Pellegrini Explains to Metsola What Is Unfounded in Resolution on Slovakia
Brussels, January 23 (TASR-correspondent) - The resolution critical of the Slovak Government, which was adopted by the European Parliament (EP) last week, contains parts that can be discussed but also matters that the European Parliament has no reason to deal with, Slovak Parliamentary Chair Peter Pellegrini (Voice-SD) said to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola in Brussels on Tuesday evening.
Pellegrini told TASR that he spoke with Metsola about the fact that some parts of the resolution criticising, for example, the amendment to the Penal Code and the scrapping of the Special Prosecutor's Office (USP) may be subject to discussion between the EP, the Slovak Parliament and the Slovak Government. He also told her that there are things in the resolution that shouldn't have appeared there at all because they are "purely of a domestic nature", seeing mainly the handwriting of the opposition MEPs behind it.
The Slovak parliamentary head emphasised that the EP resolution has nothing to do with MEPs' concern over the Slovak government's efforts to split the public-service broadcaster into two organisations or Prime Minister Robert Fico's (Smer-SD) refusal to communicate with selected media.
"There is a lot of unnecessary ballast that shows the bias of that resolution. On the other hand, I assured Metsola that the Slovak Government and the justice minister [Boris Susko (Smer-SD)] will conduct a dialogue with the relevant bodies of the European Parliament and the European Commission during the entire legislative process," stated Pellegrini, adding that it is necessary to wait for the final wording of this law.
According to him, he assured the EP head that the scrapping of the USP - a body that was created as a result of a political decision and which will also disappear due to political will - won't change anything in the investigation of corruption cases. He explained that special prosecutors will continue to investigate cases that are already in court or just before a lawsuit is filed, within the Prosecutor-General's Office.
