President: It's High Time to Start Treating Bratislava as Capital City (2)

Bratislava, December 18 (TASR) - Bratislava should enjoy a special benefit or a bonus contribution in its financing from the central Government as a show of gratitude for the fact that the city carries out different tasks than the rest of Slovakia, which stem from its status of the capital city, President Peter Pellegrini declared after his Wednesday's meeting with Bratislava Mayor Matus Vallo and Bratislava Regional Governor Juraj Droba. Pellegrini praised the fact that Bratislava pursues a vision of development that goes beyond a single election cycle. "Bratislava is the capital city of us all. We should treat it as other states and nations honour their own capital cities," claimed Pellegrini at a press briefing. According to Pellegrini, it's necessary to start talking about the future financing for the local and regional authorities. To this end, he plans to organise a big summit of self-governing authorities at the Presidential Palace in early 2025. The search for solutions to streamline the running of local and regional authorities must begin in the "bottom-up" approach and not start at the top-down initiative by the central Government. In Pellegrini's view, difficult reforms and the streamlining must be conducted only after a mutual agreement and synergy, whereas some responsibilities over a proportion of the repressive tasks of the police force should be shifted to towns and villages. The President praised measures of the Bratislava region that enabled the financing of Bratislava region's schools with the EU funds and views in positive light also investments into the restoration of cultural monuments and the integrated transport. Droba voiced his appreciation for the fact that Pellegrini is the first president in history who has shown interest in the regional affairs as early as in the first year of his mandate. He called talks with the head of state factual and specific, and underlined that the Bratislava region intends to pursue plans of development, the extent of which goes decades into the future. The meeting was commended also by Mayor Vallo, who underlined that it didn't feature only the exchange of information but also a genuine dialogue. Vallo perceives positively the President's view on the change of financing for regions, towns and villages. "The process of drafting budgets of regional and local authorities is often impacted by chaotic passing of some laws and MP amendments in Parliament," emphasized Vallo, adding that the capital city lost dozens of millions of euros this way in the past three years alone. mf