MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Friday, October 18, 2024 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Thursday, October 17): BRATISLAVA - The coalition is attempting quite pathetically to wiggle out of the slip of tongue by Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok's (Voice-SD), who let out that Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has instructed the secret service (SIS) to draft a report on the May 15 assassination attempt on Fico's life and neither the opposition in general nor I in particular have ever asked for such a report, opposition's Progressive Slovakia (PS) caucus chair Martin Dubeci declared on Thursday. "No such report has been put on the agenda of the House Committee for the Supervision of SIS and there's been no resolution on it," Dubeci claimed in response to Committee vice-chair Peter Suca (Smer-SD). Earlier in the day, Suca informed that a special session of the House Committee for the Supervision of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS), concerning the investigation into the May 15 assassination attempt is slated for Wednesday (October 23). NITRA/BRATISLAVA - Dysfunctional registration system employed by the foreigners' police makes life difficult for the people and hinders their future, President Peter Pellegrini declared during his working visit to Nitra on Thursday. Pellegrini pointed out that Nitra has one of the highest shares of foreign inhabitants in percentage terms, whether it be foreigners who came to the city as job-seekers or Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. "That figure I found quite surprising. About 15 percent of Nitra inhabitants today are foreigners. Nitra has a population of about 75,000, and 15,000 foreigners live here. These are people who are not illegal migrants, they came here properly in pursuit of work and they're welcome here," added the head of state. Additional problems are caused by Slovakia's visa policy towards India. "You'll find out all about it in this region. There's a large employer, Jaguar Land Rover car maker, owned by an Indian company and by Indians. They come here and their management needs to operate and work in this country. The visa policy, which has taken a turn for the worse lately, poses a great complication to their lives," he said. BRUSSELS - Migration in the European Union needs decisive and tough solutions, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) wrote on Facebook at the beginning of a European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced on Wednesday that the Czech Republic and a number of other EU-member countries will meet in an attempt to persuade other member states as well as the European Commission that the EU should take a more assertive stance on migration. According to Fico this informal meeting took place right at the beginning of the summit and it was attended by European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia. BRATISLAVA - The European Court of Human Rights turned down the complaint lodged by Penta financial group co-owner Jaroslav Hascak on September 24 as inadmissible, seeing as the financier hasn't used all domestic options of appeal yet, TASR learnt from Justice Ministry spokesperson Miriama Gasparikova on Thursday. Hascak filed a complaint with the European court over the police crackdown at Penta headquarters in December 2020. According to the European court, there's no reason to doubt that Hascak has had theoretical as well as practical legal avenues to claim damages under the law on the state responsibility in Slovakia. BRNO - Masaryk University (MUNI) in Brno on Thursday awarded an honorary doctorate to former Slovak politician and diplomat Magdalena Vasaryova, calling her a leading personality of former Czechoslovakia and Slovakia in the field of international relations and diplomacy, TASR has learnt from MUNI spokesman Radim Sajbot. In awarding Vasaryova the honorary scientific degree of doctor honoris causa, the university highlighted her efforts for the development of democracy and free societies in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the whole of Central Europe. "Vasaryova has undertaken many activities aimed at the development of civil society, respect for and strengthening of democratic principles, promotion of equal opportunities for women and the fight against corruption," MUNI noted, adding that Vasaryova speaks out in defence of democracy and against efforts to restrict civil liberties and threaten or limit the independence of state institutions. BRATISLAVA - Poverty threatened 17.6 percent of the Slovak population last year, or almost 943,000 people, the Statistics Office has reported. The number and proportion of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion in 2023 increased in yearly terms by 55,000, or 1.1 percentage points, with these figures worsening every year since 2020. The highest risk of poverty and social exclusion has long been in Presov region, where 27.6 percent of the population faced poverty last year. Banska Bystrica and Kosice regions also saw more than 20-percent shares. Conversely, the lowest share of population at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the long term has been in Bratislava region, where it stood at 9.5 percent in 2023. ko