MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Tuesday, October 8, 2024 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Monday, October 7): UZHHOROD - Slovakia unconditionally supports Ukraine's accession to the EU, and it won't put any obstacles in the way of its integration process, said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) before the start of a joint session of the Ukrainian and Slovak governments near the Ukrainian town of Uzhhorod on Monday. "We know how useful it will be not only for us, but also for you if we have another EU-member state as a neighbour. We also need to have you there because sometimes countries with a different history, a different language have to come together in the EU to create a counterbalance to proposals that are not always beneficial for the whole Union," said Fico, warning that there will be countries in the EU that will "check in all sorts of ways to make sure that the process of Ukraine's accession isn't too fast". According to Fico, Slovakia offers Ukraine specific expertise and an exchange of experiences from the integration process. At the same time, Slovakia will participate in all peace conferences aimed at ending the war between Ukraine and Russia, claimed Fico. According to the premier, peace for Ukraine must be quality, fair and sustainable. Ukraine must have security guarantees, and its sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. According to the Slovak premier, the government is also preparing another humanitarian aid package and a 14th military aid package for Ukraine focusing on non-lethal assistance. UZHHOROD - The Slovak government is interested in continuing intergovernmental consultations with Ukraine and so it invites the Ukrainian government to another joint meeting in January or February next year, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said following a joint session of the Slovak and Ukrainian governments near the town of Uzhhorod on Monday. Fico at the same time said that he is in favour of any plan to guarantee peace in Ukraine. "If a big peace summit that will take place at some point includes meetings at a lower level, perhaps at a level where the sub-parameters of the big summit will have to be discussed, I offer Slovak hospitality," Fico said. Slovakia, he added, would spare neither resources nor energy on such an occasion and would do everything possible to make the eventual conference as successful as possible. After the joint session, the Slovak and Ukrainian interior, education and agriculture ministers signed joint memoranda. SALA - Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (SNS nominee) overrode the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) decision that had originally greenlighted the building of a garbage disposal plant in the town of Sala (Nitra region), which means that the entire evaluation process will start over again, the Environment Ministry announced on Monday. It was a company called ewia that back in 2019 filed an application with the Environment Ministry to build a garbage disposal plant in Sala. The facility was proposed to dispose of 130,000 tonnes of garbage annually and create 200 jobs. The ministry under Jan Budaj (2020-23) approved the project and it received its EIA clearance on January 13, 2023. The ministry under the previous leadership stated that Slovakia will urgently need three high-capacity and modern garbage disposal plants, also due to prerequisites of the European legislation, due to come into effect as of 2035. "After examining the whole case, my impression is that the application for the environmental assessment lacked another relevant, alternative variant for public evaluation," stated Taraba. BRATISLAVA - The state's tax and levy revenues should grow significantly faster year-on-year (10.1 percent) than accumulated expenditures (2.9 percent) next year, according to the October tax prognosis published by the Finance Ministry's Financial Policy Institute (IFP) on Monday, which involves an improvement from the previous (June) prognosis. This would be a significant change compared to this year, when expenditures should grow by 20.2 percent and revenues by only 8.4 percent. zel