BRATISLAVA, December 8, (WEBNOVINY) – The dangerous path on which Slovakia has embarked over recent years is coming to its end, stated Finance Minister Ivan Miklos after Slovak legislators approved the new government’s first budget earlier on Wednesday. “The approval of this budget is very good news, since Slovakia embarked on a very bad and dangerous path over past years,“ said Miklos adding that it was the same path that Hungary and Greece had been walking for a longer time. “This dangerous path is at its end”, he stated. According to him, next year public finances will undergo important recovery, which will create conditions and suppositions for growth of the Slovak economy and the country’s standard of living as well. The minister labeled as the biggest risk of the endorsed budget openness of the Slovak economy, the external environment, and thus the development of European and global economy.
Slovakia is just at the beginning of a dangerous way as a result of the approved next year’s state budget, leader of the SMER-SD opposition party Robert Fico responded to the statements of Finance Minister Ivan Miklos, who earlier on Wednesday announced that the country left the risky path in the footsteps of Greece or Hungary. The dangerous path is only beginning and will be very, very hard especially for common people as a result of measures approved by the center-right government, Fico stated at a news conference. The former prime minister claims that the deputies for the ruling coalition probably do not have the slightest idea what they voted for. “To applaud after the approval of such a budget requires great courage, since they passed a budget that will dig deeply into the pockets of common people. In contrast, it is a budget that helps the strongest, which is a typical sign of a center-right government,” he went on to say.
Labor and Social Affairs Minister Jozef Mihal evaluates very positively the approved state budget for next year since the social sphere escaped any cuts and decreases. The opposite is true, said the minister according to whom the budget for 2011 introduces interesting increases in spending, mainly regarding parent allowances and also higher childcare contributions via the budget of the social security provider Socialna Poistovna, which will be financed within the department. He also said that the new budget eliminates various loopholes and opportunities in related laws that had opened space for years already for legal evasion of paying contributions to Socialna Poistovna. Availability of health care will not be threatened by the budget approved on Wednesday, said Health Minister Ivan Uhliarik (KDH) on Wednesday. “As there will be more money than last year, health care will not be threatened,” the minister said after the budget was approved in parliament. He would be happy with more money, but he accepts the situation and what is possible at the moment. Unfortunately, the state in which we found in the economy does not allow allocating more money to the health care from budget, he stated.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Finance Committee Jozef Kollar (SaS) appreciates that the 2011 state budget names the state of things exactly as they are and does not contain hidden deficits such as the simulated loan to railway company Cargo, as the former budgets of Jan Pociatek did in 2009. “There are no such hidden landmines or holes in the budget. That is the reason why I consider it to be a good budget and the only possible solution in the given situation,” Kollar explained. Junior ruling coalition member the party MOST-HID welcomes the approved state budget for 2011, even though they could imagine a better proposal, said Ivan Svejna, the party’s vice-chairman at a press conference on Wednesday. “We agree with the approved budget and are very glad that it passed with support of 78 MPs. This budget was built upon the cornerstone called ‘lowering the general government deficit to under five percent’,” Svejna stated. On the other hand, he thinks that the adopted budget is not ideal, increasing tax rates and contributions to social and health insurance funds. He could also imagine other solutions in other fields.
SITA