Opposition Parties Call for Committee on Gabcikovo, Taraba Labels Claims... (2)

Bratislava, 2 June (TASR) - The opposition parties called for a special session of the parliamentary agriculture and environment committee during Tuesday's press conference to discuss with Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) a solution to the dispute over the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros waterworks system, as they fear that Hungary will receive electricity for free or at the production cost. Taraba dismissed the claims as a hoax, adding that Slovakia hasn't even decided whether the dispute can be settled and whether it can reach an agreement with Hungary, however he stated he'll come to the committee. According to MP Tamara Stohlova from the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, the minister often refers to Gabcikovo as a national treasure and reminds how much money it brings to the state. „Therefore I'm asking why he wants to voluntarily hand over 50 percent - or half - of this national treasure, this national wealth, to Viktor Orban and Hungary,“ she said. MP Maria Kolikova from the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party noted that the state must currently consolidate public finances. According to her, handing over the electricity to Hungary would also reduce the state budget revenues. Kolikova asked where Taraba got the mandate to negotiate when everything was being done "behind closed doors" and secretly. She believes that Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka should also take an interest in the case. MP Marian Caucik (Christian Democratic Movement/KDH) noted that the committee had lacked a quorum several times in a row now. "Repeatedly, government and coalition MPs don't come to these committees and we lack a quorum. And this is very sad, tragic," he added. „No 50 percent is going anywhere to Hungary,“ Taraba said, noting that his aim is for Hungary not to have the potential to own a share of the dam. He added that any agreement with Hungary must first go through Parliament. The treaty on the construction and operation of the Gabcikovo–Nagymaros Waterworks System was signed in Budapest in 1977 by the prime ministers of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Hungarian People's Republic. Hungary withdrew from the project in 1989, by which time most of the work on the Slovak side had already been completed. In 1997, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled on the dispute between the Hungary and Slovakia, confirming the validity of the 1977 treaty and Slovakia as a successor to Czechoslovakia, while declaring the construction of an alternative solution to be lawful. lin