The Parliamentary Committee for EU Affairs has not supported new powers for MPs related to the decision-making process concerning the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) issues. The draft signed by 30 opposition deputies should bind the representative of Slovakia in the ESM with a decision of the Parliament in the vote over increasing funds in the ESM from private resources, known as leveraging.
However, only six opposition MPs supported it at Monday's October 8 meeting of the EU affairs’ committee. Seven committee members from the Smer party were against it. The opposition defends the proposal saying that the increase in the ESM may lower the payback period of the means which Slovakia will put in the mechanism.
According to Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) Deputy Jozef Kollár, the ESM is ready to guarantee private investors for loss compensations of up to 30 percent of the nominal value and is also considering such a mechanism in which less solvent bonds would be purchased from public resources while the more solvent ones would be purchased from resources deposited by private investors. "This is why this proposal was created: so that such a serious vote on such a serious matter would first go through the Slovak Parliament," Kollár said, as quoted by the SITA newswire. Opposition deputies also say that based on the constitution, Slovak Parliament has the exclusive power to approve the state budget while the decision over increasing financial means in the ESM from private resources could influence the budget. However, Smer MPs consider such a measure unnecessary at present.
(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.
