President Zuzana Caputova has no power to grant consent in the matter of the nomination of Slovakia's representative at the European Court of Auditors (ECA). The president's spokesman Martin Strizinec reacted on Thursday to calls by opposition parties regarding MP Martin Klus's nomination as a candidate for the ECA. Strizinec explained that it is the government that approves the nomination, without previous consent from the head of state, as it is a power stemming from international conventions. However, the president reminded interim Premier Eduard Heger of the need to take into account the criteria for applicants' expertise in every nomination.
Opposition Smer-SD party representatives on Wednesday (February 1) called on the president to deal with ex-deputy minister Klus's nomination as a candidate for the European Court of Auditors. They see corruption behind it and lambasted Klus's lack of experience in this field. Independent MPs affiliated with the non-parliamentary Voice-SD party called on Klus to withdraw his consent to his nomination to the ECA, calling this nomination by the Government a case of corruption. The MPs added that if Klus does not do so, they will appeal to the president.
Klus on a social network denied the allegations of corruption, claiming that the nomination was prepared in October 2022, when he was still a vice-chair of SaS, which he has quit in the meantime. As for his expertise and experience, Klus stated that his postgraduate education concerned economics, adding that the ECA is a political institution of the European Union and that his nomination will eventually be decided by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.
Source: TASR
