Prime Minister Robert Fico (SMER-SD) travelled to Brussels for the EU leaders’ summit, where discussions are focusing on Ukraine, the Middle East, energy prices and competitiveness. Fico aims to push for concrete measures to reduce energy costs, strengthen industrial competitiveness, protect energy security and preserve cohesion policy and the common agricultural policy in the EU’s future budget. He described high energy prices as the Union’s most serious competitiveness challenge and said he would advocate solutions to lower electricity costs for both industry and households.
Attention is also on Viktor Orbán, as EU leaders seek to persuade him to drop his veto on a major loan package for Ukraine. Fico signalled Slovakia may also withhold support for conclusions on Ukraine, citing the lack of reference to disrupted oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. Together with Hungary, Slovakia is calling for an expert mission to assess the pipeline, insisting on the participation of its own specialists.
Source: STVR, TASR
