Foreign Policies

Solymos Happy with Outcome of Slovak EU Presidency

Bratislava, January 3 (TASR) – Environment Minister Laszlo Solymos (Most-Hid) has expressed his satisfaction with the results of the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU.

“With the ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement, we pulled off a tour de force. The EU got this mechanism off the ground,” said Solymos in an interview for TASR, noting that it took enormous efforts to arrive at the agreement.

“Unlike the Kyoto Protocol before, the Paris Agreement was ratified within a short space of time,” said the minister. Slovakia and the EU played a part in ensuring that the agreement became effective before the climate talks in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Notwithstanding the lack of agreement on a reform of the emissions trading scheme towards the end of the Slovak presidency, Solymos is confident that the Paris Agreement will be implemented in practice. The change in the scheme is an essential condition for fulfilling its objectives in the fight against climate change. At any rate, the talks have made progress, and Solymos believes that the reform will be hammered out during the current Maltese presidency.

Solymos also conveyed his praise of the people that he worked with. “They did an excellent job, which was shown in the results. The Environment Ministry had the broadest agenda as far as the presidency went,” said Solymos.

SPPK: If Farmers Aren't Taken Seriously, They Will Be Seen in Streets More Often

If farmers' demands are not taken seriously, they will be seen in the streets more often, Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber chairman Emil Macho told a news conference held in front of the Parliament's building on Thursday.

PM: Slovakia to Organise Repeated Mass Testing, Two Dozen Districts Exempt

Bratislava, November 2 (TASR) – Slovakia will organise a repeated mass testing for the coronavirus, but districts with positivity rates below 0.7 percent in the testing this past weekend will be exempt from the second round, Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) announced after a meeting of the Central Crisis Management

Fico: Slovakia to Receive €1 bn of €10-bn Package of EU Funds for Floods

Slovakia will receive €1 billion of the €10-billion package from EU cohesion funds to deal with the consequences of the recent floods, Premier Robert Fico, who attended on Thursday a meeting of premiers and the European Commission on floods in Wroclaw, Poland, told a press conference on Friday.

Read next