MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Saturday, 20 December 2025 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Friday, 19 December): BRUSSLES - Slovakia has for the first time refused to support European Council conclusions on Ukraine in order to avoid any association with being part of any EU "military" loan to Kiev, declared Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) on Friday. TASR learnt the news from its special correspondent in Brussels. "I've kept my word," said Fico after a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, describing the talks as demanding. Leaders of 25 EU-member states in a joint statement called for continued work on the technical and legal aspects of the tools needed to establish a reparations loan to be financed from frozen Russian assets in the EU. Slovakia and Hungary didn't sign up to the statement. Fico stressed that the Slovak government would never agree to this initiative. "Ukraine doesn't need weapons, it needs, above all, money for reconstruction," declared Fico, pointing to several bilateral cooperation projects, such as a school for Ukrainian children in Slovakia. According to Fico, there are disagreements among member states over the use of frozen Russian assets. "[Such a plan] carries enormous risks," said the Slovak prime minister, adding that he understands Belgium's concerns, as most such assets held in the EU are located there. In Fico's view, peace in Ukraine was again not discussed at the summit. EU leaders agreed on Thursday night that the EU will provide Ukraine with a loan financed by a common debt worth €90 billion for 2026 and 2027. Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, however, negotiated exemptions. They won't join joint guarantees related to the loan and won't pay interest. BRUSSELS - Slovakia will push to protect the interests of farmers and the cohesion policy when the EU long-term budget for 2028–2034 is being prepared, said Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) after the two-day EU summit in Brussels, a special TASR correspondent reports. At the European Council meeting, Fico reiterated Slovakia's positions, focused mainly on safeguarding farmers' interests and continuing the cohesion policy, which he said means securing sufficient resources to reduce regional disparities. "I want to say that we'll have to make huge compromises; we simply have to show understanding for one another," said the prime minister. He added that the planned volume of the long-term budget is €2 trillion, which means net contributors such as Germany, as well as smaller countries like Malta, are expected to significantly increase their contributions. According to him, for some countries this means an increase of up to 60 percent, and for others up to 100 percent. "The compromise must be that if we have ambitions, we have to talk about where we'll get the resources for everything the European Commission has planned. We're very far from agreement," he said about the situation. He added that there are efforts to reach an agreement on the Multiannual Financial Framework by the end of 2026, but he expressed doubts that this will succeed given the large number of conflicting views. "This is such a serious matter that in the end we'll have to agree, but it will require a great deal of compromise and also a great deal of respect for differing opinions," he said. During discussions among leaders on competitiveness, Fico said that he shares the same view as Slovak entrepreneurs at home: it's impossible to talk about competitiveness, even with regard to demanding climate targets, unless the problem of energy prices is resolved. BRATISLAVA - President Peter Pellegrini will decide whether to sign or veto the amendment to the Penal Code within the constitutional deadline, emphasising that he won't base his stance on the adopted law on the political wishes of either the coalition or opposition, TASR was told by the President's Office's communications department on Friday. "I want to assess the amendment to the Penal Code, which was approved last week by Parliament and is awaiting the president's decision, primarily from a professional point of view. I fully respect the right of every government to set criminal codes in line with its policies, programme and ideology. Therefore, in the case of every law, I examine first and foremost whether it poses a threat to the constitutionality, national interests or international obligations of the Slovak Republic," said the president, adding that his primary concern will always be the interests of the public. BRATISLAVA - If a parliamentary election had been held in December, it would have been won by the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party on 23.6 percent of the votes, followed by the senior governing Smer-SD (17.0 percent) and junior governing Voice-SD (9.6 percent) parties, according to a recent poll carried out by AKO agency on behalf of Joj 24 television channel. In fourth place would have been the opposition 'Slovakia' party (8.9 percent), followed by Freedom and Solidarity (SaS - 7.4 percent), the extra-parliamentary Republic (7.0 percent), the Christian Democrats (KDH - 6.6 percent), and Democrats (5.4 percent). The parties failing to make it past the 5-percent election threshold would have included the junior governing Slovak National Party (SNS - 4.7 percent), Hungarian Alliance (3.9 percent), 'Right to Truth' (2.5 percent), 'We Are Family' (2.2 percent), the Countryside Party (0.5 percent), the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS - 0.3 percent), Heart of Patriots and Pensioners, and the far-right LSNS (both 0.2 percent). BRATISLAVA - The shareholders of the largest electricity producer in Slovakia, Slovenske elektrarne (SE), decided to pay dividends at their general meeting held on Tuesday (16 December), thus contributing a significant amount of some €170 million to the state treasury at the end of the year, TASR learned from SE spokesperson Lenka Sarlakova on Friday. The state controls a 34-percent stake in the power utility, and its shareholder rights are exercised by the Economy Ministry. The remainder, 66 percent, is owned by Slovak Power Holding B.V., which belongs to Czech energy group Energeticky a Prumyslovy Holding (EPH). "Following EPH's entry into SE and the successful launch of the third unit at the Mochovce nuclear power plant in 2023, the company started reducing its level of debt, achieving a financial position that allows it to pay dividends to shareholders. In addition to taxes, we'll contribute €170 million to the state budget in dividends," said Slovenske Elektrarne head Branislav Strycek. "Thanks to completing the work on Mochovce, we're bringing greater energy security, cleaner air and a guaranteed price of baseload electricity for household suppliers," he added. This is the first dividend payment in the company's history since it was privatised in 2006. Shareholders will receive dividends totalling €500 million from retained profits. Until now, SE has reinvested all profits primarily into the construction and completion of the third and fourth reactor blocks at the Mochovce nuclear power plant, with the total costs of this strategic project making up the largest private investment in Slovakia reaching €6.6 billion. BRATISLAVA - The proportion of jobseekers in the working-age population (WAP) available to work reached 3.88 percent in November 2025, rising by 0.01 percentage points (p.p.) month-on-month and by 0.15 p.p. year-on-year, the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Centre (UPSVaR) reported on Friday. Another indicator, the share of jobseekers of working age in the working-age population, showed a similar trend, reaching 4.61 percent in November of this year, compared to 4.59 percent in October and 4.47 percent in November of last year. am