SUMMARY-Tuesday-September 25, 2018 - 10 p.m.

BRATISLAVA - If suspicions raised by the European Commission against railway passanger carrier ZSSK Slovensko are confirmed and the firm is fined, the ZSSK management should pay the penalty out of its own pocket and subsequently step down, opposition Ordinary People (OLaNO) MP Jan Marosz said on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - It was MP Jozef Rajtar (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS) who stood behind the hacking of my bank account as behind-the-scenes instigator, ex-interior minister Robert Kalinak stated on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - It is of paramount importance for the proper functioning of justice to have judges and lawyers mutually independent from each other when doing their jobs and their relationships kept professional, factual and impersonal, the Judicial Council decided at its session on Monday (September 24) where it approved the code of ethics for judges, TASR learnt from Judicial Council spokesperson Veronika Muller. BRATISLAVA - Railway passenger carrier ZSSK Slovensko is startled by the preliminary statement of objections by the European Commission, seeing as ZSSK hadn't prevented the EU authority from carrying out an inspection. BRATISLAVA - The need to simplify and make drawing of EU funds more flexible has been among the main themes of a meeting between the Visegrad Four (V4) directors general responsible for EU Cohesion Policy, TASR learnt from the Office of the Vice-premier for Investment and Informatisation on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - Assistant to MP Jozef Rajtar (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS), identified by the court only as Filip R. due to legal reasons, was found guilty of jeopardising trade, banking, postal, telecommunication and tax secret and sentenced to three years of suspended sentence with five year probation by the Bratislava V District Court on Tuesday, TASR learnt on the same day. BRUSSELS/BRATISLAVA - The European Commission (EC) in its preliminary view has accused the passenger rail carrier ZSSK Slovensko of preventing the EU authority from inspecting it in 2016, europa.eu website reported on Tuesday. BRATISLAVA - The gross domestic product (GDP) should grow by 4 percent this year, 4.5 percent next year, and slow down to 4 percent in 2020, TASR learnt from the mid-term prognosis of the Slovak central bank (NBS) as presented on Tuesday by NBS governor Jozef Makuch, with NBS vice-governor Ludovit Odor in attendance. BRATISLAVA - Rastislav Stur has become the new director of the Slovak National Theatre (SND) Opera, TASR learnt from the Culture Ministry as well as the theatre itself on Tuesday. mf