The Hungarian MOL oil company, which also owns Bratislava-based Slovnaft, is drafting a lawsuit against Slovakia over the special windfall tax approved by Parliament in December. The case may be partly based on the nationalistic statements made by former Finance Minister Igor Matovic. "Our lawyers are analysing the whole process of the adoption of the norm, especially in the context of the debate in parliament, where the former Minister of Finance presented the measure as a regulation against Hungarian owners. It is precisely from this aspect that we think we will be successful in a possible lawsuit,” Slovnaft’s spokesman Anton Molnár explained for website euroactiv.com. During the debate preceding the approval of the tax, Matovič argued that with the tax, Slovakia can get more money from the Hungarian owners. Matovic claimed that he's not worried about the Slovnaft oil refinery seeking legal action, pointing to regulations of the Council of the EU and the fact that similar windfall taxes were proposed in other EU countries as well. Despite the windfall tax, the Slovnaft refinery will still book a profit of about a quarter of a billion euros, Matovic said on December 7.
Source: TASR
