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Fico Considers Violation of Coalition Agreement a Misunderstanding
Thursday 11 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava/Brussels, February 11 (TASR) - The Universities Act amendment represents a profesional issue that shouldn't be subject to politics, Slovak Premier Robert Fico said after an informal EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.
"If this proposal (concerning university accreditation and degree-granting issues) hadn't been submitted and passed many students would find themselves at risk of not being able to complete their studies due to a lack of guarantors," said Fico in reaction to SNS Vice-Chair Anna Belousovova's objection that Smer-SD, along with LS-HZDS, violated the Coalition Agreement by their Wednesday's voting (February 10) on the Universities Act amendment. Fico claims that the Coalition partners made an agreement to cast their votes on Wednesday as they saw fit, however.
"I'm sorry if there's any misunderstanding. I'm the last person in the world to have any interest in conflict with the Coalition partners that I've been decently co-operating with over the course of the past four years," said Fico. On the other hand, he added that he doesn't quite understand the stance of SNS, as their own five MPs also voted in favour of the amendment. "It's a misunderstanding, but there's no need to dwell on this as Ms. Belousovova does. We need to talk this issue through (and move on)," said Fico.
According to Belousovova, the amendment interferes with an agenda that belongs exclusively to the remit of the SNS-led Education Ministry. "The vote that passed the proposal to second reading was an unpleasant disenchantment for us. We had Coalition Agreements that this law doesn't get passed," she said, adding that SNS doesn't interfere in the agendas of its coalition partners.
Belousovova stressed several times that one of the aims of Education Minister Jan Mikolaj has been to halt the devaluation of a Slovak university education, including by tightening up accreditation conditions, but Mojmir Mamojka's (Smer) proposal is a step backwards and dismantles university reform. The amendment to the law on universities would allow colleges to grant masters and engineering degrees, as well as doctorates. Mikolaj considers this proposal to be incompetent and a "rather substantial interference" in the current system.
Of the 128 MPs present, 112 voted in favour of the amendment, including five from SNS.
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