Prime Minister Robert Fico said following the EU summit in Brussels on October 16 that he wanted to announce the adoption of an important measure on October 17 in connection with the pricing regime of Slovakia's gas utility Slovenský Plynárenský Priemysel (SPP), the TASR news agency wrote.
SPP announced on October 15 that it could not agree with the resolution of the Office for the Regulation of Network Industries (ÚRSO), which nixed its proposal to raise gas prices for households by 20 percent earlier this week. According to SPP, ÚRSO isn't taking into account the significant growth of expenses SPP faces when buying gas from Russia. Therefore, the company wants - after a thorough analysis of this decision - to consider legal action aimed at the protection of its rights.
Fico disputes this. In his opinion, the regulator was established in accordance with EU rules and has the authority to decide on prices.
"If the regulator rejects the proposal to increase the prices of gas, its decision has to be respected ... and not to fight over price as if the profit and nothing else but profit matters. If German and French owners want to behave like this on the territory of a sovereign country, if they think that they will make us tremble when they tell us that they will take us to court and if they think they will feed on the last crowns of people just because they want to fulfill some flow-charts they have drawn up in Berlin or Paris, then they are gravely mistaken ... They earned Sk16 or 17 billion (€531-564 million) last year, and they think it isn't enough?" Fico said. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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