BRATISLAVA, February 3, (WEBNOVINY) — The SDKU-DS party has issued a symbolic invoice for over EUR 16 million for ex-Prime Minister and opposition SMER-SD Chairman Robert Fico. SDKU-DS Deputy Chairman and Finance Minister Ivan Miklos explained that they did so on behalf of the citizens while it should cover so-far financial damage Fico incurred to the country by pushing through laws which the Constitutional Court recently proclaimed unconstitutional. “Incurred damages are enormous,” said Miklos.
The Slovak Republic has spent the so-far biggest amount for its legal representation in arbitration over limited use of profit of private health insurers initiated by foreign shareholder of the health insurer Union. The sum climbed to over EUR 10.7 million. The expenditures for legal experts representing Slovakia in a dispute with the foreign owner of the health insurer Dovera jumped to almost EUR 4.5 million. Moreover, Slovakia has spent almost EUR 800,000 for legal services in the arbitration initiated by the shareholder of the health insurer Apollo.
Slovakia is facing international arbitration as the result of an amendment to the law on health insurers enacted in the era of Robert Fico. Miklos said he had originally intended to address Fico to represent Slovakia in the arbitration proceedings. „However, he showed such poor law skills that the bill might have been even higher,“ said Miklos. The Finance Ministry will thus continue representing Slovakia and wants to achieve that the final bill is as low as possible figure. Though the former prime minister has declared several times that he was looking forward to the arbitration and that he was 100-percent positive that Slovakia would win the disputes, he eventually refused to even travel to Kosice to hear what the Constitutional Court had to say about the contested law.
The Slovak Finance Ministry has not agreed on an out-of-court settlement with the shareholders of private health insurers and arbitration will continue. Miklos however did not want to discuss how much Slovakia will spend due to the aforementioned disputes. He only added that even if the Slovak Republic wins the arbitration a major portion of the spent funds is already lost forever.
Fico completely failed, opines Miklos. He acted at odds with the public interest, specified the minister underscoring that SMER-SD members and also coalition partners of the party warned the prime minister about the possible unconstitutionality of the bills already when they were undergoing the legislative process. Moreover, Fico recently refused to represent the Slovak Republic in proceedings before the Constitutional Court. He behaved as a coward, said Miklos. Speaker of Parliament and SaS Chairman Richard Sulik plans to propose removing Robert Fico from the post of deputy speaker of parliament. Miklos likes this initiative as he thinks that the reasons for Fico’s recall have been mounting. However, he added that it is just his personal opinion while the Coalition Council will decide on concrete steps.
SITA