The governing coalition has decided to seek changes in the powers of the General Prosecutor’s Office, Prime Minister Iveta Radičová announced after a five-hour meeting of a working group that had been charged with preparing proposals for changes in the office's functioning, the SITA newswire wrote.
The changes will concern appointment of prosecutors at district and regional prosecutor offices as well as the authority of the general prosecutor to halt investigations, SITA wrote.
The prime minister said she considers these changes crucial for improving trust in the rule of law. She said that the coalition will ask constitutional lawyers to judge the possibility of electing a new general prosecutor via a recorded vote in parliament. Most-Híd leader Béla Bugár added that the changes should make the General Prosecutor’s Office more flexible and better functioning.
The meeting also dealt with the coalition’s failure to elect a new general prosecutor. Radičová announced that the parties of the ruling coalition continue to support a change at the post of prosecutor general and stand by their candidate Jozef Čentéš. She admitted that the four attempts in parliament to elect a new general prosecutor had failed and the situation has resulted in a stalemate. She stated that the fact that six coalition deputies did not support the coalition's candidate does not cast doubts regarding the functioning of the coalition in the future.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
