MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Friday, 13 March 2026 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Thursday, 12 March): BRATISLAVA – Slovakia has for now concluded a series of successful repatriations from the Middle East comprising 17 evacuation flights, with the final two flights from Dubai transporting a total of 177 people to Bratislava on Tuesday (10 March) and Wednesday (11 March), the Foreign Affairs Ministry's communications department has told TASR, adding that of this number, 134 were Slovak nationals. In coordination with the Defence and Interior Ministries, the Foreign Ministry has transported a total of 811 people to Slovakia over ten days on 17 flights from Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on board government and special military aircraft. Of this number, 617 were Slovak men and women, while the rest were people of 36 other nationalities. Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) said that the repatriation effort was a major logistical and organisational challenge requiring close cooperation between ministries and the professional commitment of dozens of people. "I extend my gratitude to our diplomats, crisis management staff, employees of Slovak embassies abroad, flight crews of the government and the armed forces, as well as others who worked around the clock in shifts to help citizens return home safely," said Blanar. At a briefing held at M.R. Stefanik Airport in Bratislava on Wednesday, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) stated that the evacuation flights represented the "most intensive repatriation operation" in Slovakia's history. KOSICE/BRATISLAVA – The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is calling on House Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD), to take all steps necessary to ensure that the Constitutional Court is staffed with the full number of judges. SaS vice-chair Maria Kolikova pointed out that one of the court's 13 seats has been vacant since October 2023. Parliament has so far failed to elect candidates from whom the president would subsequently select a new constitutional judge. The term of another Constitutional Court judge, Jana Baricova, will expire in July of this year. In this context, the parliamentary chair on 9 January announced an election of candidates for the Constitutional Court, with the vote expected to take place during the parliamentary session starting on 26 May. "We're calling on the parliamentary chair to do everything possible to launch an election for both of these vacant posts and to see the selection process through to completion," said Kolikova outside the Constitutional Court building in Kosice. She pointed to the importance of the court in protecting constitutionality, democracy and the rule of law. "The governing coalition simply isn't doing everything it can to fill this post. It's clear that this seat is meant to be the subject of a political deal. It cannot be explained in any other way," said Kolikova, adding that there are enough qualified lawyers who meet the criteria to serve as Constitutional Court judges. BRATISLAVA – The local civic and preventive services project in Slovakia will continue even after the current project is scheduled to end at the end of 2026, as the Office of the Government Proxy for Roma Communities has found funding in cooperation with the Labour, Health and Education Ministries, Government Proxy Alexander Dasko told a press conference on Thursday, adding that local authorities are also expected to contribute. The project is expected to last another 18 months and should now be renamed local civil service. "I must begin with the good news that local citizen patrols and security services will continue. The project will last for another 18 months. We'll set further rules and requirements, but they will be much more specific than they have been so far," stated Dasko. The Office of the Government Proxy will allocate €15 million to the project, with co-financing from the three ministries bringing the total amount to nearly €20 million. Local authorities will also have to contribute financially to the project, as recommended by the European Commission. The office is therefore also holding talks with the Slovak Towns and Villages Association (ZMOS), the Slovak Towns Union (UMS), and the Self-governing Regions Association (SK8). BRATISLAVA - The United States is complying with established rules when flying aircraft over Slovak territory and it's also regularly notifying Slovakia of its flights, stated Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) in response to questions from the opposition at Thursday's session of the parliamentary committee on European affairs regarding US aircraft overflights in connection with the conflict in the Middle East. "Many of the flights have been solely civilian flights without any ammunition involved, because if they had been bombers or aircraft intended directly for military activities, the Americans would have had to inform us," said Blanar. Slovakia's chief diplomat pointed out that Slovakia is bound by several agreements concerning aircraft overflights, including an agreement on defence cooperation between Slovakia and the United States. He confirmed that more than 500 US aircraft have flown over Slovak territory since the beginning of the military conflict in the Middle East, adding that proof of notification is also available at the Defence Ministry. MP Gabor Grendel ('Slovakia'-'For the People') has repeatedly criticised the overflights, claiming that no regulation requires Slovak state authorities to unconditionally accept overflights of any military aircraft. BRATISLAVA - The development of a banking union and a savings and investment union in the European Union (EU), which would strengthen European competitiveness, as well as Slovak QR payments and bonds for people projects were high on the agenda of the meeting between Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) and European Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investment Union Maria Luis Albuquerque, who paid an official visit to Slovakia on Thursday. Kamenicky pointed out that Europe is mostly financed through bank loans, unlike the United States, where most businesses are financed through capital markets. According to him, this is also a reason why many companies leave Europe for the US. That is why the development and interconnection of capital markets, currently known as the savings and investment union, is an important issue in the EU. "It's important to launch a project in which all member states would combine their capital markets, where we, for example, could obtain financing from investors in Germany and France, or if our investors wanted to invest in one of the member states, they could do so through this system," Kamenicky told a press conference following the meeting, pointing out that this project has been discussed for a very long time. However, according to him, the current European commissioner is very active in this area, and therefore there is hope that it will move forward. BRATISLAVA - Discussions were held between Hungary and Slovakia regarding participation in inspecting the damaged Druzhba oil pipeline, but Hungary decided to carry out the inspection earlier than originally planned, Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) has confirmed for TASR following Thursday's session of the parliamentary committee on European affairs. Blanar was responding to the opposition, which has criticised Slovakia's non-participation in the inspection. The foreign minister stated that he considers it to be important that Slovakia asked Ukraine to allow an inspection to take place, adding that the European Union also requested this. According to him, Ukraine has also confirmed that a Hungarian delegation is on site. However, he said that the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry has declared that no such visit had been agreed upon and that it knew nothing about it. Progressive Slovakia chairman Michal Simecka criticised the fact that Slovakia isn't part of the delegation, even though Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) had been talking about it for several days. "The premier has been saying for several days that a delegation should be sent to Ukraine to inspect the damage to the Druzhba oil pipeline. Now a Hungarian delegation is going there, but Slovakia isn't part of it. I don't know if the government didn't know about it or if it didn't have time to pack," said Simecka. Blanar emphasised that Slovakia had asked the Ukrainians to allow an inspection to be carried out. "The same was true at the European Union level, with the European Union's representation in Kiev directly asking the Ukrainians to allow us to conduct an inspection with the participation of European experts, which the Ukrainian side has so far refused," he said, adding that this was the reason why Slovakia spoke to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen so that it would be possible to check the Druzhba oil pipeline in collaboration with the EU. jrg