SLOVAK President Ivan Gasparovic, the first reelected president of his country, is arriving on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Villamor Air Base aboard a Russian plane for a three-day state visit.

Vice President Jejomar Binay would be on hand to welcome the visiting dignitary.

Full military honors by an Air Force contingent would be accorded Gasparovic, a law professor who had been president since June 15, 2004.

Gasparovic is scheduled to meet President Aquino in Malacañang on October 14 before his departure at 4 p.m

The Department of Foreign Affairs said the meeting between Mr. Aquino and Gasparovic would be an opportunity to discuss ways to enhance bilateral relations between the two countries and to exchange views on major global and regional issues.

Gasparovic and his delegation will also meet key government officials and members of the business sector. He is the first leader from the European Union to visit the Philippines under the Aquino administration.

Gasparovic’s arrival comes amid accusations that the government is engaged in “Europe-bashing” after its decision to cancel two official development assistance-funded projects carried out by Belgian and French firms.

French Ambassador Thierry Borja de Mozota had been quoted as saying the decision of the government to scrap its contracts with two European firms has generated negative sentiments in Europe as “we feel that there is some kind of Europe-bashing going on.”

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda on Tuesday said the cancellation of government contracts was solely based on a thorough re-evaluation of the projects.

“We’d like to assure the French ambassador, we’d like to assure the EU, that there is no concerted effort to do European-bashing here in the country. We look into each specific project and we evaluate them accordingly,” he said.

“We looked into some of the projects and some…we found were not in accordance with law. We are looking into it and reviewing it and canceling it not because of who the personalities are or, for instance, they are European-based, but more on the legality of each project entered into,” Lacierda said.

The government had earlier canceled its contract with Belgian firm Baggerwerken Decloedt en Zoon for the P18.7-billion Laguna Lake Rehabilitation Project, and is considering renegotiating the loan with the Belgian government so that it could be used to fund another similar project.

The government had also canceled its contract with French consortium Eiffel Matiere for the construction of a Roll-on, Roll-off project because of questions about pricing and the design.