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129-474: The European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking ( EuroHPC JU ) is a public-private partnership in high-performance computing (HPC), enabling the pooling of European Union –level resources with the resources of participating EU Member States and participating associated states of the Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes, as well as private stakeholders. The Joint Undertaking has

258-684: A plebiscite in the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 10 September 1919 between the victors and German Austria. For his actions in Maribor and later in the Austro-Slovene conflict in Carinthia , Rudolf Maister is today considered a Slovenian national hero. After 1918, most of Maribor's Austrian Germans left the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes for Austria . A policy of cultural assimilation

387-407: A rent-seeking behavior, which leads to spiraling costs for users and/or taxpayers in the operation phase of the project. Some public–private partnerships, when the development of new technologies is involved, include profit-sharing agreements. This generally involves splitting revenues between the inventor and the public once a technology is commercialized. Profit-sharing agreements may stand over

516-520: A bishop of the Diocese of Lavant , transferred the seat of the diocese to Maribor, and he further encouraged the use of Slovene. With the transfer, Maribor also received its first higher school. Four years later, Maribor was connected with Carinthia with the construction of the railway from Maribor to Prevalje . The first daily Slovenian newspaper, called Slovenski narod , was established in 1868 on today's Slomšek Square ( Slomškov trg ). On 4 April 1883,

645-470: A building contractor, a maintenance company, and one or more equity investors. The two former are typically equity holders in the project, who make decisions but are only repaid when the debts are paid, while the latter is the project's creditor (debt holder). It is the SPV that signs the contract with the government and with subcontractors to build the facility and then maintain it. A typical PPP example would be

774-399: A definition, the term has been defined by major entities. For example, The OECD formally defines public–private partnerships as "long term contractual arrangements between the government and a private partner whereby the latter delivers and funds public services using a capital asset, sharing the associated risks". According to David L. Weimer and Aidan R. Vining, "A P3 typically involves

903-475: A fixed period of time or in perpetuity. Using PPPs have been justified in various ways over time. Advocates generally argue that PPPs enable the public sector to harness the expertise and efficiencies that the private sector can bring to the delivery of certain facilities and services traditionally procured and delivered by the public sector. On the other hand, critics suggest that PPPs are part of an ideological program that seeks to privatize public services for

1032-450: A hospital building financed and constructed by a private developer and then leased to the hospital authority. The private developer then acts as landlord, providing housekeeping and other non-medical services, while the hospital itself provides medical services. The SPV links the firms responsible of the building phase and the operating phase together. Hence there is a strong incentives in the building stage to make investments with regard to

1161-404: A mix of both. PPPs are structurally more expensive than publicly financed projects because of the private sector's higher cost of borrowing, resulting in users or taxpayers footing the bill for disproportionately high interest costs. PPPs also have high transaction costs . PPPs are controversial as funding tools, largely over concerns that public return on investment is lower than returns for

1290-854: A new bridge was opened over the Drava River, today known as the Old Bridge . In World War I , the 47th Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army was based in the city and also fought on the Isonzo front . During the First World War many Slovenes in Carinthia and Styria were detained on suspicion of being enemies of the Austrian Empire. This led to distrust between Austrian Germans and Slovenes. After

1419-608: A new modern business, residential and entertainment district, called the Drava Gate ( Dravska vrata ) and nicknamed the Maribor Manhattan . The project includes many new exclusive residential apartments, offices and conference halls, a green and recreational space, and other structures. It also includes a 111 m (364 ft) tall skyscraper that would be the tallest building in Slovenia. Due to lack of finances,

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1548-556: A private entity financing, constructing, or managing a project in return for a promised stream of payments directly from government or indirectly from users over the projected life of the project or some other specified period of time". A 2013 study published in State and Local Government Review found that definitions of public-private partnerships vary widely between municipalities: "Many public and private officials tout public–private partnerships for any number of activities, when in truth

1677-783: A private member of the Joint Undertaking. There are three bodies in the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking: The governing board is composed of representatives of the EU and participating states. The European Commission and each participating state appoint one representative in the Governing Board. Each representative may be accompanied by one expert. The EU holds 50% of the voting rights through the European Commission representative. The rest of

1806-492: A project cheaper for taxpayers. This can be done by cutting corners, designing the project so as to be more profitable in the operational phase, charging user fees, and/or monetizing aspects of the projects not covered by the contract. For P3 schools in Nova Scotia , this latter aspect has included restricting the use of schools' fields and interior walls, and charging after-hours facility access to community groups at 10 times

1935-455: A radical reform of government service provision. In 1997, the new British government of Tony Blair 's Labour Party expanded the PFI but sought to shift the emphasis to the achievement of "value for money", mainly through an appropriate allocation of risk. Blair created Partnerships UK (PUK), a new semi-independent organization to replace the previous pro-PPP government institutions. Its mandate

2064-605: A range of costs, the exact nature of which has changed over time and varies by jurisdiction. One thing that does remain consistent, however, is the favoring of "risk transfer" to the private partner, to the detriment of the public sector comparator. Value for money assessment procedures were incorporated into the PFI and its Australian and Canadian counterparts beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A 2012 study showed that value-for-money frameworks were still inadequate as an effective method of evaluating PPP proposals. The problem

2193-535: A similar amount from the participating countries. Additionally, private members are contributing an amount of € 900 million. The Joint Undertaking provides financial support in the form of procurement or research and innovation grants to participants following open and competitive calls. The EuroHPC JU has the twin objectives of; In June 2019, the EuroHPC JU governing board selected 8 sites for supercomputing centres located in 8 different EU Member States to host

2322-501: A top-of-the-range supercomputer, with an expected peak performance of 314 Petaflops . In 2022, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking announced a further five supercomputers coming soon to five European countries: In 2023, the EuroHPC JU announced a further two supercomputers: The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking is composed of public and private members. As of October 2024, public members of the Joint Undertaking include,

2451-458: A transfer of risk, but when things go wrong the risk stays with the public sector and, at the end of the day, the public because the companies expect to get paid. The health board should now be seeking an exit from this failed arrangement with Consort and at the very least be looking to bring facilities management back in-house. Furthermore, assessments ignore the practices of risk transfers to contractors under traditional procurement methods. As for

2580-454: A vested interest in recommending the PPP option over the traditional public procurement method. The lack of transparency surrounding individual PPP projects makes it difficult to draft independent value-for-money assessments. A number of Australian studies of early initiatives to promote private investment in infrastructure concluded that in most cases, the schemes being proposed were inferior to

2709-566: Is headquartered in the Drosbach Building, used by the European Commission, in the Luxembourg City quarter of Gasperich , Luxembourg . Public-private partnership Cooperation between private actors, corporations and governments has existed since the inception of sovereign states , notably for the purpose of tax collection and colonization . Contemporary "public–private partnerships" came into being around

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2838-785: Is 40.6 °C, measured at the Maribor–Tabor weather station by the Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO) on 8 August 2013. Many historical structures stand in Maribor. Of the remains of city walls surrounding the old downtown, the most prominent are the Judgement Tower , the Water Tower , and the Jewish Tower. Maribor Cathedral was built in the Gothic style in the 13th century. Maribor Synagogue

2967-471: Is a compound of Middle High German march ' march (borderland) ' + burc 'fortress'. In modern times, the town's German name was Marburg an der Drau ( pronounced [ˈmaʁbʊʁk ʔan deːɐ̯ ˈdʁaʊ̯] ; literally, 'Marburg on the Drava '). The Slovene name Maribor is an artificial Slovenized creation, coined by Stanko Vraz in 1836. Vraz created the name in the spirit of Illyrianism by analogy with

3096-506: Is borne exclusively by the users of the service, for example, by toll road users such as in the case of Toronto 's Yonge Street at the dawn of the 19th century, and the more recent Highway 407 in Ontario . In other types (notably the PFI), capital investment is made by the private sector on the basis of a contract with the government to provide agreed-on services, and the cost of providing

3225-484: Is established or renewed, the financing is, from the public sector's perspective, "on-balance sheet". According to PPP advocates, the public sector will regularly benefit from significantly deferred cash flows. This viewpoint has been contested through research that shows that a majority of PPP projects ultimately cost significantly more than traditional public ones. In the European Union, the fact that PPP debt

3354-479: Is mixed and often unavailable. There is no consensus about how to define a PPP. The term can cover hundreds of different types of long-term contracts with a wide range of risk allocations, funding arrangements, and transparency requirements. The advancement of PPPs, as a concept and a practice, is a product of the new public management of the late 20th century, the rise of neoliberalism, and globalization pressures. Despite there being no formal consensus regarding

3483-624: Is named after Melusine — a figure of Luxembourg and European folklore . The LUMI supercomputer is located at CSC in Kajaani , Finland . The HPE Cray EX supercomputer was supplied by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), with joint funding by EuroHPC and the LUMI Consortium. As of mid-2022, the LUMI-C partition is operational, with the LUMI-G partition expected to become operational by

3612-479: Is not recorded as debt and remains largely "off-balance-sheet" has become a major concern. Indeed, keeping the PPP project and its contingent liabilities "off balance sheet" means that the true cost of the project is hidden. According to the International Monetary Fund , economic ownership of the asset should determine whether to record PPP-related assets and liabilities in the government's or

3741-462: Is responsible, and the Private sector assumes that risk at a cost for the taxpayer. If the value of the risk transfer is appraised too high, then the government is overpaying for P3 projects. Incidentally, a 2018 UK Parliament report underlines that some private investors have made large returns from PPP deals, suggesting that departments are overpaying for transferring the risks of projects to

3870-416: Is suggested that at that time there was already a Jewish quarter in the city. The Jewish ghetto was located in the southeastern part of the city and it comprised, at its peak, several main streets in the city centre including part of the main city square. The ghetto had a synagogue , a Jewish cemetery and also a Talmud school. The Jewish community of Maribor was numerically at its apex around 1410. After 1450

3999-480: Is that it is unclear what the catchy term "value-for-money" means in the technical details relating to their practical implementation. A Scottish auditor once qualified this use of the term as "technocratic mumbo-jumbo". Project promoters often contract a PPP unit or one of the Big Four accounting firms to conduct the value for money assessments. Because these firms also offer PPP consultancy services, they have

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4128-454: Is that most of the up-front financing is made through the private sector. The way this financing is done differs significantly by country. For P3s in the UK, bonds are used rather than bank loans . In Canada, P3 projects usually use loans that must be repaid within five years, and the projects are refinanced at a later date. In some types of public–private partnership, the cost of using the service

4257-568: Is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria . It is the seat of the Urban Municipality of Maribor and the Drava statistical region . Maribor is also the economic, administrative, educational, and cultural centre of eastern Slovenia . Maribor was first mentioned as a castle in 1164, as a settlement in 1209, and as a city in 1254. Like most Slovene ethnic territory , Maribor

4386-572: Is the commercial radio station Radio City . Other radio stations broadcasting from Maribor include Radio NET FM, Radio Maribor, Rock Maribor, Radio Brezje, and Maribor Študent Radio (MARŠ). The alternative scene of Maribor is situated in the Pekarna Cultural Centre, located in a former military bakery area in the Magdalena District . Maribor is the hometown of the association football club NK Maribor , playing in

4515-601: The Conservative government of John Major in the United Kingdom introduced the Private finance initiative (PFI), the first systematic program aimed at encouraging public–private partnerships. The 1992 program focused on reducing the public-sector borrowing requirement , although, as already noted, the effect on public accounts was largely illusory. Initially, the private sector was unenthusiastic about PFI, and

4644-649: The Independent State of Croatia , Serbia , and later to the concentration and work camps in Germany. The Nazi goal was to Germanize the population of Lower Styria after the war. Slovene patriots were taken hostage and many were later shot in the prisons of Maribor and Graz. This led to organised resistance by Slovene partisans . The first act of resistance in Maribor and occupied Slovenia occurred only three days after Hitler's visit, when Slovene communists and SKOJ members burned two German cars. Maribor

4773-643: The Slovenian top division . NK Maribor has won the domestic title a record 16 times and has participated in the UEFA Champions League group stage on three occasions, in 1999, 2014, and 2017. The club's home ground is Ljudski vrt , located in the Koroška Vrata district. The Maribor Pohorje Ski Resort , situated on the outskirts of the city on the slopes of the Pohorje mountain range, hosted

4902-618: The Austrian Germans attacked the Slovenian soldiers guarding the town hall, one even discharging a revolver and hitting one Slovenian soldier in the bayonet. The German-language media called the incident Marburg's Bloody Sunday . As Maribor was now firmly in the hands of the Slovenian forces and surrounded completely by Slovenian territory; the city had been recognised as part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes without

5031-775: The Czech Republic. In the TOP500 list, which evaluates supercomputers in terms of their performance, it ranked 69th worldwide, 19th in Europe, and in the Green500 list of the most energy-efficient supercomputers, it even ranked 8th in 2021. The HPC system supplied by Hewlett Packard Enterprise is designed to respond coherently to the needs of its user communities, addressing complex scientific and industrial challenges, including standard numerical simulations, demanding data analysis, and artificial intelligence applications. "Discoverer",

5160-618: The Drava River. It was designed by architect Boris Podrecca and was completed in 2013. There are plans to renovate the Maribor Public Library and Town Hall Square ( Rotovški trg ). In addition, the renovation of Maribor Island ( Mariborski otok ) in the Drava River has been planned. The main park of the city is Maribor City Park, with the City Aquarium and Terrarium, and a wide promenade leading to

5289-461: The Drava banks, the construction of a new art gallery, and for a new footbridge. Its jury received about 400 proposals for the three different projects. The footbridge and the river embankments will be built in the near future, but the art gallery was replaced with a cultural center MAKS , which is currently under construction. The construction of a new modern Faculty of Medicine started in 2011 near

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5418-724: The EU on 31 January 2020, but subsequently rejoined EuroHPC in May 2024. The Joint Undertaking's private members include the European Technology Platform for High Performance Computing (ETP4HPC), the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC), and the Big Data Value (BDVA) associations. Any legal entity established in a Member State or country associated to Horizon 2020 that supports research and innovation may apply to become

5547-501: The EU's Horizon 2020 programme ( Iceland , Israel , Montenegro , North Macedonia , Norway , Serbia , Turkey and the United Kingdom ). Other EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon 2020 are able to become members, provided that they accept the Statutes and financially contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the Joint Undertaking. The United Kingdom lost its observer status following its departure from

5676-706: The EU's wider Digital Single Market strategy. The European Declaration on High-Performance Computing was launched in Rome in March 2017, initially signed by seven EU Member States ( France , Germany , Italy , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Portugal and Spain ) committed to upgrading European computing power. In June 2018, the Council of the EU endorsed the European Commission ’s proposal to establish

5805-640: The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking. On 3 July 2018, the European Parliament voted in favour of the Commission’s proposal to create a European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. The proposal was formally adopted by the Council of the European Union on 28 September 2018. The Executive Director was appointed on 15 May 2020 and the Joint Undertaking became autonomous from the European Commission on 23 September 2020. The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking

5934-680: The EuroHPC supercomputer located in Bulgaria, was the third launched under the program on October 21, 2021. It is located on the territory of the Bulgarian Science and Technology Park "Sofia Tech Park" in Sofia, Bulgaria. The cost is co-financed by Bulgaria and EuroHPC JU with a joint investment of € 11.5 million completed by Atos. Discoverer has a stable performance of 4.5 petaflops and a peak performance of 6 petaflops. The Slovenian "Vega"

6063-639: The European Union (represented by the European Commission), 27 of the 27 EU Member States ( Austria , Belgium , Bulgaria , Croatia , Cyprus , the Czech Republic , Denmark , Estonia , Finland , France , Germany , Greece , Hungary , Ireland , Italy , Latvia , Lithuania , Luxembourg , Malta , the Netherlands , Poland , Portugal , Romania , Slovakia , Slovenia , Spain and Sweden ), and eight non-EU associated states of

6192-469: The Frankish Empire from Hungarian raids, a castle was built on Pyramid Hill . The castle was mentioned for the first time on 20 October 1164 as Castrum Marchburch . A settlement soon began to grow below the castle. Maribor was first mentioned as a market near the castle in 1204, and it received town privileges in 1254. It is likely that the castle stood before 1164 because Bernard of Trixien ,

6321-652: The Green Guard early on the morning of 23 November. Thereafter, the city remained in Slovenian hands. On 27 January 1919, Austrian Germans gathered to await the United States peace delegation at the city's marketplace were fired upon by Slovenian troops. Nine citizens were killed and eighteen were seriously wounded; who had actually ordered the shooting has never been unequivocally established. German sources accused Maister's troops of shooting without cause. In turn Slovene witnesses such as Maks Pohar claimed that

6450-518: The Magnificent attacked the town, which was defended only by the local garrison and its citizens. Despite all the odds, Maribor was defended and the legend of the Maribor shoemaker who raised the sluice gates and flooded the Ottoman army is still popular today. In the 17th century, numerous fires razed the town. The biggest ones occurred in 1601, 1645, 1648, and 1700. As a consequence, the town

6579-525: The Maribor area date back to the 5th millennium BC, at the time of the Chalcolithic . With the construction of Maribor's western bypass, larger settlements were discovered dating from the 44th to 42nd century BC. Another settlement from around the same period was also discovered in Spodnje Hoče , a town right next to Maribor and another below Melje Hill near Malečnik . Another settlement below Melje Hill

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6708-535: The Three Ponds ( Trije ribniki ), containing over 100 local and foreign species of deciduous and coniferous trees. Maribor, previously in the Catholic Diocese of Graz-Seckau , became part of the Diocese of Lavant on 1 June 1859, and the seat of its Prince-Bishop . The name of the diocese (after a river in Carinthia ) was later changed to the Diocese of Maribor on 5 March 1962. It was elevated to an archdiocese by Pope Benedict XVI on 7 April 2006. Jewish people living in Maribor were first mentioned in 1277. It

6837-403: The area around Radvanje , Betnava , Bohova , and Hoče. The best-known of them was in today's Borova Vas neighborhood of Maribor. An important trade route was also established in the area, connecting Celeia and Flavia Solva in one direction with Poetovio and central Noricum on the other. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Maribor area was settled by the Slavs . A Slavic cemetery

6966-412: The area of 20.000 m (215.28 sq ft) and the length of 2 km (1 mi), keeps 5,5 millions litres of wine. The house of the oldest grapevine in the world ( Hiša stare trte ) at Lent grows the world's oldest grapevine, which was in 2004 recorded in Guinness World Records . The grapevine of Žametovka is over 400 years old. The most listened radio station transmitting from Maribor

7095-453: The assessment of PPPs which focused heavily on value for money . Heather Whiteside defines P3 "Value for money" as: Not to be confused with lower overall project costs, value for money is a concept used to evaluate P3 private-partner bids against a hypothetical public sector comparator designed to approximate the costs of a fully public option (in terms of design, construction, financing, and operations). P3 value for money calculations consider

7224-431: The circumstances changed dramatically: increasing competition that coincided with an economic crisis dealt a severe blow to the economic activities that were crucial to their economic success. According to a decree issued by Emperor Maximilian I in 1496, Jews were forced to leave the city of Maribor. Restrictions on settlement and business for Jews remained in place until 1861. From late spring 1941, after Lower Styria

7353-472: The city. All Austrian officers and soldiers were disarmed and demobilised to the new state of German Austria. The German city council then held a secret meeting, where it was decided to do whatever possible to regain Maribor for German Austria. They organised a military unit called the Green Guard ( Schutzwehr ), and approximately 400 well-armed soldiers of this unit opposed the pro-Slovenian and pro- Yugoslav Major Maister. Slovenian troops surprised and disarmed

7482-463: The city. Maribor soon after became the industrial centre of Slovenia and the whole of Yugoslavia, hosting many known companies such as the Maribor Automobile Factory among others. The first clash between the Yugoslav People's Army and the Slovenian Territorial Defence in Slovenia's war of independence happened in nearby Pekre and on the streets of Maribor resulting in the conflicts first casualty. After Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991,

7611-467: The collapse of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Maribor was claimed by both the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and German Austria . On 1 November 1918, a meeting was held by Colonel Anton Holik in the Melje barracks, where it was decided that the city would be part of German Austria. Ethnic Slovene Major Rudolf Maister , who was present at the meeting, denounced the decision and organised Slovenian military units that were able to seize control of

7740-455: The connection of the poor to water and sanitation, water tariffs have increased out of reach of poor households. Water multinationals are withdrawing from developing countries, and the World Bank is reluctant to provide support. Maribor Maribor ( UK : / ˈ m ær ɪ b ɔːr / MARR -ib-or , US : / ˈ m ɑːr -/ MAR - , Slovene: [ˈmáːɾibɔɾ] ; also known by other historical names )

7869-496: The contractor. One of the main criticisms of public–private partnerships is the lack of accountability and transparency associated with these projects. Part of the reason why evidence of PPP performance is often unavailable is that most financial details of P3s are under the veil of commercial confidentiality provisions, and unavailable to researchers and the public. Around the world, opponents of P3s have launched judicial procedures to access greater P3 project documentation than

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7998-590: The contractual complexities and rigidities they entail". In the United Kingdom, many private finance initiative programs ran dramatically over budget and have not provided value for money for the taxpayer, with some projects costing more to cancel than to complete. An in-depth study conducted by the National Audit Office of the United Kingdom concluded that the private finance initiative model had proved to be more expensive and less efficient in supporting hospitals, schools, and other public infrastructure than public financing. A treasury select committee stated that 'PFI

8127-413: The cost of the complex scientific laboratory, which was ultimately built, was very much larger than estimated. On the other hand, Allyson Pollock argues that in many PFI projects risks are not in fact transferred to the private sector and, based on the research findings of Pollock and others, George Monbiot argues that the calculation of risk in PFI projects is highly subjective, and is skewed to favor

8256-414: The costs to be larger than what was projected. Another risk within this area is with change of governance from differing political representatives could lead to projects being diminished or reduction of the allocated budget. This is common within PPPs as different political actors are likely to scrutinise their opponents based on their ideological positions. Private monopolies created by PPPs can generate

8385-486: The count of the region, already used the title Bernhard von Marchpurg 'Bernard of Maribor' in 1124. The town began to grow rapidly after the victory of Rudolf I of the Habsburg dynasty over King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. The town built fortifications, and trade, viticulture, and crafts started to grow. The town had a monopoly over the entire region and also controlled the viticulture trade with Carinthia . The first churches were built, and also around this time

8514-400: The districts of Center, Koroška Vrata, and Ivan Cankar to the north from other districts south of it. The various city districts are connected by four road bridges, a rail bridge, and a pedestrian bridge . Maribor has a humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification : Dfb), bordering on oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb). Average temperatures hover around zero degrees Celsius during

8643-404: The end of 2022. With a measured High Performance Linpack (HPL) performance of 151,9 petaflops, LUMI ranked 3rd on the June 2022 edition of the TOP500 list of the most powerful supercomputers. Once fully operational, the system will have a theoretical peak performance of 550 petaflops. Located in the Technopole of Bologna, in Bologna , Italy , Leonardo is a pre-exascale supercomputer which

8772-403: The end of the 20th century. They were aimed at increasing the private sector's involvement in public administration . They were seen by governments around the world as a method of financing new or refurbished public sector assets outside their balance sheet . While PPP financing comes from the private sector, these projects are always paid for either through taxes or by users of the service, or

8901-404: The first Jews arrived. The Jews built their own ghetto in the southeastern part of town, where they also built the Maribor Synagogue . Most Slovenians lived in the northwestern part of town on what is now Slovenian Street ( Slovenska ulica ). In 1478, a second castle was built on the northeastern side of the town, today known as Maribor Castle . In 1480 and in 1481, Matthias Corvinus besieged

9030-483: The first electric light in Slovene ethnic territory was installed on Castle Square ( Grajski trg ). The renowned electrical engineer Nikola Tesla lived in Maribor from 1878 to 1879, where he received his first job. Maribor National Hall was built in 1899, and it became a political, cultural, and economic centre for all Styrian Slovenes. In 1900, the city itself had a population that was 82.3% Austrian German (19,298 people) and 17.3% Slovene (4,062 people; based on

9159-427: The global top 5 supercomputers, and 5 petascale machines (capable of executing at least 4 Petaflops, or 4 million billion operations per second). In 2022, the EuroHPC governing board selected a further 5 sites to host a new fleet of EuroHPC supercomputers, including the first European exascale supercomputer to be located in Germany. KAROLINA was installed in 2021 at IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center in

9288-410: The government of the day appear more fiscally responsible , while offloading the costs of their projects to service users or future governments. In Canada, many auditors general have condemned this practice, and forced governments to include PPP projects "on-balance sheet". On PPP projects where the public sector intends to compensate the private sector through availability payments once the facility

9417-427: The government retains ownership of the facility and/or remains responsible for public service delivery. Others argue that they exist on a continuum of privatization, P3s being a more limited form of privatization than the outright sale of public assets, but more extensive than simply contracting out government services. Because "privatization" has a negative connotation in some circles, supporters of P3s generally take

9546-740: The guest of honour. It was presumed that Maribor would also host the 2013 Winter Universiade , but the Government of Slovenia refused any financial support for the project. As a result, in March 2012, the International University Sports Federation decided that it would organise the Universiade elsewhere. In the same year, Maribor also withdrew as one of the host cities of the EuroBasket 2013 due to lack of finances. Maribor's Ljudski vrt stadium

9675-502: The idea that the private sector is inherently better at managing risk, there has been no comprehensive study comparing risk management by the public sector and by P3s. Auditor Generals of Quebec , Ontario and New Brunswick have publicly questioned P3 rationales based on a transfer of risk, the latter stating he was "unable to develop any substantive evidence supporting risk transfer decisions". Furthermore, many PPP concessions proved to be unstable and required to be renegotiated to favor

9804-473: The lack of investor rights guarantees, commercial confidentiality laws, and dedicated state spending on public infrastructure in these countries made the implementation of public–private partnership in transition economies difficult. PPPs in the countries usually can't rely on stable revenues from user fees either. The World Bank 's Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Forum attempts to mitigate these challenges. A defining aspect of many infrastructure P3s

9933-613: The language spoken at home); most of the city's capital and public life was in Austrian German hands. However, the county excluding the city had only 10,199 Austrian Germans and 78,888 Slovene inhabitants, meaning the city was completely surrounded by majority-Slovene ethnic territory. Some former independent settlements that later became part of the city had more ethnic Slovenes than Austrian Germans (e.g., Krčevina, Radvanje, Tezno), whereas others had more Austrian Germans than ethnic Slovenes (e.g., Pobrežje and Studenci). In 1913,

10062-419: The limited "bottom line" sheets available on the project's websites. When they are successful, the documents they receive are often heavily redacted. A 2007 survey of U.S. city managers revealed that communities often fail to sufficiently monitor PPPs: "For instance, in 2002, only 47.3% of managers involved with private firms as delivery partners reported that they evaluate that service delivery. By 2007, that

10191-589: The loss of the Yugoslav market severely strained the city's economy, which was based on heavy industry. The city saw a record unemployment rate of nearly 25%. The economic situation of Maribor after the mid-1990s crisis worsened again with the onset of global economic crisis combined with the European sovereign-debt crisis , which was one of the causes for the beginning of 2012–13 Maribor protests which spread into 2012–2013 Slovenian protests . In 2012, Maribor

10320-480: The majority of P3 projects in Australia. Wall Street firms have increased their interest in PPP since the 2008 financial crisis. Government sometimes make in kind contributions to a PPP, notably with the transfer of existing assets. In projects that are aimed at creating public goods , like in the infrastructure sector, the government may provide a capital subsidy in the form of a one-time grant so as to make

10449-404: The modern electric grid . In Newfoundland, Robert Gillespie Reid contracted to operate the railways for fifty years from 1898, though originally they were to become his property at the end of the period. The late 20th and early 21st century saw a clear trend toward governments across the globe making greater use of various PPP arrangements. Pressure to change the model of public procurement

10578-1172: The name Brandenburg (cf. Lower Sorbian Bramborska ). Locally, the town was known in Slovene as Marprk or Marprog . The name Maribor was accepted among Slovenes in 1861, when Lovro Toman published a song named Mar i bor , giving the name a Slovene compound Mar ('to care') + i ('and') + bor ('to fight for'). In addition to its Slovene and German names, the city is also known as Marburgum in Latin and Marburgo in Italian. [REDACTED] Archbishop of Salzburg (1164–1555) [REDACTED]   Habsburg Monarchy (1555–1804) [REDACTED]   Austrian Empire (1804–1867) [REDACTED]   Austria-Hungary (1867–1918) [REDACTED]   State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (1918) [REDACTED]   Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) [REDACTED] Nazi Germany (1941–1945; annexed ) [REDACTED]   SFR Yugoslavia (1945–1991) [REDACTED]   Slovenia 1991–Present The oldest known remnants of settlement in

10707-483: The new high-performance computing machines. The hosting sites will be located in Sofia (Bulgaria), Ostrava (Czech Republic), Kajaani (Finland), Bologna (Italy), Bissen (Luxembourg), Minho (Portugal), Maribor (Slovenia), and Barcelona (Spain). 3 of the 8 sites will host precursor to exascale machines (capable of executing more than 150 Petaflops , or 150 million billion calculations per second) that will be in

10836-478: The northern border of the city. Ruins of the first Maribor castle from the 11th century and a chapel from the 19th century also stand there. The hill offers an easily accessible scenic overlook of Maribor and the countryside to the south over the Drava River. The city of Maribor is divided into 11 districts ( Slovene : mestne četrti ) of the City Municipality of Maribor . The Drava River separates

10965-737: The operating stage. These investments can be desirable but may also be undesirable (e.g., when the investments not only reduce operating costs but also reduce service quality). Public infrastructure is a relatively low-risk, high-reward investment, and combining it with complex arrangements and contracts that guarantee and secure the cash flows make PPP projects prime candidates for project financing . The equity investors in SPVs are usually institutional investors such as pension funds, life insurance companies, sovereign wealth and superannuation funds, and banks. Major P3 investors include AustralianSuper , OMERS and Dutch state-owned bank ABN AMRO , which funded

11094-430: The position that P3s do not constitute privatization, while P3 opponents argue that they do. The Canadian Union of Public Employees describes P3s as "privatization by stealth". Governments have used such a mix of public and private endeavors throughout history. Muhammad Ali of Egypt utilized " concessions " in the early 1800s to obtain public works for minimal cost while the concessionaires' companies made most of

11223-402: The predominantly Slovene part of Styria, was annexed by Nazi Germany. German troops marched into the town at 9 pm on 8 April 1941. On 26 April Adolf Hitler , who encouraged his followers to "make this land German again", visited Maribor and a grand reception was organised in the city castle by the local Germans. Immediately after the occupation, Nazi Germany began mass expulsions of Slovenes to

11352-418: The private corporation's balance sheet is not straightforward. The effectiveness of PPPs as cost-saving venture has been refuted by numerous studies. Research has showed that on average, governments pay more for PPPs projects than for traditional publicly financed projects. The higher cost of P3s is attributed to these systemic factors: Sometimes, private partners manage to overcome these costs and provide

11481-492: The private funder. PPPs are closely related to concepts such as privatization and the contracting out of government services. The secrecy surrounding their financial details complexifies the process of evaluating whether PPPs have been successful. PPP advocates highlight the sharing of risk and the development of innovation , while critics decry their higher costs and issues of accountability . Evidence of PPP performance in terms of value for money and efficiency, for example,

11610-610: The private sector, one of the Treasury's stated benefits of PPP. Supporters of P3s claim that risk is successfully transferred from public to private sectors as a result of P3, and that the private sector is better at risk management . As an example of successful risk transfer, they cite the case of the National Physical Laboratory . This deal ultimately caused the collapse of the building contractor Laser (a joint venture between Serco and John Laing ) when

11739-481: The private sector: When private companies take on a PFI project, they are deemed to acquire risks the state would otherwise have carried. These risks carry a price, which proves to be remarkably responsive to the outcome you want. A paper in the British Medical Journal shows that before risk was costed, the hospital schemes it studied would have been built much more cheaply with public funds. After

11868-699: The profits from projects such as railroads and dams. Much of the early infrastructure of the United States was built by what can be considered public–private partnerships. This includes the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike road in Pennsylvania, which was initiated in 1792, an early steamboat line between New York and New Jersey in 1808; many of the railroads, including the nation's first railroad , chartered in New Jersey in 1815; and most of

11997-403: The profits of private entities. PPPs are often structured so that borrowing for the project does not appear on the balance sheet of the public-sector body seeking to make a capital investment. Rather, the borrowing is incurred by the private-sector vehicle implementing the project, with or without an explicit backup guarantee of the loan by the public body. On PPP projects where the cost of using

12126-524: The project economically viable. In other cases, the government may support the project by providing revenue subsidies, including tax breaks or by guaranteed annual revenues for a fixed period. Within public-private partnerships (PPPs), there are various risks associated. One risk common within PPPs is the lack of proper or accurate cost evaluation. Oftentimes the estimated costs of a project will not properly account for delays or unexpected events, leading to

12255-581: The project has been postponed. In 2008, the Studenci Footbridge ( Studenška brv ) was renovated according to the design of the Ponting company. The design was awarded that year at the 3rd International Footbridge Conference in Porto . In 2010, Maribor organised an international architectural competition ECC Maribor 2012 – Drava 2012 to gather proposals for the design and reconstruction of

12384-1036: The public sector was opposed to its implementation. In 1993, the Chancellor of the Exchequer described its progress as "disappointingly slow". To help promote and implement the policy, Major created institutions staffed with people linked with the City of London , accountancy and consultancy firms who had a vested interest in the success of PFI. Around the same time, PPPs were being initiated haphazardly in various OECD countries. The first governments to implement them were ideologically neoliberal and short on revenues : they were thus politically and fiscally inclined to try out alternative forms of public procurement. These early PPP projects were usually pitched by wealthy and politically connected business magnates . This explains why each countries experimenting with PPPs started in different sectors . At that time, PPPs were seen as

12513-483: The rate of non-P3 schools. In Ontario, a 2012 review of 28 projects showed that the costs were on average 16% lower for traditional publicly procured projects than for PPPs. A 2014 report by the Auditor General of Ontario said that the province overpaid by $ 8 billion through PPPs. In response to these negative findings about the costs and quality of P3 projects, proponents developed formal procedures for

12642-489: The relationship is contractual, a franchise, or the load shedding of some previously public service to a private or nonprofit entity." A more general term for such agreements is "shared service delivery", in which public-sector entities join with private firms or non-profit organizations to provide services to citizens. There is a semantic debate pertaining to whether public–private partnerships constitute privatization or not. Some argue that it isn't "privatization" because

12771-674: The resistance during the war, was summarily expelled at the end of the war in May 1945. At the same time Croatian Home Guard members and their relatives who tried to escape from Yugoslavia were executed by the Yugoslav Army . The existence of nine mass graves in and near Maribor was revealed after Slovenia's independence. After the Second World War, Maribor became part of SR Slovenia , within SFR Yugoslavia . A major process of renewal and reconstruction began in

12900-494: The risk was costed, they all tipped the other way; in several cases by less than 0.1%. Following an incident in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where surgeons were forced to continue a heart operation in the dark following a power cut caused by PFI operating company Consort, Dave Watson from Unison criticized the way the PFI contract operates: It's a costly and inefficient way of delivering services. It's meant to mean

13029-441: The service is intended to be borne exclusively by the end-user, or through a lease billed to the government every year during the operation phase of the project, the PPP is, from the public sector's perspective, an " off-balance sheet " method of financing the delivery of new or refurbished public-sector assets. This justification was particularly important during the 1990s, but has been exposed as an accounting trick designed to make

13158-414: The services is borne wholly or in part by the government. Typically, a private-sector consortium forms a special company called a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) to develop, build, maintain, and operate the asset for the contracted period. In cases where the government has invested in the project, it is typically (but not always) allotted an equity share in the SPV. The consortium is usually made up of

13287-556: The standard model of public procurement based on competitively tendered construction of publicly owned assets. In 2009, the New Zealand Treasury , in response to inquiries by the new National Party government, released a report on PPP schemes that concluded that "there is little reliable empirical evidence about the costs and benefits of PPPs" and that there "are other ways of obtaining private sector finance", as well as that "the advantages of PPPs must be weighed against

13416-585: The town but failed to conquer it on both occasions. In 1496, Maximilian I issued a decree to expel all Jews from Maribor and Styria . In 1515, the Maribor Town Hall was built and a few years later, in 1532, Maribor again came under siege, this time by the Ottoman Empire . In the battle that became known as the Siege of Maribor , a 100,000-strong Ottoman army under the leadership of Suleiman

13545-595: The twin stated aims of developing a pan-European supercomputing infrastructure, and supporting research and innovation activities. Located in Luxembourg City , Luxembourg , the Joint Undertaking started operating in November 2018 under the control of the European Commission and became autonomous in 2020. In June 2016, EU Member State leaders, meeting in the European Council called for greater coordination of EU efforts on high-performance computing as part of

13674-422: The voting rights are distributed among the participating states according to the following lines; The industrial and scientific advisory board consists of two Groups which provide independent advice to the Governing Board; The executive director is the chief executive responsible for day-to-day management of the Joint Undertaking. The position is currently held by Anders Dam Jensen. The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking

13803-608: The waterfront district called Lent) is held, with hundreds of musical, theatrical and other events. Every year the festival attracts theatre, opera, ballet performers, classical, modern, and jazz musicians and dancers from all over the world. Maribor is known for wine and culinary specialities of international and Slovene cuisine (mushroom soup with buckwheat mush, tripe, sour soup, sausages with Sauerkraut, cheese dumplings, apple strudel, special cheese cake called gibanica ). There are also many popular restaurants with Serbian cuisine . The Vinag Wine Cellar ( Vinagova vinska klet ), with

13932-446: The winter. Summers are generally warm. Average temperatures during the city's warmest month (July) exceed 20 degrees Celsius, which is one of the main reasons for the Maribor wine tradition. The city sees on average roughly 900 mm (35.4 in) of precipitation annually and it's one of the sunniest Slovene cities, with an average of 266 sunny days throughout the course of the year. The most recent temperature heatwave record for August

14061-644: The women's slalom and giant slalom races for the Alpine Skiing World Cup . The competition, known as the Golden Fox ( Slovene : Zlata lisica ), was held for the first time in 1964, and was last held in Maribor in 2019. Since then, due to the lack of snow in the city, the event has been relocated to Kranjska Gora . In November 2012, Maribor hosted the World Youth Chess Championship with Garry Kasparov as

14190-607: Was also found dating to the 4th millennium BC. A more intense period of settlement of the Maribor area occurred in the 3rd millennium BC with the advent of the Bronze Age . In the 13th to 12th century BC, in the age of the Urnfield culture , new settlements were found in Pekel . Around 1000 BC, new settlers moved to the Maribor area. An urnfield cemetery was found from that period in today's Mladinska ulica and another necropolis

14319-747: Was also found in Pobrežje . With the Iron Age and the Hallstatt Culture , new settlements began to appear on hills. One of them was Poštela in the Pohorje Mountains. Poštela was an old town that was abandoned in the 6th century BC and inhabited again in the 2nd century BC. During Roman times , the area where Maribor later developed was part of the province of Noricum , right on the border with Pannonia . During that period, Roman agricultural estates known as villae rusticae filled

14448-603: Was annexed by the Third Reich, the Jews of Maribor were deported to concentration camps. The city is the location of the University of Maribor , established in 1975, Alma Mater Europaea , and several other higher education institutions. High schools include Maribor High School No. 1 ( Prva gimnazija Maribor ) and Maribor High School No. 2 ( II. gimnazija Maribor ). Every June, the two-week Lent Festival (named after

14577-427: Was associated with the neoliberal turn. Instigators of the policy portrayed PPPs as a solution to concerns about the growing level of public debt during the 1970s and 1980s. They sought to encourage private investment in infrastructure , initially on the basis of ideology and accounting fallacies arising from the fact that public accounts did not distinguish between recurrent and capital expenditures. In 1992,

14706-597: Was built in the 14th century, and is the second oldest synagogue of Europe. Today it serves as a centre for cultural activities. Other prominent Medieval buildings are Maribor Castle , Betnava Castle , and the ruins of Upper Maribor Castle on Pyramid Hill. Town Hall was constructed in the Renaissance style , and the Plague Column in the Baroque style . At the start of the 21st century, plans were made for

14835-439: Was down to 45.4%. Performance monitoring is a general concern from these surveys and in the scholarly criticisms of these arrangements." After a wave of privatization of many water services in the 1990s, mostly in developing countries, experiences show that global water corporations have not brought the promised improvements in public water utilities. Instead of lower prices, large volumes of investment, and improvements in

14964-591: Was found in Radvanje dating to the 10th century AD. The area of what later became Maribor was first part of Samo's Empire and later the area stood on the border between Carantania and Lower Pannonia . In 843 the area was absorbed into the Frankish Empire . In the Frankish Empire, the area again stood on the border, this time between the Frankish Empire and the Principality of Hungary . To protect

15093-548: Was installed in 2022. It is supplied by ATOS , based on a BullSequana XH2000 supercomputer and hosted by CINECA . Once fully operational, it is expected to be capable of executing over 250 petaflops. MareNostrum 5 will be located at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center in Barcelona , Spain . In 2022 it was announced that the system will be built by Atos . Once operational, MareNostrum 5 will be

15222-454: Was no more efficient than other forms of borrowing and it was "illusory" that it shielded the taxpayer from risk'. One of the main rationales for P3s is that they provide for a transfer of risk : the Private partner assumes the risks in case of cost overruns or project failures. Methods for assessing value-for-money rely heavily on risk transfers to show the superiority of P3s. However, P3s do not inherently reduce risk, they simply reassign who

15351-612: Was one of the two European Capitals of Culture , and the following year, Maribor was the European Youth Capital . On the Drava River lies Maribor Island ( Mariborski otok ). The oldest public bath, still an important and often visited place in Maribor, is located on the island. There are two hills in Maribor: Calvary Hill and Pyramid Hill, both surrounded by vineyards. The latter dominates

15480-755: Was one of the venues for the 2012 UEFA European Under-17 Championship and the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship . In July 2023, Maribor hosted the 17th edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival . Maribor's sports parks include the Pohorje Adrenaline Park ( Adrenalinski park Pohorje ), the Pohorje Bike Park, and the Betnava Adventure Park ( Pustolovski park Betnava ) with ropes courses , zip-lines , and poles. Maribor

15609-674: Was pursued in Yugoslavia against the Austrian German minority similar to the Germanization policy followed by Austria against its Slovene minority in Carinthia . From 1922 to 1929, Maribor was the seat of the Maribor Oblast , a subdivision within Yugoslavia and was later part of the Drava Banovina . Up until World War II , Maribor was considered the fastest-developing city in the country. In 1941 Lower Styria ,

15738-618: Was rebuilt numerous times. In addition to fires, the plague decimated the town's population. The largest plague epidemics occurred in 1646, 1664, and 1680. Due to the plague, the town lost 35 percent of its population. In gratitude for the end of the plague, a plague column was built in 1681, with the original being replaced in 1743. In 1846, the Southern Railway was built through the town, which resulted in great economic growth and territorial expansion. In 1859, Anton Martin Slomšek ,

15867-491: Was reviewed by means of Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173. The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking is jointly funded by its members with a budget of around € 7 billion for the period 2021-2027. Most of this funding comes from the current EU long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF 2021-2027) with a contribution of € 3 billion, distributed as follows: The EU contribution is matched by

15996-478: Was systematically bombed by the Allies in the closing years of World War II . A total of 29 bombing raids devastated some 47% of the city area, killing 483 civilians and leaving over 4,200 people homeless. Over 2,600 people died in Maribor during the war. By the end of the war, Maribor was the most war-damaged major town of Yugoslavia. The remaining German-speaking population, except those who had actively supported

16125-587: Was the first of the EuroHPC JU supercomputers to be launched on 20 April 2021. The system, built by Atos, is located at the Institute of Information Science Maribor (IZUM) in Maribor , Slovenia. The Vega supercomputer was jointly financed by EuroHPC JU and the Institute of Information Science Maribor (IZUM) to the sum of €17.2 million euros. Vega has a stable performance of 6.9 petaflops and a peak performance of 10.1 petaflops. "Meluxina", Luxembourg's supercomputer,

16254-584: Was the second to be launched under the programme on 7 June 2021. Located at the LuxProvide data centre in Bissen , Luxembourg , the €30.4 million euros system was completed by Atos, with the Luxembourg government paying for two thirds of the associated costs, and the European Commission contributing the rest. Meluxina has a stable performance of 10 petaflops and a peak performance of 15 petaflops. The system

16383-506: Was the site of a German prisoner-of-war camp from 1941 to 1945 for many British, Australian, and New Zealand troops who had been captured in Crete in 1941 . In 1944, the largest mass rescue of POWs of the war in Europe took place when 105 Allied prisoners from the camp were freed by Slovene partisans in the Raid at Ožbalt . The city, a major industrial centre with an extensive armament industry,

16512-531: Was to promote and implement PFI. PUK was central in making PPPs the "new normal" for public infrastructure procurements in the country. Multiple countries subsequently created similar PPP units based on PUK's model. While initiated in first world countries , PPPs immediately received significant attention in developing countries . This is because the PPP model promised to bring new sources of funding for infrastructure projects in transition economies , which could translate into jobs and economic growth . However,

16641-702: Was under Habsburg rule until 1918, when Rudolf Maister and his men secured the city for the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs , which then joined the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . In 1991 Maribor became part of independent Slovenia. Maribor, along with the Portuguese city of Guimarães , was selected as the European Capital of Culture for 2012. Maribor was attested in historical sources as Marpurch c.  1145 (and later as Marchburch , Marburc , and Marchpurch ), and

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