Fico: Summit in Bratislava Should Tackle Dual-quality Standards

Fico: Summit in Bratislava Should Tackle Dual-quality Standards

Bratislava, October 8 (TASR) – A summit of several European countries entitled ‘For Equal Quality of Products for All’, which is scheduled to take place in Bratislava next Friday, should put pressure on relevant EU bodies and the European Commission to present measures aimed at tackling dual-quality standards of products sold in old and new EU-member countries, said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at a press conference on Sunday.

Fico stated that the pressure so far has already produced some results, as some supranational companies are already either changing the packaging of individual products or are making products of the same quality.

“Our goal is to invite to Bratislava relevant figures from the European level. We expect relevant commissioners, representatives of relevant European Parliament committees and also representatives of supranational producers and consumer associations, including guests from Slovakia,” said Fico.

“If we don’t see more energy in dealing with this problem, we’ll consider unilateral moves in Slovakia,” said Fico, adding that this could include “more sovereign” supplying of public canteens with Slovak food.

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Gabriela Matecna (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee), also present at the press conference, noted that the summit should be attended by the prime ministers of the Visegrad Four group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), two European commissioners, MEPs and several agriculture ministers.

“In any case we want Commissioner [for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera] Jourova to present methodology for tests with results that can’t be challenged. We want to see in the EU, which we view as our place, single quality, and we want existing legislation to be implemented in order to avoid dual quality,” added Matecna.