Kuffa: National Park Zoning Reverses Reform, Risks EU Funding

Bratislava, 3 July (TASR) - Deputy Environment Minister Filip Kuffa insists that the approved zoning of Slovakia's national parks undermines the reform of the protected areas, and believes the European Commission will assess the move as a reversal of a Recovery and Resilience Plan milestone, TASR learnt on Friday. Kuffa made the remarks in a video posted on social media. He said he had personally overseen communication with the European Commission on the issue for more than a year, adding that the Agriculture Ministry had been unable to join the discussions. "I know how the European Commission is set up," he said. Kuffa warned that €450 million still due to be paid under the Recovery and Resilience Plan was at risk, as well as €1 billion already disbursed with respect to the national parks reform. According to Kuffa, the government resolution states that the state forestry enterprise Lesy SR should provide professional forest management and specialist care for forest stands and land. He said this demonstrated that Environment Minister Tomas Taraba "has absolutely no idea" how the organisations under his ministry, including the national parks, operate. Kuffa argued that each national park already manages its forests and land professionally, and has acquired the necessary equipment over the years, allowing much of the work to be carried out in-house. He said he supported this approach and dismissed claims that the parks lacked the technical capacity or staffing as "an absolute hoax". Opposition MP Tamara Stohlova of Progressive Slovakia (PS) said the party possessed the government resolutions on the zoning plans, which confirmed that the cabinet has effectively abandoned the core principles of the national parks reform, as Kuffa acknowledged. She criticised Prime Minister Robert Fico's government for discarding, during a 90-minute cabinet session, discussions with the European Commission that had lasted a year and a half. According to Stohlova, last-minute changes approved by the government run counter to both the zoning plans and the national parks reform, under which Slovakia has already received hundreds of millions of euros from the Recovery and Resilience Plan. She said the essence of both the reform and the zoning plans was that national parks should be managed by the Environment Ministry rather than by foresters. Stohlova also described as problematic a government amendment that has not yet been made public and will only become apparent once the regulations establishing the national parks are published. She said the amendment will weaken both the parks overall and their strictly protected Zone A areas. Environment Minister Tomas Taraba, an SNS nominee, said ownership and management of forests within national parks will be fully transferred to the parks themselves. He said the government had instructed the environment and agriculture ministers that, where active forest management was required — a decision that could only be taken by national parks — priority should be given to professional cooperation between the state forestry enterprise Lesy SR and the national parks, rather than automatically using private companies. Taraba also accused Kuffa of lying. Opposition MP Veronika Remisova (Slovakia-For the People) has referred the adopted national park zoning regulations to the European Commission. mf