PS Speaks of Slovakia's Isolation in Connection with EU Summit (2)

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. The opposition Christian Democrats (KDH) claim that in the key area of energy security, the prime minister failed to push through the resumption of oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline in the European Council's conclusions. According to the party, the summit also failed to deliver the expected solutions in the economic sphere. "Instead of resorting to blackmail, the premier should have chosen to pressure the Council on energy security and competitiveness. He could have thus achieved both his goal and the particularly necessary urgent review of the ETS system and other parts of the Green Deal, steps to ensure the availability of critical raw materials for our industry, as well as the setting of the future EU multiannual budget to meet the needs of our regions," noted KDH chairman Milan Majersky. 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. NOTE: This story has been extended to include paragraph three. am/df/am