MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Thursday, 21 May 2026 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Wednesday, 20 May): PRESOV - The Defence Ministry has announced a tender for completing the construction of the new hospital in Presov, according to information published in the Public Procurement Office's (UVO) bulletin. The value of the contract is estimated at €280 million (ex-VAT). The construction work is expected to take 18 months, with an additional six months intended for a trial run. Those interested have until 19 June to submit applications in the tender. The subject of the contract is implementing the second stage of a project titled 'Development and Modernisation of the J.A. Reiman University Hospital with Polyclinic in Presov'. According to the tender dossiers, the stage in question entails continuing to implement the work in a smooth manner and following up on the constructed structures of the building. The newly announced tender includes, among other things, completing the construction of the load-bearing structure from the first above-ground floor up to the roof. "The technical and contractual conditions for carrying out the work will be subject to negotiations with the selected candidates," state the dossiers. The procurement is being carried out by the SNP Central Military Hospital in Ruzomberok (Zilina region), which has been tasked with this by the ministry as its founder. BRATISLAVA - The Supreme Court (NS) on Wednesday found former Smer-SD MP Lubica Roskova guilty in the farm subsidy fraud case, giving her a two-year suspended sentence with a three-year probation period. The court also imposed probation supervision on Roskova, a fine amounting to €10,000, and a ban on applying for money from the EU budget during the probation period. If she fails to pay the fine, an alternative sentence of one year in prison will be imposed. The verdict is final and valid. The Supreme Court also overturned the ruling of the first-instance court, and it decided not to recognise the Agricultural Payment Agency (PPA) as an injured party in the proceedings. As a result, the agency cannot claim damages related to these criminal proceedings. Roskova faced charges of damaging the financial interests of the European Union and subsidy fraud. She didn't come to the court to hear the verdict in person on Wednesday. Roskova's lawyer Ondrej Urban is satisfied that his client no longer has to pay almost €152,000 in compensation to PPA. He also agreed with the appellate court's decision to reduce the sentence. According to prosecutor Ladislav Masar, the appellate court made the right decision. "I very much appreciate the fact that the court dealt with the case thoroughly, slightly revised the legal classification and fixed the mistakes that were made during the proceedings. In my opinion, it was a very well-considered decision," stated Masar. STRASBOURG/BRATISLAVA - MEPs have called on the European Commission (EC) to assess a possible serious breach of the EU's founding values by Slovakia's government, according to a resolution adopted by the European Parliament with 347 votes in favour, 165 against and 25 abstentions at a plenary session held in Strasbourg on Wednesday. MEPs are also concerned about the deterioration of democracy and the rule of law in Slovakia, where systemic deficiencies endanger the protection of the EU's financial interests. Slovak MEPs from the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party did not vote, while all of the remaining Slovak MEPs voted against. In the adopted resolution, the MEPs called on the EC to make full use of all available tools to address the aforementioned concerns with a view to ensuring compliance with the values enshrined in EU Treaties, starting with preventive tools. Where concerns persist and are duly substantiated, the EC shouldn't hesitate to make use of all enforcement measures at its disposal, including infringement procedures, suspension of payments or the application of recovery procedures. The MEPs also expressed regret over recent amendments to Slovak criminal law, including a reduction in penalties for corruption and financial crimes, the shortening of statutes of limitations, and the closure of the National Crime Agency (NAKA) and the Special Prosecutor's Office (USP). This has resulted in a significant drop in the number of corruption cases, thus undermining the prosecution of offences involving EU funds. BRATISLAVA - Prime Minister Robert Fico on Wednesday met Albanian President Bajram Begaj at Government Office in Bratislava during Begaj's official visit to Slovakia, Government Office's press department told TASR on the same day. The two leaders discussed bilateral relations, the situation in the Western Balkans region, as well as current issues in European politics. "Economic cooperation is our highest priority. Our mutual trade turnover has been continuously growing and we see opportunities particularly in energy, infrastructure, digitalisation, waste management and tourism," Fico said, adding that there was also significant potential for cooperation in the defence industry. An important step towards strengthening bilateral economic cooperation was the conclusion of an agreement on the avoidance of double taxation and tax evasion, which entered into force in April 2024. BRATISLAVA - Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (nominee of Slovak National Party) does not believe that a real request for his dismissal has been made and says he is treating such information with a great deal of caution. "A month ago, the chairman of the Slovak National Party publicly said that I was a very good manager in the post of minister. I thank him for the support he expressed at that time. Therefore, I do not believe that a real request for my dismissal has been made. I am a minister without scandals, I manage the ministry together with many capable people, many of whom were directly appointed by the chairman of the Slovak National Party himself, and those that proved capable and reliable have remained in their positions," Taraba posted on social media on Wednesday. Taraba added that he believes national politics should be about substance rather than the constant creation of conflicts. "Therefore, I am treating all published information with great caution. People expect solutions and performance from politicians, which is why I will not take part in these rumours," he added. The Slovak National Party has proposed, as one of the alternatives with respect to the announced government reshuffle, to replace its nominee in the post of environment minister. According to the party, Taraba has been running the ministry fully autonomously for the past three years, including personnel appointments, while for a long time there has been no substantive discussion even on key materials prepared by the ministry. BRATISLAVA - The governing coalition still cannot agree on measures aimed at helping the Slovak economy, opposition parties warned on Wednesday after a cabinet session, criticising the government for once again postponing discussion of the proposals. According to opposition representatives, the coalition only at the last moment discovered the need to discuss the measures with social partners and is now using this as an excuse to delay their approval. The measures were originally expected to be known in March. "We finally expected to see something specific, but once again there's nothing. The latest excuse is that they need to talk to the tripartite because trade unions reminded them the unions exist too and that normal government dialogue with partners calls for discussion. In reality, the reason we saw nothing at today's cabinet meeting is that they are unable to prepare it and are bickering among themselves," said opposition MP and House Finance Committee member Stefan Kiss of Progressive Slovakia. He also pointed out that the government has still not released any specific list of measures and continues to speak only in general terms. Originally, the package was supposed to contain 90 measures, but the list has now been reduced to 54, none of which, according to Kiss, would significantly help the economy. "There are 54 cosmetic adjustments, which they call measures. Like the fourth Fico government itself, like tea brewed four times over, this is what they are now going to negotiate with social partners," the opposition lawmaker added. The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party also lambasted the government's continuing failure to prepare pro-growth measures. According to the party, Prime Minister Robert Fico's (Smer-SD) cabinet has failed to deliver concrete solutions for the economy, businesses and working people despite weeks of promises. jrg