Government Could Support Competitors of "Monopolies"

The duel of the government in Slovakia with "monopolies" in the economy could end up with the government supporting the establishment of competing companies with a different ownership structure. "This theoretical contemplation has been appearing concerning a new crude oil refinery or a power utility and we are looking at this as quite interesting projects," Prime Minister Robert Fico said in a political discussion program on the public Slovak Radio (SRo) on Saturday afternoon. He said the government would continue to press on "monopolies" so that prices of their products move close to the lowest levels in the European Union. "They cannot have the feeling that we bought something, we privatized it and we can do here anything we want," he said. Despite criticism, be characterized the current level of communication with "monopolies" as constructive and said that neither of the sides is interested in a solution with the use of force.
Prime Minister Fico further said the government has not given up its ambition to eliminate private health insurance companies from public health insurance. "We gradually want to come to just one health insurance company, but do so in a way that we would create conditions in public health insurance that would make it unattractive for private insurers," he said. This should be achieved by a ban to earn a profit and limiting the administrative fund from 4 to 3 percent of collected health insurance premiums. The government, in his view, has chosen a path that could not be legally or internationally contested. Space would remain for private health insurance companies to offer products of supplemental health insurance.
The prime minister said he sees no reason to comment statements by his coalition partner Jan Slota, chairman of the Slovak National Party (SNS) who said he was dissatisfied with the number of posts of cabinet ministers assigned for his party. Mr. Fico said no one has officially raised this subject. In his view, the coalition is stable, and the coalition partners respect the distribution of power. He did not confirm remarks by the leader of the People's Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LS-HZDS) Vladimir Meciar who recently alleged there is international pressure to replace the SNS and the HZDS in the governing coalition by one of the parliamentary opposition parties. He admitted that such pressure existed in the summer of last year. Prime Minister Fico said he wishes the current coalition in Slovakia to continue despite problems its composition had caused for his party in the Party of European Socialists. "We are standing by this coalition, although we are paying a big price for that," he said.