The Slovak government has not received any relevant proof that the sale of its excess emissions quotas last year to Interblue Group was disadvantageous to Slovakia, said Braňo Ondruš, the Government Office press department director to the TASR newswire on Wednesday, June 10.
Ondruš was reacting to information published by the Sme daily on the same day citing former Czech environment minister Martin Bursík who indicated that the Czech government had sold its quotas for a price of €10 per tonne. Bursík also refuted Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's claim that the Czech Republic committed itself to buy certain offset programmes from the Japanese government which could have been the reason why it received more for the quotas than Slovakia did.
“We don't know whether Fico's claim on the offsets isn’t true; after all, Bursík is only a former environment minister,” said Ondruš, adding that he would consider publication of the Czech contract – in the same way that the Slovak media are asking the Slovak cabinet to publish the Interblue contract – to be relevant proof. But Ondrus added that Fico isn't asking the Czechs to release their contract.
“The Czech Republic was selling its emissions quotas six months later; it can't submit proof that it did better in the sale. According to our information, the Czech Republic didn't sell any emissions quotas at all at the time Slovakia did,” said Ondruš. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
