MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Friday, June 21, 2024 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Thursday, June 20): BRATISLAVA - The existing Radio and Television Slovakia (RTVS) will transform into the Slovak Television and Radio (STVR), with its director to be elected by a 9-member council staffed by four nominees of the Culture Ministry and the remaining five by Parliament, it follows from the bill on STVR passed by Parliament on Thursday. Several amending proposals tabled by coalition lawmakers were approved along with the bill. The legislation was passed by 78 out of 78 present lawmakers, with the opposition not taking part in the vote. The STVR bodies will consist of the council and the general director. The council will have nine members as before, but the way that it will be constituted is changing. The culture minister will nominate four members of the council on the basis of a selection procedure, while the remaining five will be elected by Parliament. These five members will include experts in the fields of television broadcasting, radio broadcasting, law, economics and, for the first time, information technology. The term of office of members of the council will remain at six years. The council will have the power to elect the STVR general director on the basis of a public hearing of the candidates. The council will also have the power to remove the director if the relevant provisions of the act for this are met. The general director will appoint two deputies, one for Slovak Radio and one for Slovak Television. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia has signed an investment contract for the construction of a plant for the production of batteries for electric cars for €1.233 billion with the consortium of companies InoBat and Gotion Group, Economy Minister Denisa Sakova (Voice-SD) told a news conference on Thursday. The company GIB EnergyX Slovakia in Surany (Nitra region) will receive investment aid from the state amounting to €214 million. Of this, €150 million will be provided in the form of a subsidy and €64 million as income tax relief, announced the minister. GIB EnergyX, a joint venture of Chinese group Gotion and Slovak company Inobat, plans to employ 1,311 people by 2027. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia is lacking clear parameters based on which a pandemic could be identified, thinks Government Proxy for the Investigation into COVID-19 Pandemic Management Peter Kotlar. Speaking on Thursday after he made headlines with his Wednesday's statement that there has been no COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia, Kotlar called for the drafting of precise definitions. "Currently we use a vague definition that it's a large-scale epidemic that jumps from a continent to continent [...] The only thing I care about is to define the parameters of pandemic and not just in the global scale but also regarding pandemic situation in Slovakia. Only based on that we can issue directives and bans that restrict [the freedom of] common people," claimed Kotlar. Kotlar insists that his Wednesday's statement has been misinterpreted. In his view, the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia met the criteria of a large-scale epidemic but not pandemic per se. "On the other hand, if it turns out that the virus was artificially created, then it wasn't a pandemic at all but an act of bio-terrorism," he said. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia and the European Space Agency (ESA) have concluded an agreement on mutual exchange and protection of classified information, the National Security Bureau (NBU) reported on its website on Thursday. The ESA approached the bureau with a proposal to conclude the agreement back in 2020, when Slovakia was preparing for the transition from a cooperating state to an associate member of the agency. According to the NBU, the agreement will benefit Slovakia in its future transition to full membership. At the same time, the ESA and NBU signed a memorandum of cooperation concerning "strengthening incident response and disseminating information on malicious activities". zel