MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Wednesday, March 29, 2023 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Tuesday, March 28): KOSICE – President Zuzana Caputova welcomed her Estonian counterpart Alar Karis in Kosice on Tuesday. The Estonian president arrived in Slovakia at Caputova's invitation, and his two-day official visit began with a ceremony in front of the old town hall in the city centre. During the talks, they will mainly discuss the current security situation in connection with the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis as well as disinformation, hybrid threats and digitisation. "Of course, there will be many topics, the current geopolitical situation, no doubt. Also, the development of bilateral cooperation in all aspects that are interesting for Slovakia because that is what I'm trying to achieve, so that each bilateral visit has some specific outcomes. Since I'm meeting the president at all forums related to the B9 [Bucharest Nine] or the North Atlantic Alliance, it'll be Slovakia's security issues," added Caputova. KOSICE - The Constitutional Court has rejected an appeal filed by ex-special prosecutor Dusan Kovacik against a Supreme Court verdict that sent him to prison for eight years for accepting a bribe and leaking information from investigation files. The Constitutional Court's first senate led by vice-chair Jana Baricova decided on the appeal at a non-public session on March 23. Kovacik appealed against the Supreme Court's verdict from May 24, 2022 and against the Specialised Criminal Court's (STS) verdict from September 20, 2021. The ex-special prosecutor was sentenced by the Supreme Court in May to eight years in prison and a fine of €100,000 for accepting a bribe of €50,000 from former 'Takacovci' mob boss Lubomir Kudlicka in return for arranging the latter's release from custody. STS previously sentenced him to 14 years in jail and ruled that his property should be confiscated. BRATISLAVA - The Slovak Railway Carrier Association (AROS) and Czech Railways (CD) have pointed to the poor state of Slovakia's railway infrastructure, calling on state-owned railway infrastructure operator ZSR to remedy the situation immediately. ZSR spokeswoman Ria Feik Achbergerova told TASR that the company is aware of the state of affairs, adding that it's a well-known fact that ZSR has been underfinanced by the state, with approximately €33 million needed for deferred maintenance for 2023 alone. "This money is not for 'modernisation' but to eliminate the undesirable condition that we are experiencing every year due to underfunding," said Achbergerova. ZSR hopes that by appealing to the relevant authorities, such events will not occur in the future with the help of additional funding. Meanwhile, the Transport Ministry has agreed with several of CD's complaints. "The ministry will continue to call for more money for repairs and reconstruction than we are getting today when the budget is prepared and revised," it said. BRATISLAVA - The Slovak Security Council will deal with the outages of Parliament's and other state websites on Tuesday, interim Prime Minister Eduard Heger said following the government meeting on the same day. The outage of the websites is being checked by the National Security Bureau (NBU) which said, however, that it can't comment on the details of cyber security incidents. According to Parliamentary Chair Boris Kollar (We Are Family), the cause was probably a cyber attack. Parliament's website has been put back online in the meantime. BRATISLAVA - The government has withdrawn Martin Klus's nomination for the post of an auditor at the European Court of Auditors (ECA), TASR learnt on Tuesday. The cabinet decided this at its session on the same day, after Klus gave up his candidacy. zel