The EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council approved Slovakia's medium-term macroeconomic plans without any problems, Slovak Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) said following the meeting of EU and eurozone finance ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.
Kamenicky noted that both the European Commission and the EU Council had approved Slovakia's 2025 budget by the end of last year and now the EU finance ministers (Ecofin) have also approved Slovakia's medium-term macro-economic plans. This was done within the recommendations adopted by the EU Council in connection with member states' medium-term fiscal and structural plans.
Finance Minister of the Slovak Republic Ladislav Kamenický (Smer-SD party).
According to Kamenicky, this is important mainly because it is the government's plan to consolidate finances after previous governments. "As the finance minister, I proposed a four-year plan, envisaging the turn in the trajectory and development of Slovakia's debt in 2027," he explained.
"Our plan was approved without any reservations, which is an appraisal of the work of my colleagues at the ministry, so we are doing our homework," he said.
Kamenicky added that the medium-term plans are also related to the procedure against excessive deficit. According to him, Slovakia remains a monitored country, as it must adhere to some spending increases.
Kamenicky confirmed that during the two-day talks, the ministers also discussed the start of the new US administration led by Donald Trump.
"I talked about the need to follow the individual steps. There are some changes in the pre-election rhetoric, but it's clear that there will be a lot of talk about the purchase of LNG from the United States and about possible tariffs that the US could impose. The European Commission and individual member states will have to react in some way. The United States is one of the EU's biggest trading partners and it is therefore important to be able to set up mutual relationships," he noted.
The Slovak finance minister drew the attention of his counterparts in Brussels to the need to prevent the EU from falling into one dependency after another. He pointed to the situation when the EU was importing 40 percent of its gas from Russia before the war in Ukraine and today some member states, which used to buy more than 50 percent of their gas from Russia, are importing around 90 percent of their liquefied gas from America.
Source: TASR
