MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Wednesday, November 13, 2024 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Tuesday, November 12): BRATISLAVA - The State Commission for Elections and Supervising the Financing of Political Parties has decided not to investigate the actions of Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) in connection with this year's presidential election campaign, the ministry's spokesman Matej Neumann has reported. Several NGOs have claimed that during the campaign the minister defamed one of the candidates with paid posts on social media. As a result, the NGOs filed a complaint with the State Election Commission. The commission referred to the Constitution, stating that it didn't have the power to examine or field opinions on the procedures and decisions of other administrative authorities outside the scope of administrative procedures regulated by relevant legislation. Neumann stated that Sutaj Estok hasn't interfered in any way in the independence of the commission and has no reason to comment on the statements made by the Let's Stop Corruption Foundation and other non-profit organisations that filed the complaint. Let's Stop Corruption believes that such decisions show how rules in Slovakia do not apply equally to everyone. "We have serious doubts about the independence of the two authorities. This is a completely blatant case of violating the law on election campaigning, which is visible to everyone except the competent authorities," said head of the organisation Zuzana Petkova. She noted that the non-profit organisations have also contacted the Prosecutor-General's Office with the complaint. BRATISLAVA - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) and Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) on Tuesday launched the 2024 NATO Resilience Symposium in Bratislava. The conference, which is being co-organised by Slovakia for the first time, will focus on topics such as combating cyber-attacks, hybrid threats, terrorism and 'lone wolves', the interior minister explained. In addition, the symposium will focus on protecting logistics and transport, protecting and providing medical assistance, and protecting and providing energy supplies during a war. According to Sutaj Estok, Slovakia is a member partner of the EU and NATO that meets its commitments. At the opening of the event, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte addressed the participants via video and praised Slovakia for keeping to its pledge to invest 2 percent of GDP in defence. The Resilience Symposium is a strategic political-military event co-organised by the NATO Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia and the defence-planning division of the NATO International Staff in Brussels, together with a host country, every year, always in a NATO-member country. The resilience of critical civilian infrastructure is an important part of the NATO agenda, stated the Interior Ministry. The event is set to last until Wednesday. BAKU/BRATISLAVA - The longer we wait with the fight against climate change, the more we might lose in terms of our lifestyle, ecosystem and economy, President Peter Pellegrini declared during his speech at a UN Conference on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku on Tuesday. The Slovak head of state called on all countries of the world to join forces and seek solutions together. In his speech, Pellegrini pointed out that Slovakia has been one of the countries affected by the hottest summer in recorded history, concomitant with heavy rains and devastating floods. According to Pellegrini, no country in the world is big enough to face the climate change alone and he underlined the need for cooperation among all countries, including those with the largest economies as well as the greatest polluters. "The developing countries need our solidarity," he claimed, adding that Slovakia promised to contribute €2.2 million to the Climate Green Fund by 2027. "This will help our developing partner countries build a cleaner future." Pellegrini pointed out that Slovakia's emissions have dropped almost by 50 percent since 1990, with the last coal mine shut down in 2023. He added that Slovakia is recalibrating its focus on low-emission forms of energy - particularly nuclear energy and renewable energy sources. "My country plans to cut emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030. In order to accomplish this, we'll invest €14 billion in decarbonising the sector and increasing renewable sources to bolster our resilience," said Pellegrini and added that this will be accomplished with measures that won't jeopardise jobs, competitiveness and the prosperity of the country. "If we as politicians lose trust from our citizens, we won't be able to succeed." At a subsequent press briefing, Pellegrini told journalists that Slovakia has met its commitments stemming from the Paris Climate Agreement unequivocally. In addition, Slovakia will join a COP29 initiative called "No New Coal", presented at the summit by Azerbaijan with a mind towards ending coal-based electricity production. Pellegrini stated that Slovakia has already accomplished such a state and will extend support to the initiative. Pellegrini emphasised that he won't join the criticism that an oil- and gas producer like Azerbaijan shouldn't organise a climate-oriented summit. "On the contrary, I welcome the fact that we're in this very country today because it shows how an economy, previously completely dependent on oil and gas revenues, can gradually start to change... and change also its energy mix towards renewable sources," he added. BRATISLAVA - At its Tuesday's meeting with Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD), the Doctor Union Association (LOZ) discussed the first item of the 2022 memorandum concerning the financing of hospitals and agreed that a working group needs to be formed to address the issue, LOZ head Peter Visolajsky reported after meeting the minister on Tuesday. The doctors haven't withdrawn their notices yet and insist on having the Government deal with the problems in the health sector. "It's crucial for us to fix this, so that it's clear what insurers actually pay hospitals for. We want to have standardised contracts between hospitals and insurers and be able to check them because that enables also checking the efficiency of hospitals. If you have a contract that's checkable, comparable between hospitals, it's easy to ascertain which hospital met its commitments, performed as many surgeries and treated as many patients as promised and which hospital didn't. So, on our behalf, we insist on having standardised contracts that will be transparent and public," explained Visolajsky. Visolajsky added that doctors are not entertaining the withdrawal of their notices at the moment and wish to go through all items of the referendum with the minister first. The next meeting has been slated for Thursday (November 14). mf