Parliament blocks Security and Defence Strategy

The 38th session of Parliament started on Tuesday with more than 80 points to discuss. At the beginning of the session, MPs proposed changes to its agenda, but most of the suggestions failed to win the support of the plenum. The only proposal that passed was the one of Slovak National Party MP Anton Hrnko who proposed to omit from the program the draft security strategy submitted by a group of lawmakers and the draft defence strategy. As Hrnko argued, under the law, these proposals can only be submitted by the government, and it failed to do so. Opposition parties Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) and Ordinary People (OLaNO) accused the governing coalition of putting the defence capabilities of Slovakia and security of its citizens into jeopardy. The Government unanimously approved the Defence and Security Strategies of the Slovak Republic in October 2017. These are key strategic documents in the field of the country's defence and security. When the defence strategy is approved, it will become the third defence strategy since the founding of the independent Slovak Republic. The currently valid defence strategy from 2005 is focused on meeting commitments and the effective use of opportunities stemming from Slovakia's membership of NATO and the EU. The coalition managed to withdraw the proposal from the parliamentary meeting only two days after the outbreak of the Russian - Ukrainian conflict in the Sea of Azov. For more than a year, the Slovak National Party has been blocking the document to be discussed.