Justice Minister Daniel Lipšic withdrew his conflict of interest law from parliament after MPs wanted to modify the original draft to a point that Lipšic said it would make the legislation unenforceable.
MPs thus failed for the sixth time to approve the law that aims to increase the control of legislators and state officials.
At a parliamentary session on January 21, MPs were pushing for a change to the original draft that would require a three-fifths majority of the parliamentary conflict of interests committee to approve a sanction for the breach of the law, the Slovak daily SME wrote.
The Justice Ministry was proposing a one-third majority.
The highest sanctions in the law, the withdrawal of an MP’s mandate or an Sk1 million (€24,000) fine, were also attacked. The opposition Smer party argued that the sanctions were unconstitutional.
Slovakia’s current conflict of interest law is widely seen as ineffective and since it was approved in the mid 1990s, no official has ever been found guilty of breaking the law.
Compiled by Martina Pisárová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
