MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Saturday, May 17, 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Friday, May 16): PRAGUE - The Czech Republic is set to lift its ban on imports of animals susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease from Slovakia and Hungary as of Sunday (May 18), TASR was told by Petr Vorlicek, spokesman for the Czech Republic's State Veterinary Administration, which adopted the decision. The veterinary administration will also lift the ban on imports of hay, straw and green fodder and ease the rules on imports of animal products. According to the Czech vets, the situation is developing favourably. They pointed out that the most-recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease were confirmed on April 17 in Hungary and on April 4 in Slovakia. At present, according to the Czech veterinary administration, there are no indications that the situation is expected to worsen. TIRANA - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) held a number of joint and bilateral talks at the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Tirana, Albania, on Friday. The premier also held discussions with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, calling on her to show mutual respect. The premier made the statement at a press conference in Tirana. "I told the high representative at this meeting that there is no legal document, there is no binding political position in the European Union that would prevent me from choosing the destinations of my foreign visits and, at the same time, the way I behave on these foreign trips," said the premier in connection with his Moscow visit during the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War on May 9. Kallas publicly criticised his trip, saying that Fico was on the wrong side of history when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Fico went on to say that he wants them to exchange information with the EU foreign policy chief and not to send political messages, announcing that he intends to visit both Vietnam and Cuba this year. Fico also met with his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez and discussed the economic consequences of stopping energy imports to EU countries. The Slovak premier stated that they agreed that both countries will prepare for the issue on an "expert basis" and will subsequently intervene in the process when drafting legislative acts. BRATISLAVA - Mayor of Bratislava's borough of Petrzalka Juraj Hrcka held a news conference on Friday to announce his intention to step down from his post as of May 31. Hrcka is in this way accepting political responsibility for the fraud that was recently uncovered at the municipal office. According to the information known so far, one of the office's employees had been unlawfully sending money to his own accounts since at least 2023, causing damage of more than €2.7 million to the municipality in this way. The mayor explained his decision to resign by referring to the fact that it took so long to uncover the fraud. "I'm very sorry, very ashamed of it. But I won't take it back," stated Hrcka. Although he himself doesn't feel guilty, the fraud was taking place for a very long time and the municipality has been deprived of a great deal of money, so he feels he must accept political responsibility for it. The mayor spoke about a huge failure at the municipal office that has damaged the whole municipality. He mentioned several individual failures, as no one in the office noticed the fraudulent conduct the whole time, and neither inspections, nor audits revealed anything. It subsequently emerged that in 2023 a former payroll department employee illegally transferred some €400,000 to his accounts in 2023, and as much as around €1.3 million in 2024. Paradoxically, these are years in which the municipality posted record-high surpluses. The mayor stressed that the failures didn't occur solely at the municipal office. They only found out that something was wrong in early May, when one of the banks warned them to check their accounts, as it didn't like the look of them. However, the municipal office was unaware that another bank had cancelled dozens of its accounts earlier this year, as it considered them to be high-risk, and none of the competent authorities or institutions had alerted it. If the municipal office had started to address the problem as early as in January, the damage could have been almost €1 million lower. BRATISLAVA - The government was voting remotely on Slovakia's stance on the so-called pandemic agreement on Friday, according to the information published on the Government Office's website, however, a resolution on the proposal for the participation of the Slovak delegation in the 78th session of the World Health Assembly, which will be held in Geneva between May 19-27, hasn't yet been published. BRATISLAVA - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party on Friday filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor-General's (PG) Office over a contract for the purchase of computers signed by the Interior Ministry. SaS views the contract as overpriced and ineffective, referring to an analysis prepared by the Finance Ministry's Value for Money Section. It wants the law-enforcement authorities to examine the whole procedure. "We have a suspicion that framework contracts show significant signs of overpricing. The total sum for framework contracts is €326 million, while the Finance Ministry's analysts say that €122 million could be saved on the sum itself, as the Interior Ministry chose the highest bid. If the lowest bid were chosen, €80 million could be saved. And there are also some computers and monitors at absolutely extreme prices," MP Marian Viskupic (SaS) told a news conference, adding that the monitors should cost over €1,100, while the state normally buys them for €200-250. At a time when the state is looking at every euro in people's wallets, we need to take a hard look at whether the state is functioning in an effective and meaningful manner, stressed Viskupic. According to him, the case resembles the one concerning the acquisition of police headwear, for which the Interior Ministry has already scrapped the tender and announced its intention to file a criminal complaint. Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) rejected criticism concerning overpriced purchases some time ago. He pointed out that only framework contracts are involved, not a specific acquisition. At the same time, he stressed the need to replace computers and spoke about a high return on investment. ZILINA - Environmental impact assessment (EIA) decisions have already been issued for all three missing sections of the D3 motorway, Transport Minister Jozef Raz (a Smer-SD nominee) told a news conference held at the Povazsky Chlmec highway tunnel in Zilina on Friday. According to the minister, this is the final step allowing the National Highway Company (NDS) to apply for construction permits. am