MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Thursday, 26 June 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Wednesday, 25 June): THE HAGUE/BRATISLAVA - Following the NATO summit on Wednesday, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini stated that the final declaration adopted by the leaders of the member states at the meeting corresponds to the comments presented by Slovakia during negotiations, TASR learnt from its special correspondent on the same day. According to Pellegrini, there was nothing surprising in the text of the declaration, and the leaders approved it without any objections. On Wednesday, NATO member countries agreed that by no later than 2035, they will increase their military spending to five percent of their GDP annually. In the final declaration of the summit held in the Hague, Netherlands, the leaders of the 32 allied states also reaffirmed their commitment to mutual defence. The significant increase in military spending was advocated by US President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Of the five percent of GDP, 3.5 percent should go directly to the military, and 1.5 percent is intended for other defense-related expenditures, such as building or reconstructing infrastructure. BRATISLAVA - The coalition's SNS party lambasted Slovak President Peter Pellegrini for agreeing to the NATO commitment of increasing defense spending to five percent of GDP and warned that such a commitment, signed by the President, could cause serious economic problems for Slovakia’s economy by 2035, TASR learnt from SNS chair Andrej Danko's spokesperson Zuzana Skopcova on Wednesday. According to the party, this percentage needs to be reduced within the next decade. „The Spanish Prime Minister managed to delay the commitment to allocate five percent of GDP to defence investment. Slovakia, however, failed to use this opportunity or its diplomatic contacts to have Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) prepare conditions in advance for the President's negotiations,” she said. The party also stated that the Slovak government, led by Robert Fico (Smer-SD), did not make full use of the options available under international law. SNS voiced hope that this commitment would not be fulfilled by Slovakia in the future. „It’s a great pity that the President did not stand alongside the Spanish Prime Minister, who negotiated a significant concession for Spain,” the statement said. THE HAGUE - During the NATO summit, Slovak President Peter Pellegrini briefly met with US President Donald Trump and discussed potential cooperation on the possible construction of a new nuclear power unit in Slovakia, TASR learnt from its special correspondent on Wednesday. On the sidelines of the summit, Pellegrini also held a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whom he invited to Bratislava for an international conference on education in November. Pellegrini told Starmer that after the end of the war in Ukraine, Slovakia could provide logistical and technical support for NATO armed forces. Pellegrini spoke with Trump before the start of the leaders’ session. He informed the US President that Slovakia is on the verge of making a final decision regarding the construction of a new nuclear energy source. Pellegrini stated that Slovakia is interested in cooperating on this project with the United States and the company Westinghouse. According to the Slovak head of state, Trump received this news very positively and said negotiations should continue, as the American side is quite interested in this cooperation. BRATISLAVA - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) had a telephone conversation with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, in which the two premiers exchanged views on the most current issues, TASR learnt from the Government's Office press department on the same day. „I especially welcomed the hard-won truce between Israel and Iran. Slovakia has always stood on the side of peaceful solutions, the observance of international law, and the principle that diplomacy must prevail,” said the Prime Minister. Fico added that this is also why Slovakia does not support proposals to suspend dialogue between the EU and Israel under the association agreement. „We need to keep our communication channels open. It's not acceptable to completely shut down dialogue - as we have seen in the case of the Russian Federation. I agreed with the Israeli Prime Minister that our mutual dialogue will continue. Relations between Slovakia and Israel are constructive, rooted in our shared history, and there's a large Slovak diaspora living in Israel,” Fico stated. BRATISLAVA - A significant portion of the Government's Manifesto has been fulfilled in the social sphere and - despite the necessary fiscal consolidation - Slovakia has managed to maintain its social standards, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) stated during an inspection visit at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family on Wednesday. Fico emphasized that the recovery of public finances will not be carried out at the expense of the 13th pensions. „In the social area, despite the difficult times we are experiencing due to the need to restore public finances and the terrible state in which previous governments left them, we are meeting goals we perhaps didn’t even dream of,” Fico declared. BRATISLAVA - Tax Freedom Day, the date on which citizens symbolically pay off all their due payments to the state and start working for themselves, fell on June 26 this year, which is a slight worsening compared to last year, when this day fell on June 22, the Freedom and Business Institute (ISP) told a news conference on Wednesday, adding that this was one of the worst results seen in the past 25 years. "Tax freedom also includes the calculation of the tax burden per employee earning an average salary. This is what remains to a person after s/he and her/his employer have paid all direct and indirect taxes and levies. This indicator is also very unfavourable for employees in Slovakia, since only 42 percent out of 100 percent of an employer's total wage costs remains to an employee, while the state takes 58 percent from him/her in various ways," said ISP chairman Jan Oravec. ko