The decision of the German Federal Court of Justice confirming the verdict of the international arbitration court on Slovakia's obligation to pay compensation to Dutch company Achmea has reduced any chance for Slovakia to avoid paying the compensation to zero, SDKU-DS vice-chairman Viliam Novotny said on Tuesday.
“Slovakia's chances to see that the arbitration is revoked are diminishing day by day, while [Robert] Fico's Government is only stalling for time by appealing to other courts, which is only increasing the bill for the Slovak public,” said Novotny, adding that the overall damage for Slovakia may exceed €50 million. The arbitration court ruled that Slovakia should pay to Achmea €22 million to compensate economic damage caused to health insurer Union (owned by Achmea) by a law introduced by Fico's first government (2006-10) that prohibited health insurers to retain their profits. In addition, Slovakia must pay another €3 million to Achmea for legal and other expenses related to the dispute. “The final bill will be issued by the [Finance] Ministry of Mr. [Peter] Kazimir - but this won't happen any earlier as when it'll have been clear that Slovakia has no chance to see the arbitration revoked," said Novotny. The SDKU vice-chairman stated that Fico is behaving like a "world champion", although he's caused damage to the country amounting to tens of millions of euros.
