MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Tuesday, 15 July 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Monday, 14 July): BRATISLAVA – Efforts to obtain guarantees of sufficient gas supplies at reasonable prices even after 2028 are in Slovakia's national state interests, and Czech Premier Petr Fiala should respect that, wrote Slovak Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) in a letter that he sent to the Czech premier in reaction to the latter's call at the weekend regarding the EU's 18th sanctions package against Russia. At the same time, Fico suggested that the Slovak and Czech governments should hold a joint session as soon as possible. According to Fico, the Czech premier is demanding that the Slovak government should agree to the 18th package of anti-Russian sanctions unconditionally. He reminded Fiala of the fact that the Slovak Republic is a democratic and sovereign country. PRAGUE - Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala rejected Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s request to resume joint meetings between the Czech and Slovak governments, saying that cooperation at the ministerial level is sufficient, TASR has learnt from a report from Czech broadcaster CT24. Fiala also rejected the claim that he was interfering in Slovakia’s internal affairs by calling on Fico not to block the EU’s 18th package of sanctions against Russia. Fico asked his Czech counterpart in a letter sent on Monday to respect Slovakia’s "national state interests" in its effort to secure guarantees for sufficient natural gas at reasonable prices even after 2028, and also proposed holding a joint meeting of the Slovak and Czech governments in the near future. BRUSSELS - Quotas on imports of agri-commodities from Ukraine were a key topic at Monday’s EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, said Agriculture Ministry State Secretary Vladimir Vnuk, TASR learnt from its special correspondent on the same day. „Slovakia, similarly to other countries, has pointed out that the quotas agreed with Ukraine under the trade liberalisation agreement are different from those communicated by the European Commission,“ Vnuk said, adding that the Commission originally announced an increase in quotas for Ukrainian agri-commodities by 20–25 percent. However, for some goods, this rose to 300–400 percent. "This concerns mainly sensitive commodities such as honey, sugar and eggs," he noted. Slovakia therefore supported the call to restore the quotas for imports of agri-commodities from Ukraine to their levels before the war, stated Vnuk. BRATISLAVA – The opposition 'Slovakia' party is demanding an extraordinary session of the House committee for agriculture and environment over the the battery factory project in Surany (Nitra region), with party MP Rastislav Kratky stating at Monday's press conference that the project does not meet basic EU standards, violates the law and poses an ecological threat to the region and its inhabitants. Kratky wants the committee to meet on Wednesday, 16 July. „I don't know whether they're trying to fool [Environemnt Minister Tomas] Taraba [a Slovak National party/SNS nominee] or the ministry officials (...) This is an attempt to commit fraud,“ the MP stated, adding that there are currently two main documents concerning this project. One is the technical report and the other is the document for the Environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The opposition MP pointed to the fact that the amount of waste in the documents doesn't match. According to the him, the EIA document states over 8,000 tonnes of waste, however, the technical report refers to 75,000 tonnes. BRATISLAVA – The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is insisting that the government is legally bound to support EU sanctions against Russia as of Friday (July 11). Its MP Vladimira Marcinkova told a news conference on Monday, the validity of this commitment results from the Constitutional Act on Cooperation between Parliament and the Government in EU Affairs, which allows one-fifth of MPs to propose a binding position, which if Parliament doesn't change it within 14 days, automatically takes effect. "The only legitimate way out of this situation is to convene a session of the EU affairs committee that would adopt a stance on it. And until they do so, there's a legal opinion that my position is valid," said Marcinkova. However, governing Smer-SD representatives would rather question the procedure that they themselves brought into politics than admit that someone has managed to outfox them, she said. BRATISLAVA – The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party is requesting an extraordinary session of the House health committee regarding the selection procedure for operating emergency medical service (ZZS) ambulances due to concerns about a lack of transparency in the process. Committee vice-chair Oskar Dvorak (PS) wants Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD), ZZS Operations Centre head Marian Povolny and the selection committee head to explain how the competition will be evaluated and to explain to the public how €1.2 billion of taxpayers' money will be distributed. "I'm currently coordinating with my partners from the opposition, we're collecting signatures. We'll submit them in the next few days, and, according to preliminary information, the committee is expected to meet towards the end of this week," said Dvorak. ko