The Agriculture, Environment and Regional Development Ministry’s State Secretary – and soon-to-be Environment Minister – József Nagy (Most-Híd party) on Monday, September 27, announced that he will do his utmost to retrieve €15 million from Slovakia's sale of emission quotas to the Interblue Group, the TASR newswire reported.
Nagy added that he considers the emissions sales contract as cancelled and that Interblue Group has no right to buy any more quotas. The €15 million in question is an addendum to the contract providing this additional payment if Slovakia’s used its proceeds from the original sale for 'green' projects.
Nagy, who is to take up the post of the Environment Ministry on November 1, 2010, said looking into the contracts from the era of the previous government is one of his priorities.
Among his other priorities, Nagy listed the restoration of Ministry's functions, speeding up and re-evaluating the anti-flood measures. “I also want to renew communication with the public and include this dialogue in the decision-making process in the environmental sphere,” said Nagy, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
Most-Híd chairman Béla Bugár stated that all coalition partners agree with Nagy's nomination. As far as the criticism levelled against Nagy for not being an expert in the environmental sphere, Bugár praised his party colleague as decisive and as a skilled manager. Nagy said he is mainly an expert in working with people and also said he has a “quite a good overview of environmental issues”.
Source: 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.
