MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Tuesday, 1 July 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Monday, 30 June): BRATISLAVA - Slovakia has submitted its sixth application for payment from the Recovery and Resilience Plan in the amount of €977 million, the highest ever request for funds from the European mechanism, from which Slovakia should receive a total of €6.4 billion, Vice-premier for the Recovery Plan and Knowledge-based Economy Peter Kmec (Voice-SD) said on Monday. The vice-premier stressed that Slovakia is following the timetable agreed with the European Commission (EC). "Slovakia has already approved five payment requests. A sixth one of almost €1 billion is on its way and we still have three payment requests to make for a total of €6.4 billion. The seventh one will be submitted in the autumn this year, and next year, the final year of the implementation of the recovery plan, we have two more, the eighth and the ninth payment requests," he stated. Under the current sixth application, Slovakia is to receive almost €1 billion for meeting 31 milestones and targets, including a number of milestones that will be finally declared in the final ninth payment application. "But already at this stage we had to declare, for example, 13,000 houses that will already be more energy efficient, that is about half of the final ambition. We are also declaring the renovation of 48,000 square metres of public historic buildings. There are important reforms that must connect renewable energy sources to our energy infrastructure," said Kmec. BRATISLAVA - Diversity and variety strengthen Slovakia, President Peter Pellegrini stated following a round table with representatives of national communities on Monday, adding that national communities should live in peace and synergy in the country. The head of state urged that nationality shouldn't be a reason for quarrels or polarisation, stressing that Slovak citizens are also those who have a different nationality. "Let us not allow major conflicts from abroad to be transferred among our ethnic communities who live here, regardless of what's happening around in the world, in peace, in tranquillity and want to continue to live in that way," he noted, calling for conflicts or tensions not to be applied to people who have nothing to do with them. "These are people who live in Slovakia, who study here, raise their children here, work honestly or spend their well-deserved old age," he added. The head of state also drew attention to the problems encountered by people of other nationalities in Slovakia, calling for improvements in certain processes. Pellegrini announced that next week he'll meet with Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee). He also wants to convey to her suggestions on how to make the Ethnic Minorities Culture Support Fund more effective. "So that all those who organise wonderful festivals or events, publish publications and organise various projects get access to funds much earlier," he said. BRATISLAVA - Slovakia is able to spend all the money from the current programming period of EU funds, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said on Monday on the basis of information from Investments Minister Samuel Migal (Independent) following an inspection day at the Investments, Regional Development and Informatisation Ministry. "The minister says that if we turn on all the machinery, the effort and the possibilities that we have, including reviewing the funds and making better use of the funds, then we're able to use the money. That is a strong word when the minister says that the €12 billion will remain in the Slovak environment and we won't have to give the money back to the EU budget," said Fico. According to the premier, Migal managed to accomplish a number of tasks in a short time. Fico praised the acceleration of the drawing of EU funds, as well as the risk of returning €700 million to Brussels, while this money still belongs to Slovakia. Regarding the freezing of €200 million for the regions, the prime minister said that this money will be returned to towns and municipalities and won't be used for other purposes. "We continue to believe that the regions have the right to decide directly on the use of EU funds, through partnership councils, as far as self-governing regions and cooperation councils are concerned, or as far as towns are concerned," he added. BRUSSELS - Slovakia is seeking three guarantees from the European Commission (EC) in connection with EC's plan to gradually halt imports of energy resources from Russian namely: protection for Slovak companies from legal action over broken contracts with Russian firms, compensation for lost transit fees, and assurance that the plan won’t be adopted without Slovakia’s full support, Politico news website reported on Monday, citing an unnamed EU diplomat. Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD), following the one-day European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday night, reiterated that Slovakia won't support the 18th package of sanctions against Russia unless it receives guarantees from the European Commission related to the proposal to halt imports of Russian gas from January 2028. He discussed the matter with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ahead of the summit. In a letter sent by Slovakia to all EU-member states on Friday, which Politico had the opportunity to review, the country warned that it won't support the sanctions package in its current form. However, unnamed officials cited by Politico expressed hope that, following the meeting between von der Leyen and Fico, the European Commission would be receptive to Slovakia’s concerns. According to the magazine, the document further stated that Slovakia expects a “high-level” visit from the European Commission on 3 July to finalise the details. The information about who will be part of that delegation wasn't immediately known. PEZINOK - The Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok acquitted former justice minister Gabor G. of accepting a bribe on Monday. The verdict isn't final. The judge justified this decision mainly by the lack of evidence proving that Gabor G. committed the crime. The former official was charged by a National Criminal Agency (NAKA) investigator in 2022 with accepting a bribe. The indictment alleges that in 2018, Gabor G. accepted a bribe of €50,000 to facilitate the unblocking of internal procedures at the Slovak Land Fund. Charges against co-defendant Ladislav K. were dropped due to the statute of limitations. BRATISLAVA - The Anti-crime Unit of the Office for Combating Organised Crime (UBOK) has been conducting raids across Slovakia since early this morning as part of operation 'FUNERAL', targeting serious forms of organised crime and aiming to dismantle criminal structures in eastern Slovakia, with 426 police officers involved and several gang members arrested, TASR has learnt from Police Corps Presidium spokesperson Roman Hajek. „During operation FUNERAL, the UBOK Anti-crime Unit, in cooperation with the Inspection Service Office (UIS) and other units of the Police Corps, detained several members of the criminal group and has carried out a number of house searches, searches of other premises, and other procedural actions,“ Hajek said. Due to the ongoing legal procedures, the police said it's currently not possible to provide further information on the case. BRATISLAVA - Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) had a phone call with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz about Russian gas and anti-Russian sanctions, with the prime minister praising the constructive approach of the European Commission (EC) as well as the German Chancellor to Slovakia's reservations related to the proposed end of gas imports from Russia as of 2028. "I consider the EC's proposal to stop the supply of Russian gas to be ideological and harmful for the whole EU and especially for Slovakia, which after decades of transit of Russian gas finds itself at the end of the pipe without gas and direct access to liquefied gas terminals. This EC proposal, which only needs a qualified majority to be approved, will further damage the competitiveness of the entire EU and will lead to an increase in gas prices for Slovak households and industry," noted Fico. am