MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Friday, 28 November 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Thursday, 27 November): BRATISLAVA - The Council of Slovak Prosecutors has voiced strong opposition to the bill proposing the transformation of the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers (UOO) into a different institution, as well as to the manner in which the proposal is being pushed through, TASR learnt from council chair Stanislav Jakubcik on Thursday. The council warns of serious legal deficiencies that threaten the principles of the rule of law, Slovakia's obligations towards the European Union and the safety of individuals who have reported wrongdoing in good faith. The council states that the conditions for fast-track legislative procedure weren't met in this case. "Fast-track procedures are a tool reserved for extraordinary circumstances in which there is a threat to fundamental human rights, state security or significant economic damage. The submitter has demonstrated none of these circumstances. On the contrary, paradoxically, a tool intended to protect rights is being used to adopt legislation that reduces the level of rights protection. BRATISLAVA/LISBON – The governing coalition can't be certain that President Peter Pellegrini will sign the bill abolishing the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers (UOO) and creating an Office for the Protection of Victims of Crime and Whistleblowers of Anti-Social Conduct, TASR learnt on Thursday. Speaking at a press conference during his working visit to Portugal, Pellegrini stated that he'll approach the legislation responsibly once it is approved and then decide, while also closely follow the legislative process. "Even today I've failed to understand the urgency of all this. The office is so tiny that if we were talking about fiscal consolidation, it's absolutely just a drop in the ocean in the context of the budget. I think that Slovakia has far more serious problems at the moment than dealing with the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers," said Pellegrini. He added that he fails to understand, if the government saw a need to change UOO, why the cabinet didn't propose this during its previous two years in office, and why it was necessary to convene a special emergency government session on Saturday (22 November) and push the changes through via fast-tracked proceedings. LISBON - The peace negotiations on Ukraine are currently only in the hands of the American, Russian and Ukrainian presidents - Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, respectively, and Europe will have to be part of the final decision on the peace plan, but for now it shouldn't be upset that it isn't sitting at the negotiating table, stated President Peter Pellegrini on Thursday. At a press briefing at the end of his state visit to Portugal, Pellegrini reiterated that he welcomes Trump's efforts to end the war in Ukraine. The US peace plan for Ukraine was presented last week, but it underwent extensive revisions following negotiations between the US and Ukrainian delegations in Geneva. For example, the original version assumed that Ukraine would cede the entire Donbas region to Russia and commit itself to limiting its army to a maximum of 600,000 troops and never joining NATO. The Slovak head of state admitted that the first published 28-point plan was relatively harsh on Ukraine. "On the other hand, many of those points, even though many people or many leaders in Europe don't like them, were simply based on hard pragmatism and the logic of what is or is not possible to achieve," he told reporters outside the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon. BRATISLAVA - Speaking to MPs in the House on Thursday, Constitutional Court chair Ivan Fiacan appealed to Parliament to fulfil its constitutional duty and elect the necessary number of candidates for one vacant post of Constitutional Court judge. "For more than two years, Parliament has been unable to fulfil its constitutional duty to elect the necessary number of candidates for one vacant post of Constitutional Court judge and subsequently propose these candidates to the president so that he can appoint the missing judge ... I wouldn't like my speech to be perceived as pressure or a reminder of constitutional obligations, of which Parliament is probably aware. I believe that the House and the relevant political entities are aware of their political and legal responsibility to carry out this constitutional obligation," he stated. BRATISLAVA - The reason why Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) wants to sue the European Union (EU) for banning Russian gas is not to protect people or ensure Slovakia's energy security, in fact, it is an attempt to save profits from gas transportation, which are falling dramatically, and according to current proposals, Slovak industry and households will have to pay for their replacement, MP for the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party Karol Galek stated at a press conference on Thursday. The MP stated that the premier's rhetoric on Russian gas is misleading. "The ban on Russian gas is not to be enforced until 1 January 2028. We still have two years to prepare, and it isn't true that we're unable to cut ourselves off from Russian raw materials. In 2022, we managed to significantly increase gas supplies from non-Russian sources in four months, and we're still using this gas today," he pointed out. According to him, Slovakia doesn't need Russian gas because it isn't cheap at all, Russia's Gazprom isn't fulfilling its contractual obligations and isn't paying a single euro for transit, and at the same time its supplies pose a security risk. "Fico isn't interested in cheap gas, but in profits from its transit," said the opposition MP. BRATISLAVA - Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) is filing a motion with the Prosecutor-General's (PG) Office against his predecessors for their alleged idleness in protecting potable water sources and removing the environmental damage from the premises of the former Istrochem chemical plant in Bratislava, the Environment Ministry's communications department has informed TASR. It added that a ruling issued by a district office in 2016 was available to Taraba's predecessors, based on which they were supposed to act on behalf of the state. "My predecessors didn't take even the basic steps set by a district office to protect potable water sources when it came to this, the biggest environmental damage in central Europe," stated Taraba. ko