BRATISLAVA, December 13, (WEBNOVINY) — Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulik has convened an unscheduled parliamentary session for Thursday, December 16 of this year, with the start at 9 a.m. at the request of 47 deputies for the opposition SMER-SD party. The session will be dedicated to preparations and construction of highways and dual carriageways in Slovakia. Former Transport Minister and SMER-SD MP Lubomir Vazny will submit a draft resolution, based on which the government does not secure necessary dynamics of building highways and dual carriageways. SMER has filed the proposal to convene this unscheduled session of the parliament on Friday, December 10, and the speaker of parliament was obliged to convene it within seven days of the submission of the proposal.
SMER suggests the lawmakers demand that the Cabinet accelerates the process of conclusion of a concession contract and start the construction of approximately 30 km long stretches of D1 highway near Zilina within the third package of PPP projects in March of next year. Furthermore, SMER deputies request the Cabinet to submit a precise schedule and plan with appropriate financial allocations for the construction of 75 km of the D1 highway, on the five stretches where construction has been halted, and which were part of the first package of PPP projects. The largest opposition party opposes the Cabinet’s plan to reduce the allocation from EU funds for highway and dual carriageways projects by EUR 272.8 million in 2011 from the level of 2010. The party also wants to considerably increase the commitment from the program objective in the state budget for 2011 and 2012, based on which only 5.2 km of new highways annually should be opened for traffic.
According to Vazny, the allocation of finances for highways and dual carriageways from the state budget for next year and cancellation of the first package of PPP projects is clear evidence of reduced dynamics of the construction. “One thing were pledges and the other is reality,” he said. At the extraordinary session SMER-SD wants to discuss problems of highway construction. “We want parliament to discuss this problem and ask the government to breathe life in the highway construction”, Vazny concluded.
SITA