Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič vetoed an amendment made to the country’s Competencies Act on Thursday, August 26, and as a result, the re-establishment of Slovakia’s Environment Ministry will not take place unless parliament overrides the veto, the SITA newswire reported. Gašparovič recommended that lawmakers do not pass the amendment, Elena Bianchi of the President’s Office told SITA.
The Environment Ministry would be re-established as of November 1 (the proposed date of the amendment becoming effective) if parliament passes this piece of legislation again. The president made three remarks regarding the amendment and one of them was that the name of the ministry should reflect additional areas under its jurisdiction such as forestry-related activities.
The president did sign a revision to the Penal Code, designed to avoid shifting of criminal cases between courts and the prosecutors' offices. The legislation, prepared by the Justice Ministry to prevent the entry-into-force of a previous revision approved by the former parliament, got the green light from lawmakers in fast-track proceedings on August 11.
The previously-passed amendment would have enabled judges to return the criminal proceedings to prosecutors for new investigations, arguably for practically any reason according to the current Justice Ministry.
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.
