SUMMARY - Friday, October 22, 2021 - 9 p.m.

BRATISLAVA - Parliamentary Chair Boris Kollar (We Are Family) wants to discuss the third version of the court map with Justice Minister Maria Kolikova. BRATISLAVA - Independent MP and extra-parliamentary Voice-SD party leader Peter Pellegrini believes that Justice Minister Maria Kolikova should withdraw a new court map, as it will bring nothing to the judicial system. PARTIZANSKE - The optimisation of the hospital network is being prepared by the Health Ministry 'from a table', meaning that it is being prepared by officers disconnected from reality, Parliamentary Chair and We Are Family head Boris Kollar said on Friday in Partizanske (Trencin region) following a visit to the local hospital. BRUSSELS - Energy conclusions agreed by EU prime ministers and presidents at the EU summit in Brussels ensure that European households and businesses should benefit from measures to mitigate the sharp rise in energy prices in the short term; in the long run, Slovakia wants to help the EU with its transit possibilities, for example, in greater use of gas storage facilities in Ukraine, Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) said on Friday after the end of a two-day EU summit. BRATISLAVA - I consider the findings of Bratislava Regional Court publicised in the media, which said that the prosecution of four National Crime Agency (NAKA) investigators working on serious cases was unjustified, to be disturbing, President Zuzana Caputova said in a statement on Friday. BRUSSELS - Slovakia will provide Lithuania with a six-kilometre fence to help address the acute situation with the protection of the EU's external borders, but prefers border protection solutions based on modern science, Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) stated on Friday in Brussels after a two-day EU summit. BRATISLAVA - The findings of Bratislava Regional Court don't change the fact that the investigators of the National Crime Agency (NAKA) are still accused and continue to be prosecuted at large, leaders of Smer-SD Robert Fico and Voice-SD Peter Pellegrini concurred on Friday. BRATISLAVA - Brussels auditors offered the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry the opportunity to extend the temporary accreditation of the Agricultural Payment Agency (PPA) if it was unsure if the accreditation conditions were met, the ministry's communication department told TASR on Friday, in response to the information published by the polnoinfo.sk website. BRATISLAVA - I welcome civic initiatives aimed at increasing the natural area of forests and their more effective protection, Environment Minister Jan Budaj (OLaNO) stated on Friday in connection with the submitted petition demanding that ten percent should belong to non-intervention areas, which was signed by more than 105,000 supporters. VIENNA - The pandemic has brought us closer to our neighbours but we must not ease up, because winter will be a test for everyone, Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korcok (a Freedom and Solidarity/SaS) nominee said during his Friday working visit to the Austrian capital Vienna, where he also held talks with his counterparts from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia at the invitation of Austrian Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Linhart, TASR was told by ministry's press department on the same day. am