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WELCOME TO TODAY IN SLOVAKIA — a look back at the news from Monday, 20 July.

In today’s edition: Sole traders hand over one notification to the Social Insurance Agency.A prolonged drought is reshaping the Danube.Discover Bratislava’s historic wine district on a summer wine tour featuring small producers preserving fading traditions.

THE TRAVEL CASUALTY: After 26 years on the market, tour operator Solvex has declared insolvency.

The firm blamed rising fuel and tourism service costs, pressure to keep prices low and the collapse of a major foreign partner.

Clients are covered by insolvency insurance with Colonnade Insurance, with those already abroad directed to assistance services and those yet to travel able to submit claims.

The collapse comes a year after another tour operator, Happy Travel, also went bankrupt.

The notification shift Slovakia is taking one administrative step out of the hands of sole traders.

From 1 August, entrepreneurs suspending a trade licence (živnosť) will no longer have to file a separate notification with the Social Insurance Agency (Sociálna poisťovňa) when the suspension pauses their compulsory social insurance.

The agency will pick up the change through official records and notify the entrepreneur within 20 days.

Until now, the entrepreneur had to submit a Registration Form for a Natural Person (registračný list fyzickej osoby, RLFO) and mark the interruption of social insurance themselves.

Why now: The administrative change arrives after a difficult year for the self-employed sector.

The government’s consolidation package increased contribution costs, prompting many sole traders to reconsider whether to keep operating, suspend activity or close altogether.

One wrinkle: This is not a universal reset for all self-employed workers.

The automatic notification covers people whose interruption comes from suspending a trade licence and who do not have another active basis for self-employment.

Someone with another active authorisation may still need to handle the notification themselves.

The August divide: Anyone who suspended or resumed a trade licence before 1 August remains under the previous system and must deal with the notification directly.

Who does what: The trade licence suspension itself is handled through the licensing authorities, but the consequences run through several parts of the system.

Social insurance is managed by the Social Insurance Agency; health insurance remains with separate health insurers; tax matters stay with the tax administration.

The bill that stays: Suspending a trade licence does not automatically remove health insurance obligations.

Unless the person is covered by the state or has another employer, they must continue paying health insurance as a self-payer and notify their insurer if the licensing office does not pass on the information.

Not everyone is covered: Authors, artists and other freelancers working without a trade licence sit outside this automatic change, Denník N notes.

Because they operate under a different legal route into self-employment, they continue to manage their own notifications to the Social Insurance Agency.

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Thank you – and welcome once again to Today in Slovakia.

Catch up with The Slovak Spectator Also happening Former financial police chief Bernard Slobodník has begun testifying in the high-profile case of Očistec (Purgatory), describing alleged meetings where Smer-linked businessman Norbert Bödör was supposed to give him instructions, alongside former police chief Tibor Gašpar (now a Smer MP and deputy speaker of parliament).

Slobodník also discussed the suspected operation of a criminal network within senior police ranks between 2012 and 2018.....