IN THE aftermath of the disastrous spill of toxic sludge in northern Hungary, Slovakia's Prime Minister Iveta Radičová convened a meeting with the country’s environment minister and business representatives to discuss drafting and passing a law to deal with environmental burdens that are potentially hazardous, the SITA newswire reported.
Such a law has been under consideration since 2003 and was most recently set to be presented to the cabinet in April 2008 but then-prime minister Robert Fico decided not to proceed further, saying he did not want to threaten employment, Radičová stated, as reported by SITA.
The draft law should be ready for interdepartmental review on November 15 at the latest, the prime minister said, and it should deal not only with existing environmental hazards but also offer ways to help municipalities with remediation work.
Radičová has initiated the revival of a working group to be composed of representatives from the government, the chemical industry, other employers and the non-governmental sector to assist in the process. Greenpeace, an NGO, welcomed the proposal, saying that it was ready to participate in the preparation of a draft law in this area.
