor of the City of Košice, Ing. František Knapík received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Norway to the Slovak Republic, H. E. Trine Skymoen on the premises of the Historical Town Hall on September 30, 2009. In his speech he appreciated existing cooperation with Ms. Brit Løvseth, who has been replaced after five years service in Slovakia by H. E Trine Skymoen. He expressed his hope for a successful continuation of cooperation on the local as well on the regional level that the embassy aimed at the implementation of the projects with financial support from the Norwegian government.
Mayor offered rich and varied information on history of the city and he highlighted the areas that are dominant in the process of the city development.
"My first impression after a walk on Hlavna street is that Košice is a very vibrant and cultural city. I assume that you managed to make the best of your rich cultural heritage and the contemporary potential in the competition for European Capital of Culture 2013", said the Norwegian ambassador. She expressed her delight at the existing contacts between Košice and a Norwegian city Stavanger which was a European Capital of Culture in 2008. She confirmed her intention to maintain the existing contacts and to support their development in other sectors, too. She was interested in the impacts of the financial crisis on the city and how the city had solved this situation. Mayor said that this global problem had hit also Košice and the city had set the priorities as: the maintenance of the public transport and of the cleanliness in the concourses, care for the primary schools and the social services.
Ms. Skymoen informed about the running negotiations on the level of Norwegian government on the Norwegian financial mechanism for the new EEA member states for the programming period 2009 – 2014. "There are negotiations on the priorities, the current topics are energy efficiency, climate as well as culture.", she added. At the end she viewed an exhibition of historical documents, prepared on the occasion of the conference dedicated to a poet, a pedagogue, a diplomat and a one of the reeves in Košice at the turn of the 16th century, Jan Bocatius.
Then she recorded her impressions and her greeting to the citizens of Košice into the Chronicle of the City.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Norway to the Slovak Republic, H. E. Ms. Trine Skymoen presented her letters of Credence to the President of the Slovak Republic on September 22, 2009.
She is the second Norwegian ambassador in Bratislava who represents the Kingdom of Norway in the Slovak Republic.
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