Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday May 21 that by releasing the contract on the surplus carbon-dioxide emission quotas Environment Minister Viliam Tursky did what he was asked to do, the TASR newswire reported.
Touching on the fact that the data on the amount and the price of the sold quotas has been deleted from the copy published on the ministry's website, Fico stressed that he asked for the contract to be made public – except for data subject to commercial confidentiality.
“We acted in a standard European manner,” said Fico.
When it comes to the option right as applied by Interblue Group to buy surplus quotas until 2012, Fico said that, according to his information, if any company submits a better bid it will take precedence over Interblue.
“I'm afraid that we'd not be able to carry out another sale within a short period of time, as these markets have been halted,” noted Fico.
According to Fico, the new environment minister knows that if he readies another sale of quotas, he will have to submit a proposal that will be comparable with European prices. The premier also said that the structure of the sale of the quotas last year was different in the Czech Republic than in Slovakia. TASR
Compiled by Spectator staff from press reports
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