Bozik: ZMOS Wants to Intensify Cooperation with Czech Partners This Year

Bratislava, 14 January (TASR) - The Slovak Towns and Villages Association (ZMOS) plans to intensify and expand cooperation with Czech partners in 2026, ZMOS head Jozef Bozik stated on TASR TV on Wednesday. "ZMOS has been in existence for 35 years, and so far we haven't signed any bilateral agreements with the Czech Towns and Villages Union or the Czech Local Authorities Association, but we're going to remedy that this year," he said. According to him, we have a lot to learn from Czech local governments, but the Slovak side can also offer interesting joint projects. "We're trying to place greater emphasis on Czechoslovak cooperation. This is fundamentally important to me in terms of values, as I come from the youngest city in the first Czechoslovak Republic," said Bozik, who is also the mayor of the town of Partizanske (Trencin region). However, according to him, ZMOS's main priority remains defending the interests of Slovak towns and municipalities in communication with the Slovak government and Parliament. Back in 2025, ZMOS opened a society-wide discussion on the constitutional law on budgetary responsibility, the so-called debt brake. This year, it would like to convince Parliament to amend the law. "We want to exempt towns and municipalities from the strict sanctions," said Bozik, adding that towns and villages account for only a negligible percentage of Slovakia's total debt. "If we don't exempt local governments and have to fully enforce the debt brake law, 99 percent of towns and municipalities won't be able to survive economically," maintained Bozik. am