Taraba: Slovakia National Park Zoning Flawless

Bratislava, 2 September (TASR) - The zoning of national parks prepared by the Environment Ministry is without flaws, and the only problematic sections concern three national parks, the zoning of which was carried out by former environment minister Jan Budaj and former deputy environment minister Michal Kica, Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (SNS nominee) declared on Wednesday. In a video posted on social media, Taraba responded to Wednesday's talks in Brussels involving Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD), who has been tasked with overseeing the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery Plan and Knowledge Economy. The talks concerned the fulfilment of the targets of Slovakia's Recovery and Resilience Plan. In response, Budaj told TASR that Taraba was not telling the truth. "Those who lectured us for two years on how zoning should be done are precisely the ones who carried it out in such a way that the largest number of questions and problematic sections concern these three national parks," Taraba said in the video. He highlighted that the European Commission does not see a problem with state forests cooperating with national parks. "We have zoning that significantly increases nature protection and the area in which nature is protected. At the same time, national parks are also places for tourism and agricultural activity. We have protected these activities because that's how it is throughout Europe. We will not be building any open-air museums in Slovakia," Taraba claimed. Following Wednesday's expert talks with representatives of the EU executive in Brussels, Drucker said that the European Commission has identified no serious problems or risks concerning Slovakia's fulfilment of the targets of its Recovery and Resilience Plan. He said the constructive talks confirmed that the European Commission did not see any "serious problems or risks" with Slovakia, and that in Brussels he had "provided further clarification" of the Slovak side's views. Environment Deputy Minister Filip Kuffa, the opposition and environmental organisations had recently warned that €450 million from the recovery plan was at risk. They pointed to disputed government resolutions, whereas the ministry rejected the claims. The European Commission confirmed at the time that it was monitoring the situation and assessing all concerns raised regarding government resolutions on national park zoning. mf