MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Wednesday, 18 June 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Tuesday, 17 June): BRATISLAVA - Slovakia won't agree with a proposal to completely halt energy supplies from Russia to the European Union (EU), the wording of which should be presented by the European Commission (EC) later on Tuesday, said Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) following his meeting with Economy Minister Denisa Sakova (Voice-SD) regarding the implementation of the government manifesto by the Economy Ministry on Tuesday. Fico called the proposal a pointless, ideological and harmful one that could mean a 30- to 50-percent increase in gas prices for households in Slovakia. "In practice, this will mean an increase in prices for households. We expect higher transit fees in Europe, we expect higher commodity prices. We must count with the fact that Slovak households will be threatened by a 30- to 50-percent increase in gas prices. And I'm asking you who are standing here right now: are you ready to do this for Ukraine? Not me," stated the premier. BRATISLAVA - Neutrality would suit Slovakia at this time, when arms producers are flourishing and Europe is talking about war, said Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) on Tuesday when answering a journalist's question concerning the issue of increasing defence spending. While taking up a restrained stance on the conflict in Gaza and the Israeli-Iranian escalation and emphasising peace and diplomacy, Europe is increasingly provoking the situation in Ukraine into declarations of war and preparations for war, stated Fico. "Where do they want to drag us?", he asked, adding that neutrality would be best for Slovakia in this situation. "However, this decision isn't in my hands," he added. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia won't disrupt unity at the upcoming NATO summit in the Hague, said President Peter Pellegrini following the round-table debate that he held with representatives of both coalition and opposition parties on Tuesday. At the same time, Slovakia will insist that any increase in defence spending should be spread over as long a period of time as possible and that dual-use spending should make up a significant portion of the total sum, said the president, adding that fulfilling this commitment will be the responsibility of the current but also future Slovak governments. The head of state confirmed that all the participants agreed that Slovakia should act as a responsible partner at the summit and not undermine consensus. The meeting was attended by Premier Robert Fico, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (both Smer-SD), the leaders of coalition parties SNS and Voice-SD, as well as the chairs of opposition parties PS, KDH and SaS. The president also stressed that providing security for the people should be a priority for Slovakia of its own volition, regardless of whether someone asks or orders it to do so. The country should answer for itself whether it is in a position to defend itself against a possible attack. BRATISLAVA - Three parliamentary caucuses will submit a motion to postpone the vote on the government's amendment to the Constitution until September, head of the Smer-SD caucus Jan Richter told a press conference on Tuesday, adding that the amendment currently has the support of 89 MPs, but 90 votes are needed. "We were unpleasantly surprised by developments within KDH, as only nine of the 11 members of the parliamentary caucus are ready to vote," said Richter, adding that Smer-SD assumed that the opposition KDH would be ready to support the proposal fully. "We are patient and are interested in continuing to seek overlaps and to continue negotiations further," stated Richter. Smer-SD is also ready to negotiate support with coalition MP Jan Ferencak (Voice-SD), who announced his intention to abstain in the vote. According to Richter, his proposal to increase the quorum for adopting constitutional amendments and constitutional laws from 90 to 100 votes from MPs can't be carried out overnight. BRATISLAVA - An 11-year-old boy who was admitted into hospital by the National Institute of Childhood Diseases (NUDCH) in Bratislava due to an infection has died, TASR was told by spokeswoman for the institute Dana Kamenicka on Tuesday. "We are all very sorry; despite the best efforts of the doctors and all the medical staff at the National Institute of Childhood Diseases who cared for the child, the boy's life couldn't be saved," said the spokeswoman. Doctors were working with a diagnosis of naegleriasis, with the causative agent of the disease being a certain type of naegleria. Naegleriasis, or primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, is a rare disease of the central nervous system caused by the free-living amoeba Naegleria fowleri. It's an organism that is commonly found in various types of freshwater environments as well as in soil. BRATISLAVA - New orders in Slovak industry went down by 0.8 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to €5.66 billion in April 2025, the Statistics Office reported on Tuesday, adding that this was the first decline seen this year following three months of growth. After seasonal adjustments, new orders in industry increased by 1.8 percent month-on-month (m-o-m) in April. Seven of the 12 monitored branches posted y-o-y decreases in volumes of orders in April. The overal development was influenced by y-o-y drops in the production of metal structures (by 22.9 percent), the production of electric appliances (25.4 percent) and the production of chemicals and chemical products (12.7 percent). ko