BRATISLAVA, August 18, (WEBNOVINY) – According to the strongest coalition party SDKU-DS leader Mikulas Dzurinda, this fall will bring the answer to whether Slovakia will remain a member of an “elite club” or whether it will be branded as one of the less trustworthy countries. “Not in the scope of one month or one year, but literally in the scope of future decades,” said Dzurinda after the party presidium session this Thursday. Therefore there is, according to him, a need to adopt four documents dealing with extending the European Financial Stability Facility, establishing the European Stability Mechanism, adopting a responsible budget and a series of reform laws regulating excise duties, labor market, health care and the fight against corruption, which would provide long-term sustainability of public funds. Dzurinda, however, did not disclose what he considers to be the elite club. He only distinguished two of its categories, the EU-27 and the euro zone.
SDKU-DS supports the efforts of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to adopt a debt threshold and constitutional laws on balanced budgets. However, forming a European economic government does not meet such support. “I do not trust bureaucracy and administrative centralization. We do need rigid rules,” emphasized Dzurinda. SDKU-DS Vice Chairman and Finance Minister Ivan Miklos does not see creating the EU government as an essential issue. “It should meet twice a year. I don’t consider this a real government,” said Miklos.
Together with Prime Minister Iveta Radicova, Dzurinda underscored the fact that deciding on EU stability mechanisms is not only an issue of current economics, but also of the future geopolitical position of Europe and of Slovakia within it. “The time of endless spending, wasting funds and living at the cost of future is definitely over. It is not possible to live in debt,” Radicova emphasized. Miklos added that Slovakia could achieve a balanced budget in 2015, or at the latest in 2018.
SITA