Taraba: I Stand by Zoning Proposal for National Parks

Bratislava, 20 May (TASR) - I stand by the proposed zoning of national parks, and I've asked the Slovak National Party (SNS) to present its specific objections, as the work on the zoning proposal for the past six months has been managed by the Environment Ministry's service office general secretary Marek Chovan, who is an SNS nominee, said Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (an SNS nominee) after the cabinet session on Wednesday. He added that the proposal passed without comments at the session of the Government's Legislative Council held on Tuesday (19 May). Taraba said that he doesn't know where the problem lies and that he plans to ask Chovan in what particular aspects the zoning proposal was tailored to the needs of business groups, as claimed by SNS. "My duty was to provide political backing for zoning," stated Taraba, adding that it's been done very well. He expressed a guarantee that no massive development will take place in the Tatras once the new zoning is implemented, and he also rejected any talk about so-called oligarchs, claiming that he's "put them in their place". "Zoning doesn't establish legal entitlement to anything. Zoning is a vision, a statement of facts; it's not a piece of paper that you can bring to the building authority and say that you're going to build something just because the zoning plan says that it's possible in theory. In fact, that's exactly what zoning does not do," stressed Taraba. On Tuesday (19 May), SNS distanced itself from the Tatra National Park zoning proposal prepared by Taraba. According to SNS, Taraba is acting on his own responsibility and SNS didn't give him a mandate to submit a zoning proposal that fails to reflect the comments of landowners and other affected entities. The party also urged the minister to continue negotiations "without prioritising the interests of oligarchs". jrg/df