Brussels, 11/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has confirmed that it is to question Slovakia about a security exercise which it recently conducted and which went wrong. “We want to know from the Slovak authorities what actually happened,” Fabio Pirotta, spokesman for the European transport commissioner, said on Friday 8 January. Almost 90 grammes of RDX, an extremely powerful explosive used by the military, was placed by Slovakian security officers in the suitcase of an electrician flying from Slovakia to Ireland on 2 January. The man, a Slovakian national living and working in Ireland, knew nothing of the exercise to detect suspect objects in passengers' luggage. The whole operation was a “stupid error”, admitted Slovakian Home Affairs Minister Robert Kalinak, announcing the resignation of the chief of border police on Thursday 7 January. In the exercise, police placed various illegal objects and substances in passengers' luggage. Most were found by sniffer dogs and their handlers, but one was not picked up. The man was able to travel to and enter Ireland unhindered. It was only three days later that the Irish authorities were informed and were able to recover the missing explosives at the home of the electrician. (B.C./transl.rt)