MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Tuesday, 8 July 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Monday, 7 July): BRATISLAVA - Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka has annulled the charge of misuse of power filed against police officer Pavol D. from the so-called 'Curillovci' group [police officers who were investigating high-profile corruption cases and have faced suspension and criminal charges since 2023 - ed.note], citing a violation of the law to the detriment of the accused. Zilinka ordered an investigator of the Internal Affairs Inspectorate (UIS) to re-examine the case and issue a new decision, according to information provided to TASR by Jana Tokolyova, spokesperson for the Prosecutor-General's Office. "After reviewing the case, the prosecutor-general concluded that the decisions of the investigator and prosecutor, as well as the proceedings that preceded them, involved violations of the law detrimental to the accused — both in terms of procedural and substantive provisions. The significant breaches found in the actions and decisions of law-enforcement authorities resulted in a violation of the most fundamental principle of criminal proceedings, which has a constitutional basis — that a prosecution must only occur for legal reasons and in a lawful manner," the spokesperson explained. The prosecutor-general emphasised that interest in upholding the legality of criminal proceedings must always take precedence over any other interest - including the objective of fulfilling the purpose of the proceedings. Pavol D. was charged with abuse of power by an UIS investigator in July of last year. According to the investigation, he allegedly violated the constitutional right to personal liberty of Patrik V. BRATISLAVA - The Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry on Monday launched a €44-million call for projects for farmers affected by foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). The funds, sourced from the Rural Development Programme and the state budget, are intended for farmers who were ordered by the state to cull their cattle due to the outbreak. The call will be open until October 1, Agriculture Minister Richard Takac (Smer-SD) announced on Monday. Under the scheme, applicants may use the support to purchase cattle up to the number they owned as of March 20, when the state of emergency was declared. Eligible expenditures also include the mandatory reconstruction of agricultural buildings and the transport of feed, manure, slurry or other potentially contaminated materials. Andrej Gajdos, President of the Slovak Agricultural and Food Chamber (SPPK), noted that during the outbreak a total of 8,313 head of cattle were culled, including 4,251 dairy cows. The rest consisted of heifers, pregnant heifers, bulls and calves. "I believe that this support is absolutely necessary and crucial for the Slovak Republic, as the state of livestock production here is very poor," siad Gajdos. Slovakia has the fourth-lowest number of livestock per hectare in the EU and ranks last among the Visegrad Group countries. Gajdos explained that Slovakia has just 0.33 livestock units per hectare of agricultural land, compared to the EU average of 0.72. The Netherlands, for example, has 3.56. According to Gajdos, the call will help to speed up the recovery of the affected herds, which will also impact national self-sufficiency in dairy production. Slovakia currently covers around 50 percent of its butter consumption, 60 percent of its cheese consumption, and 76 percent of milk demand. KOMARNO - The main topic of a round-table discussion in Komarno (Nitra region) attended by Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD), Slovak Towns and Villages Association (ZMOS) representatives and other professional organisations on Monday was a vision for education in the ethnically mixed territory. The discussion focused on developing regional education in ethnically mixed regions with significant proportions of Hungarian, Roma and other minorities. Its aim, according to the minister, was quality and fair education for for all children, regardless of the language that they speak at home. Schools that provide education in minority languages, most of which are in southern Slovakia and use the Hungarian language, are already struggling to survive economically in many local governments due to demographics, stated Drucker during a press conference after the event, adding that there are also schools that teach in Slovak that are struggling to survive. "We discussed the quality of education, we spoke about where we're lacking teachers, what we should do to do find them ... We really have a significant shortage of quality teachers, especially those who teach in the Hungarian language," stated Drucker. Commenting on upcoming legislative changes, the minister said that they were drawn up based on the results of a spending review and an analysis of the availability of education in mother tongues. The study revealed a number of issues, such as the poor geographical accessibility of schools for children from Hungarian-speaking families and the lack of support for teaching in the Romani language. The Education Ministry presented a set of measures to create fair and high-quality educational conditions for all children, regardless of their language or nationality. Key measures include the abolition of the so-called size coefficient for small schools, replacing it with a support contribution for schools that adopt rationalisation measures, the creation of school clusters to share resources and staff more efficiently and targeted support for small schools in line with the curriculum reform. BRATISLAVA - Agriculture Minister Richard Takac (Smer-SD) has expressed concerns over the European Commission's (EC) proposal to revise the trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine, which includes a significant increase in tariff quotas for the import of agro-commodities from Ukraine, ministry's spokesman Lukas Januv told TASR on Monday. „We're concerned about the proposal put forward by the European Commission. The proposed increase in quotas for imports of agri-commodities from Ukraine - especially for sensitive products such as honey, sugar and eggs - goes far beyond the original system. In some cases, there's an increase of up to 400-500 percent, which is unsustainable for our farmers and seriously threatens their competitiveness,“ said Takac. This proposal was published on 4 July and will be the main topic of the upcoming meeting of the agriculture ministers of Visegrad Four (V4) countries and their partners from Bulgaria and Romania, which will take place in Budapest. The EC has claimed that the aim of the proposed revision is to ensure long-term predictability and stability for EU-Ukraine trade relations. However, according to the Slovak minister, this is a unilateral favouring of Ukrainian exports et the expense of the domestic producers. mf