PS Speaks of Slovakia's Isolation in Connection with EU Summit

Bratislava, 20 March (TASR) - Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) failed to secure any concessions for Slovakia at the European Union (EU) leaders summit, MPs for the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party told a press conference on Friday, criticising Fico for this and speaking of Slovakia's isolation as a result of the current coalition's foreign policy. "Why has another summit ended with Slovakia achieving nothing? - because we're isolated, because for the past two years Fico has done nothing but take every opportunity to attack the EU and its representatives, including the European Commission (EC) and other member states, and then we wonder why no one takes our interests into account or listens to Fico," said party leader Michal Simecka. Leaders of 25 EU-member states called for the swiftest possible adoption of a 20th package of sanctions against Russia in Brussels on Thursday (19 March). They also expect the first tranche of the support loan for Ukraine to be disbursed in early April. Slovakia and Hungary didn't support the European Council's joint conclusions on Ukraine. Fico had previously indicated that he probably wouldn't support the conclusions if they didn't include a reference to the Druzhba pipeline, as he had demanded. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is blocking new EU restrictive measures against Russia and the disbursement of a €90-billion loan to Ukraine due to the halt in oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia. Kiev claims that the facility remains damaged following Russian attacks, while Budapest and Bratislava question this. am/df