Kuffa Warns National Park Zoning May Face EU Scrutiny over Government Clause

Bratislava, 2 July (TASR) - The European Commission could raise objections to Slovakia's national park zoning plans, not because of the zoning itself but due to a provision included in a government resolution, Deputy Environment Minister Filip Kuffa stated on Slovak Radio's 'Z prvej ruky' programme on Thursday. According to Kuffa, the conditions of Slovakia's Recovery and Resilience Plan have not been met. Kuffa said he had already discussed the issue with fellow deputy minister Martina Sabelova, warning her that one provision of the government resolution states that although the land would formally come under the administration of national parks, it would in practice remain under the control of the state forestry enterprise. "From the outset, the European Commission told us that it viewed this as a problem. For me, this is complete nonsense and a major surprise that something like this happened at yesterday's government session," Kuffa said. Opposition MP Tamara Stohlova (Progressive Slovakia/PS) said it was absurd for Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (an SNS nominee) or Kuffa to claim they did not know how the Recovery Plan criteria had been included. "Minister Taraba was there when it happened a year ago. And over the past year, no one from the ministry has been able to ensure that the national park zoning met the required criteria, despite the fact that almost half a billion euros is linked to it," she said. In a statement issued on Thursday afternoon, Stohlova called on the government to immediately inform the public about the approved amendments. "We need to know whether they mishandled the zoning plans to such an extent that we'll have to pay a penalty for reversing a Recovery Plan milestone that has already been paid out. In addition, €453 million from the eighth payment request, which is linked to the approved zoning plans, as well as the ninth payment request, remains at stake. Those requests have not yet been paid," she said. mf