PS Hails Regional Prosecutor's Protests over Istrochem Clean-up

Bratislava, 2 April (TASR) - The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party has welcomed the decision of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Bratislava to file three protests against district office decisions regarding liability for the environmental damage at the former Istrochem chemicals plant in Bratislava, TASR has learnt from PS MP Tamara Stohlova. As deputy chair of the House committee on agriculture and the environment, Stohlova also called on Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) to stop looking for "loopholes" and to allow a transparent decision on who should pay hundreds of millions of euros to clean up the damage at Istrochem. "The protest filed by the regional prosecutor's office is really good news for the people of Slovakia. The threat that we would all have to foot the bill to clean up a billionaire's land with public funds seems to be on hold for now. The prosecution service is now proposing to overturn district office decisions that we in PS have long criticised," stated Stohlova. She added that Taraba also had the chance to challenge the decisions but "cowardly backed down". According to Stohlova, PS filed a motion regarding this matter, and, "thanks to the documents we obtained, we were able to demonstrate non-compliance with legal conditions in the decision-making on who should remove this massive environmental damage". The prosecution service has thus agreed with PS's arguments that Istrochem has failed to prove that investments in the site have indeed improved the environment or to specify the exact amount spent on this purpose. Stohlova added that "declaring compliance with obligations in the privatisation contract and the project was insufficient to pass the responsibility for the clean-up to the state". The Regional Prosecutor's Office announced on Wednesday (1 April) that it's filed three protests against district office decisions, as it hasn't yet been proven that the legal conditions have been met for the state to take responsibility for the clean-up. The Environment Ministry has also welcomed the prosecutor's decision, stating that it proves that the parties to the proceedings, and in particular Bratislava's borough of Nove Mesto, shouldn't have allowed the district office's decision to become final. Taraba hasn't yet submitted a proposal to remove the environmental damage to the government for discussion. The former chemicals plant now known as Istrochem was purchased in 2022 by a holding which, at that time, belonged to billionaire and incumbent Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis. Its current owner is a company known as Istrochem Reality. The cost of clearing up the environmental damage at Istrochem is estimated at €350-500 million. jrg/df