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Hospodarske Noviny Daily on Thursday, November 19
Thursday 19 November 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Not only Japan but also Spain was interested in purchasing Slovakia's carbon-dioxide emission quotas that were eventually sold to shady Interblue Group for half of the price that the Czech Republic and Poland charged when selling their quotas to Spain last month, Hospodarske Noviny daily reports on pages 1 and 2 on Thursday.
"It was obvious that they wanted to buy emissions from us, they made their interest clear while (former environment minister) Jaroslav Izak was in office," an unnamed source from the environment ministry is quoted as saying.
Another source, who was formerly an official at the ministry under Izak's term, confirmed the reports. "The Spanish got in touch with several countries, they wanted to buy quotas in large quantities," said the source.
Izak, who was dismissed in August 2008, was not immediately available for comment. Jan Chrbet, also formerly an environment minister, for his part said that he's not aware of Spain's interest in Slovakia's quotas.
Key figures of the Velvet Revolution demand an apology from Prime Minister Robert Fico, who said on Tuesday that some of the best-known people who spoke out against Communism at public rallies in November 1989 were not always fair and "in part pursued their own economic and party interests", according to an article on pages 1 and 7.
"It's a lie, of course, as people who did the revolution did so with purity in their hearts. By coincidence, we happened to gain freedom for such communists as Fico as well," said Peter Tatar, co-founder of the Public Against Violence (VPN) movement that spearheaded the revolution.
"I call on Mr Fico to apologise or to say specifically who was involved in it out of party or economic interests, I don't know of anybody," said another key figure of the 1989 revolution Milan Knazko in response to Fico's comments that the premier made in his speech at University College London on Tuesday.
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