THE EUROPEAN Commission has objected that Slovakia produces too much steel in its eastern Slovak plant in Košice.
As U.S. Steel Košice (USSK) enjoys a ten-year tax holiday, Brussels and the Slovak government have agreed that the firm will partially limit its steel production. Slovak officials want the steel quotas to become valid only after Slovakia's formal entry into the European Union, but the EC claims that the quotas should have been observed from the date the accession agreement was signed, earlier this year.
The former main negotiator for the country's entry into the EU, Ján Figeľ, says that Slovakia should take the EC objections seriously.
However, USSK believes that the Slovak government will soon resolve the EC reservations related to the company's output.
10. Nov 2003 at 0:00 | From press reports