SLOVAKIA’s Deputy Prime Minister for a Knowledge-based Society, European Affairs, Human Rights and Minorities, Dušan Čaplovič, was placed in charge of the Environment Ministry by President Ivan Gašparovič on Friday, August 28 after the prime minister banned the Slovak National Party (SNS), a junior coalition member, from naming a successor minister.
Čaplovič promised to cancel the questionable contract through which Slovakia sold its excess CO2 emissions quotas to an unknown company named Interblue Group, as well as two other controversial contracts signed by the Environment Ministry for disposal of fly ash and rental of land plots around the Danube River arm in Jarovce. Čaplovič also said he will order a stop to a controversial waste dump in Pezinok, in accordance with the Supreme Court's decision, the SITA newswire wrote.
The Environment Ministry will likely be forced to re-write the report on the sale the emissions quotas submitted by former minister Viliam Turský, said the parliamentary committee for agriculture, environment and nature on September 2.
Parliament will have the issue on its agenda during its first session after the summer recess starting on September 8. The head of the committee, Jozef Ďuračka (SNS), said that the report is vague about options, prices and other important details, the SITA newswire reported.
Former minister Turský submitted the report on July 17. Parliament required the minister to submit such a report after MPs from the opposition parties, joined by MPs from the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), a member of the ruling coalition, approved the proposal put forth by Pavol Frešo from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ).
