MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Tuesday, 29 July 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Monday, 28 July): BRUSSELS - Both the EU and the United States have been trying to find a deal so that trade can continue, EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said in an interview with Slovak media in Brussels on Monday, adding that cutting tariffs on cars will also help Slovakia. Sefcovic explained that the European Commission wanted to preserve jobs in Europe, which were threatened by Washington's previous 30-percent tariff proposal, and to seek solutions to all the complicated issues it had been discussing with its US counterparts over the past six months. Asked how the EU would react to the agreed 15-percent export tariffs on its exports and what tariff practices it would introduce against the Americans, Sefcovic pointed out that Sunday's (27 July) negotiations were focused on how to balance the mutual trade balance, when the EU has the second largest trade surplus from the point of view of the USA (after China). The EU commissioner said that imports of US goods into the EU should be maintained in similar quantities as before and under the same or slightly reduced tariff conditions. He appreciated that in sensitive items such as steel and ferro-alloys, both sides were interested in forming a kind of union or association in which they would trade at low or zero tariffs, but at the same time act together against third countries that flood Europe and the US with often illegally subsidised products from this area. BRATISLAVA – The 15 percent tariffs on imports to the USA is a good result of negotiations between European Commissioner for Trade and the Union's chief trade negotiator Maros Sefcovic, Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has said in reaction to the conclusion of the tariff agreement between the EU and the USA. "It is also true that the devil is in the details. We will all be interested in what the EU's commitment to purchase US energy for USD 750 billion (€640 billion) and higher investments in US arms products entail," noted the premier. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump reached a deal to resolve a trade dispute over tariff hikes in Turnberry, Scotland, on Sunday (27 July) evening. According to Trump, the tariff rate on most EU imports to the US, including the automotive industry, will be 15 percent. BRATISLAVA – It is impossible to imagine that European Commission leaders are imposing an obligation upon individual Member States to buy weaponry and energy, the coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) informed on Monday in response to the negotiated trade deal between the European Union (EU) and the United States. The SNS representatives added that importing energy from the USA when it's available at cheaper prices is illogical. "It can be said that the leadership of the European Commission has issued, without any mandate, a promissory note to US President Donald Trump. As an experienced businessman, Donald Trump has taken advantage of the incompetence of the European Commission leadership and gained huge economic benefits for the United States," the SNS representatives noted. BRATISLAVA – MP Frantisek Majersky (Christian Democrats/KDH) has called on Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) to make public the complete composition of the selection committee in the tender to select an ambulance service operator, and how the members of the committee were selected. The Health Ministry responded that the names of the members will be published after the tender procedure is completed. The Emergency Medical Service Operations Centre told TASR that it will comment on the procedure after it has been completed, in order to ensure the objectivity of the process. "We're calling on Sasko to inform the public whether the chairman of the selection committee in the tender to select an ambulance service operator is Mr. Jakub Hornak and whether he is related to Ms. Eva Lisova, the head of the State Supported Rental Housing Agency, who was legally convicted in 2022 for fraud and damaging the creditor in a real estate business," said Majersky, adding that transparency and independence of the commission are the basic prerequisites for a credible tender procedure. BRATISLAVA – Slovak Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) has not even signed a contract for the construction of a new nuclear source in Jaslovske Bohunice (Trnava region) and is already siphoning off the new nuclear power plant, opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party expert in energy Karol Galek told a press conference on Monday. He criticised a €15 million tender for financial consultancy services organised by the state-owned Nuclear and Decommissioning Company (JAVYS) in connection with the construction of the new nuclear facility. "And I want to ask why we are going to waste €15 million to find out how we can finance the nuclear power plant in a situation when [Economy] Minister Sakova has submitted an amendment to the Energy Act which clearly says that the new nuclear plant will be funded from the balancing regime contract," Galek emphasised. WARSAW - President of Poland Andrzej Duda awarded state honours to three Slovaks on Monday, with Jan Figel, Jan Hudacky and Pavol Macala being given the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for their outstanding contribution to the development of international cooperation and for their activities supporting the independence movements in Central Europe, TASR has learnt on the same day. Former EU commissioner Jan Figel told TASR that Poland deserves recognition for its contribution to the peaceful and non-violent transition to freedom after the fall of communism. "John Paul II, who came from this background, knew it very well and helped it a lot to return to freedom in a peaceful, non-violent way, which even happened," he said. ko