Government: Malinec Power Plant Project to Become Significant Investment

Bratislava, 11 February (TASR) - The project to build the Malinec-Latky pumped-storage hydro-electric power plant will become a significant investment, according to a decision made by the cabinet at its session on Wednesday. The Environment Ministry explained its inclusion by pointing to objective and critical time pressure. Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National party/SNS nominee) is supposed to issue a certificate of significant investment within two weeks. The sum planned for preparing the hydro-electric power plant amounts to some €60 million. "A comparison of the usual time frames for standard permitting procedures (environmental impact assessment, zoning procedure and construction permit procedure), public procurement, and the actual implementation of construction and technological activities with the transmission system development schedule shows that it wouldn't be possible to complete the project on time under standard procedures," explained the ministry. According to the ministry, applying a special system for significant investments in the hydropower plant project won't merely simplify the administration of it; it's an essential prerequisite for safeguarding Slovakia's strategic interests in the field of energy. The application for issuing a significant investment certificate was submitted to the Environment Ministry by state-run water-management construction company Vodohospodarska vystavba on 5 December 2025. Following the government session, journalists asked Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD) whether the criticism from the local area concerning the Environment Ministry's approach to the project was also discussed at the session. "No one in the government felt that there were fundamental issues serious enough to prompt a move to halt the project," said Drucker. ko/df