Slovakia against shifting national regulatory powers

Slovakia will do its utmost to prevent the European Commission from bolstering its own standing at its expense. Prime Minister Robert Fico said this at a conference on energy security organised at Comenius University in Bratislava on Thursday. He maintains that national regulators must have options to intervene effectively in the process of regulating energy charges. "We need to be aware of the difference between markets and consumers in Germany, Slovakia, France, Italy or even in Romania and Bulgaria", said Robert Fico. According to him, the Slovak regulator carries out its tasks well in this respect, and regulatory policies in Slovakia are bearing fruit because energy charges aren't going up but are even expected to fall; household electricity and gas charges in particular.