Slovak tasks during EU Presidency discussed in Parliament

The role of national parliaments and the European Parliament in the context of Slovakia's upcoming Council of the European Union Presidency, which will be in the latter half of 2016 is the subject of talks at a conference held by the Slovak Parliament and European Parliament Information Office. Parliamentary Vice-chairman Miroslav Číž explained that the event concerns large-scale meetings between representatives of national parliaments. As he says the upcoming general election in March will be a slight complication in the run up to Slovakia's EU Presidency. The Presidency holder is obliged to organise at least five parliamentary meetings during the Presidency and two in the six months following its end. There will be several important topics on the table during Slovakia's Presidency, stressed European Parliament Vice-president Ulrike Lunacek. It's expected that Slovakia will make progress in pushing through a so-called green card, which would add to the already existing yellow and red cards that enable national parliaments to make objections to the European Commission's decisions. Slovakia will also deal with topics such as the UK's referendum on leaving the EU and the migration crisis, said Lunacek. "Our task will be to create sufficient institutional room for these discussions to be effective," said Číž.