Coalition Will Submit Resolution on Amendment on Non-profit Organisations

Bratislava, April 3 (TASR) - The coalition wants to submit to the current House session a resolution on an amendment to the Act on Non-Profit Organisations, Parliamentary Vice-chair Tibor Gaspar (Smer-SD) stated on Thursday. Among other things, the coalition wants to reject the idea that the legislation is a 'Russian law' and state that it is based on European standards and aims to make the financing and activities of organisations more transparent. The coalition plans to state via the resolution that the organisers of protests called 'No to Russian Law' are only seeking to protect the private financial interests of a number of opposition figures and their families, and to condemn this. "I want to tell people that they are being lied to. The slogan 'No to Russian Law' is meant to hide the fact that we aren't supposed to know who is living off all this money, who is organising, for example, even Thursday's civic gathering, how much money it will cost, and how much money it has cost so far. I think the public deserves that kind of information," said Gaspar at a press conference on Thursday. According to the House vice-chair, the coalition respects the right of people to assemble, but sees a different reason for organising the protests. "It's simply covering up how civil and non-governmental associations have been living here in recent years. They've engaged in politics and received funds from the financial budget, various European grants, and nobody knows for what purpose and for what goal," he stated, pointing out that a civil association called Forum Project, in which the mother of opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) leader Michal Simecka is allegedly the statutory representative, is supposed to return money to a European agency. "Because they can't provide the agency with documents for the grant," he added. am/df