Opposition Convenes Emergency Economic Committee and Criticises Government

Bratislava, 19 March (TASR) - MPs of the opposition Christian Democrats (KDH), Progressive Slovakia (PS) and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) parties at a press conference in Parliament on Thursday said that they are jointly calling for an extraordinary meeting of the House economic committee, adding that it's scheduled to take place within seven days, and its topic will be the fuel situation in Slovakia and the government's approach in this area, which is chaotic and ill-conceived. "The reason for convening an extraordinary meeting of the economic committee is the serious situation on the fuel market and the government's botched resolution, which fundamentally fails to consider important sectors of the economy, such as construction, agriculture and transport. We want to summon Economy Minister Denisa Sakova (Voice-SD) and a representative of the State Material Reserves Administration to the extraordinary committee session to answer a number of questions, because the situation is unclear and the government's resolution is botched," stated KDH MP Rastislav Kratky, adding that the opposition will, among other things, demand a revision of the regulation adopted by the government on Wednesday (18 March). Kratky believes that it's important to answer the question of how the cabinet intends to address rising fuel prices. "We know that they should have addressed this situation by diversifying sources long ago. This isn't a new situation. They failed to do so; they neglected their homework. What will fuel prices be? And what, then, is the end solution?" asked Kratky. "The situation is very serious, and the government is only informing the public - or rather, the media - about what it plans to do. It's acting on a day-to-day basis, without consulting stakeholders, without consulting the [House] economic committee, and without consulting political parties. It's just ranting," stated PS MP Ivan Stefunko. "This government suffers from one serious illness, and that illness is called chaos. We saw it in the case of energy aid, and we can see it in these measures, which are supposed to prevent or somehow protect us from the oil crisis currently affecting our region. Unfortunately, such measures and decisions are literally conceived overnight; they are chaotic, ill-conceived and communicated to no one," stated Karol Galek (SaS). The government on Wednesday adopted a regulation limiting the amount of diesel that can be purchased at petrol stations in Slovakia for the next 30 days. It is also temporarily restricting diesel exports from Slovakia. At the same time, a special diesel price - set as the average of prices in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland -- will apply at petrol stations to all vehicles registered outside Slovakia. am/df