Ziga: New URSO Law Presented to Ministries for Comments

Bratislava, March 15 (TASR) – An Economy Ministry-sponsored amendment to the Regulation of Network Industries Act was presented for inter-ministerial comments on Wednesday in order to present it to Parliament later this month, Economy Minister Peter Ziga announced on the same day.

The amendment is envisaged to enter into force as of June 1.

“The draft reacts to the situation involving regulated energy prices. The Office for the Regulation of Network Industries (URSO) will remain an independent body, but its activities and scope of action will be adjusted to make its decisions transparent and subject to analysis,” said Ziga, adding that independence shouldn’t be understood as a lack of obligation for the office to justify its decisions.

“In this amendment we also want to change governance and internal control, including [personnel] appointments at URSO,” said Ziga, noting that this also involves separating the posts of URSO chair and URSO Regulatory Council chair.

At the same time the URSO chair won’t be appointed by the president any more, but by the government. “It’s emerged in practice that the biggest share of political responsibility for its moves is borne by the government, so it’s logical to see it also having full responsibility for [URSO head] appointments,” said the minister.

Apart from that, URSO will also acquire two vice-chairs, with the signature of at least one of them being required under URSO’s price decisions.