Parliament voted yesterday to restore the abolished Ministry of Environment from November this year. With 76 votes in favour, it therefore overturned the veto applied earlier by President Ivan Gasparovic.
Gasparovic vetoed the motion saying the ministry didn’t handle just environmental issues, as it was also responsible for forests, water and ecology. “Recent events have shown that the current ministry (combining agriculture, environment and regional development) is capable of dealing with natural disasters better”, claimed Gasparovic.
The re-established Ministry of Environment will be led by an as yet unknown Most-Hid nominee. Head of Most-Hid, Bela Bugar, criticised the president for basically slowing down the process of re-establishing the ministry at such a crucial time, with floods and mudslides happening throughout the country.
The Ministry of Environment as an independent ministry was abolished with effect from 1 July 2010 by the former government of Robert Fico. The move was strongly opposed at the time by the current coalition parties, but they got into power too late to halt the process, also thanks to the President applying his right of veto.