Taraba: Claims about State Cleaning Up Babis's Land at Istrochem Are Nonsense

Bratislava, 19 November (TASR) - The widely reported information that the state and the Environment Ministry are going to "clean up Istrochem for Babis" is nonsense, said Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party nominee) after the government session on Wednesday. He was referring to the environmental damage within the compound of the Istrochem chemicals plant in Bratislava, which was bought in 2022 by a holding owned by Andrej Babis, leader of the ANO party and winner of the recent general election in the Czech Republic. "The state can't clean up any environmental damage for any private company," said Taraba, explaining that this could be the case only if there is a valid decision from the past showing that the private entity has some kind of documentation to prove that it didn't cause the damage, even if it is located on private land. The same applies to Istrochem now, as Babis's company has a valid decision at its disposal, added Taraba. In such cases, noted Taraba, the obligation is transferred to the state, which "in the case of environmental damage, is the Environment Ministry". So far, the Environment Ministry has submitted only a proposal for interdepartmental review, "just like a million other things that are being evaluated and commented on," he added. Taraba ruled out having discussed this matter directly with Babis. A discussion with Babis as a Czech prime ministerial candidate focused on exploring options for blocking the ETS2 system and other "Green Deal" issues that are damaging European national economies, said Taraba. The proposal for determining the competent ministry and certain measures concerning the environmental damage was submitted by the Environment Ministry for interdepartmental review at the end of October, with the comments being evaluated currently. The clean-up is to be financed from European funds and the Environmental Fund. jrg/df