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Freso Intent on Doing His Own Inspection at Environment Ministry
Wednesday 03 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 3 (TASR) - Opposition SDKU-DS party MP (and Bratislava region BSK governor) Pavol Freso is set to make his own inspection at the Environment Ministry following Prime Minister Robert Fico's inspection on Wednesday, TASR learnt later on Wednesday.
Within his planned inspection, Freso said he aims to meet Environment Minister Jozef Medved and enquire about whether some funds from the thorny 2008 sale of Slovakia's surplus carbon-dioxide emission quotas can still be salvaged.
[The ministry sold the quotas to a shady company called the Interblue Group at a price considerably lower than those charged by other countries - ed. note].
Freso also disapproved of Fico's statement from earlier in the day that a curse must have been invoked upon the ministry, as three ministers brought forth by the Slovak National Party (SNS) have already been recalled during this Government's term, and the ministry was eventually taken away from the party altogether.
"The Environment Ministry is not cursed ... it's not patriotic enough, for it's unpatriotic to sell emissions at less than half the price compared to the surrounding countries," says Freso.
These ministry measures are beggaring the citizens of Slovakia, who – on top of everything else – are urged to sing the national anthem by the newly-adopted Patriot Act. "We'll sing it with our stomachs half empty, as the other half has been taken away by somebody else. It's (Interblue) that has ceased to exist and against which Premier Fico is going to act after a year," said Freso.
He added that he's wondering whom Fico is planning on suing now that the company (Interblue) no longer exists. "I believe this to be indications proving that we're losing the money in an irretrievable manner," said Freso.
Freso described current minister Jozef Medved as 'not active enough in addressing the issue'. "He's done little to get out of this situation. I've had a look at Mr Medved's statements, including a report that he's submitted to Parliament, but there was deplorably little will to recover at least the €15 million that was left so that we wouldn't remain complete beggars," said Freso.
Speaking earlier in the day, Fico also said that SNS nominees weren't able to manage the ministry properly, noting that the sale of carbon-dioxide emission quotas to the Interblue Group took place under an SNS nominee.
"Several errors were made that now have to be put right by minister Jozef Medved," said Fico, adding that he doesn't envy him this task in any way. Medved (a Smer-SD nominee) remarked that the ministry wasn't being run in a standard manner before.
Regarding the same issue, Medved said that the ministry regards the contract with Interblue Group as terminated. Medved explained that the company in question went out of business in December 2009, and that the ministry has received no documentation confirming any transfer of rights to a firm called Interblue Group Europe, based in Switzerland. Medved intends to take legal action to obtain the additional €15-million that Interblue was supposed to pay in exchange for so-called green projects.
The case dates back to 2008, when Slovakia sold 15 million tonnes of emission quotas to the Interblue Group for €75 million at €5.05 per tonne. The deal was harshly criticised by the Opposition and received huge media attention because neighbouring countries sold their quotas directly to other states for €10 per tonne or even more and Interblue's alleged headquarters in the U.S.A. were found to be located in a garage.
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