SaS Blasts Shortened Debate on NGO Bill and Its Unclear Content

Bratislava, April 15 (TASR) - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party has criticised the shortening of the parliamentary debate on the amendment to the bill on non-profit organisations to just 12 hours, which means that the opposition will have less than six hours to express its stance on the proposal, MP Ondrej Dostal (SaS) warned on Tuesday. Dostal believes that the coalition usually employs such a procedure when it wants to pass "some outrageous measure". SaS also reproached the coalition for the fact that the final version of the legislation will remain unknown until the last minute, as it's still waiting to see whether Voice-SD will submit an amendment. Dostal thinks Voice-SD has ultimately been "pressured" to toe the line by the rest of the coalition. "The governing coalition has shortened the debate to 12 hours. That means the debate will last less than six hours, which is the time the opposition has at its disposal. I expect the opposition will use all the time it has, plus some time reserved by the coalition to present the amendment and throw some mud at NGOs and protest organisers," said Dostal at Tuesday's press conference. He also noted that the debate is scheduled to continue until the item is fully discussed, potentially even after 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday. SaS emphasised that the proposal from SNS was originally intended as a so-called "foreign agent law", as its authors claimed that it's important for the public to know which organisations are supported from abroad. Eventually, a section about NGO lobbying was added to the law. Dostal pointed out that on Monday (April 14) coalition representatives were no longer speaking about foreign agents or lobbyists with respect to this bill. "Now it's allegedly about some non-transparent way in which money was allocated to help Ukrainian refugees," he said, adding that the lobbying section may end up being removed from the final version. On Monday, representatives of Smer-SD and SNS called on Voice-SD to show unity on this issue. "The fact that the proposal will be discussed is clear proof that Voice has given in. Just days ago, Voice representatives were saying that it might be postponed again until the May session, but the fact that it's going to be debated is a strong signal that some agreement has been made," added Dostal. According to the amendment, non-profit organisations, foundations and associations with an annual income of over €35,000 will be required to submit a transparency report. The report should include information about individuals who have donated more than €5,000 to the organisation during the year. The proposal also aims to regulate lobbying. Its sponsors say that the goal is to make the functioning of organisations more transparent. According to them, nothing in the proposed legislation would prevent NGOs from operating, and they reject claims that the bill has drawn its inspiration from Russian legislation. mf/df