The European Parliament's Monitoring Group on Democracy, the Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights met in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the latest developments in the rule of law in the Slovak Republic. This EP’s Monitoring Group has visited Slovakia twice so far. The first time was after the murder of Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, the second time they came after the murder of two LGBTQI people in Zámocká Street. The Deputy Interior and Deputy Justice Ministers Lucia Kurilovska and Milan Hodas came to Brussels to explain the re-organisation of the National Criminal Agency and the amendment to the Criminal Code.
Deputy Interior Minister Lucia Kurilovská from the Hlas-SD: "I was explaining how the National Criminal Agency was reorganised and that we are in no way retreating from dealing with serious corruption crime, organised crime."
Deputy Justice Minister Milan Hodás, a nominee of Smer-SD, welcomes such meetings so that he has the opportunity to explain the objective reality: "I think that often some reservations are connected only with misunderstanding, which means that the conclusion is - we will remain in dialogue. We will sincerely enjoy it. We will send some explanations in writing."
Slovak MEP Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová of the Renew Europe faction, a member of the this Monitoring Group, points to the need for additional explanation: "Also by the fact that the members of the commission asked supplementary questions, I think that they were not fully convinced, and at the same time … it seems that even the Deputy Ministers do not have enough information, or maybe they cannot fully explain some of the statements and some of the actions of the Prime Minister."
The Slovak delegation, on the other hand, believed that everything that was necessary had been explained in Brussels. Lucia Kurilovská expressed her belief that “it should be fine."
However, there is speculation behind the scenes that the European Parliament monitoring group should come to Slovakia again.
Source: STVR, Rádiožurnál
