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Figel: Transparency Is Developing Only Slowly in Slovakia
Tuesday 12 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Kosice, January (TASR) - Christian Democrat (KDH) chairman and former EU Commissioner Jan Figel told TASR on Tuesday that steps towards better political and financial transparency are made very slowly in Slovakia, which is shown by the sluggish progress in issues pertaining to proving the origin of property and reducing MP's immunity.
"I'm sorry about this, because this detracts from our domestic, as well as foreign credibility and effectiveness in political, legislative and economic decisions," said Figel.
KDH considers both aforementioned laws to be very important for the country, as they belong to the area of transparency and are important for creating future relations because the issues concerned are not only political but also ethical.
"It (the progress made) is more about rhetoric than real intentions, which has been proven by our experience so far. For example, (proposals concerning) the issue of immunity have been submitted to Parliament by coalition MPs - beginning with Parliamentary Chairman Pavol Paska (Smer-SD) - but their own majority hasn't approved them once," said Figel.
"We (Slovakia) moved within an EU27 assessment in the autumn to the category of most-endangered states when it comes to the sustainability of public finances. Of course, this is a complex phenomenon, but it's really related to how public or EU financial means are dealt with here. So, tools such as immunity, the one-mandate-is-enough principle - which is a KDH initiative - or avoiding the concentration of power, and transparent demonstrations of the origin of property, are essential for the country," he added.
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