PM Robert Fico (left) and Health Minister Kamil Šaško during a press conference. (source: SITA)
As the World Health Organization continues high-stakes negotiations on a new pandemic treaty in Geneva, Slovakia has faced scrutiny for sending no public health experts to the table. The country’s delegation, participating in the talks that began on Monday and will run until 11 April, is attending without any of the four specialists originally selected to represent Slovakia, according to daily Sme.
Professor Jozef Šuvada, Slovakia’s honorary ambassador to the WHO for global health, and three other experts—including infectious disease and immunology specialists—were unexpectedly removed from the list of delegates. According to information obtained by Sme, the Health Ministry cancelled their participation at the last minute. It has yet to explain why.
According to the daily, Šuvada was permitted to join the meeting only virtually.
Šuvada had led a working group tasked with drafting Slovakia’s official comments on the treaty. But the document he and his colleagues prepared was later amended—without their knowledge—by the Health Ministry in coordination with the Foreign and Justice Ministries. The final version was approved by Prime Minister Robert Fico’s cabinet in a classified session last week.
“I don’t know. It wasn’t my proposal,” said Health Minister Kamil Šaško (Hlas) when asked why the document had been classified. He also denied knowing that Šuvada had been removed from the Geneva delegation, despite confirming days earlier that he had seen his name on the list.
The Health Ministry did not say, even after several days, who exactly represented Slovakia.
Most of Slovakia’s submitted comments, insiders say, were either irrelevant to the treaty text or belonged in European Council discussions.
The government’s handling of the treaty negotiations echoes its earlier decision to distance Slovakia from an update of international health regulations—then the only WHO member to do so. That position was pushed by government envoy and SNS MP Peter Kotlár, who has accused the WHO of eroding national sovereignty.
More than a year ago, Prime Minister Fico dismissed the proposed pandemic treaty as a fabrication driven by pharmaceutical companies.
