All member states of the European Union were supposed to incorporate the so-called Third Energy Package into national legislation by 3 March 2011, but Slovakia and others missed the deadline and are now lagging behind.
Opposition leader Robert Fico and his party colleague from Smer-SD, MP Vladimir Faic, made a call yesterday for the government to provide a status update, with them planning to use a parliamentary resolution to get the government to do so.
The Smer-SD resolution draft claims that the Ministry of Economy has delayed the adoption of the legislation due to ‘discrete talks’ on the future shape of the energy sector involving energy companies and financial groups. With the Third Energy Package, the operator of the gas transmission system would have to be independent of other activities in some way, meaning a lucrative deal could be in the making as part of the process of ‘unbundling’ the transmission system.
Economy minister Juraj Miskov responded to the claims by saying that Slovakia had been left with the highest energy prices in the EU thanks to the actions of the previous government of Fico. Miskov said the March deadline was overly ambitious for many countries, including the two biggest markets in France and Germany, and that the draft legislation in this area was being compiled at present and should be ready by the autumn.