SUMMARY-Monday-February 17, 2020 - 5.30 p.m.

BRATISLAVA - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party wants to push for all tenders for orders even with a low value - i.e. over €50,000 - to be published on a mandatory basis and to introduce preliminary market consultations for all higher-value orders, SaS representatives told a news conference on Monday. ZILINA - Slovak customs officers have found purported designer perfumes that show signs of fakery being sold by a vendor claiming to be a Polish student from a kiosk near a roadhouse restaurant close to Zilina, the regional customs authority's spokesperson Bozena Chribikova told TASR on Monday. BRATISLAVA - A fatal accident took place at the construction site on the new Bratislava D4/R7 bypass on Friday in which a 40-year-old worker was struck by a reversing lorry and succumbed to his injuries, the police told TASR on Monday. BRATISLAVA - Universities in Slovakia need additional finances and to be helped with projects and public procurements, said representatives of the extra-parliamentary For the People party in connection with the poor condition of university halls of residence at a news conference on Monday. BRATISLAVA - Several political parties are promoting the use of renewable energy sources and the energy efficiency of buildings for the fight against climate change, according to an evaluation of the election programmes of parties running in the general election carried out by the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA). BRATISLAVA - The opposition We Are Family party is willing to support opening of a special parliamentary session on Tuesday (February 18) if Smer-SD chairman Robert Fico apologises to people and if Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) allocates €8 million for treatment of seriously ill children. BRATISLAVA - Election leader of the Progressive Slovakia-Together coalition Michal Truban is set to file a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor-General"s Office over statements on his address made by People"s Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) member and candidate in the general election Milan Mazurek, who in a video allegeldy produced in early February called Truban a drug dealer and claimed that he was offering money to the Roma "settlers" for their participation in anti-LSNS protests. BRATISLAVA - For the People chair Andrej Kiska stated on Monday at a press conference that he"ll provide the name of a person who"s allegedly behind a video on his land plot dispute to the law enforcement authorities, explaining that to his knowledge the person is close to the governing Smer-SD party. BRATISLAVA - The Health Ministry is against misusing ill children for political campaigns, the ministry itself stated on Monday in reaction to the opposition We Are Family party, which earlier in the day called on Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) to allocate €8 million for treatment of gravely ill children. am