During the meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), the MEPs were not interested in the transactions with the Slovak crown and the euro in Slovakia. MEP Vladimir Manka (SMER-Social Democracy) told SITA news agency Tuesday that Commissioner responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia and the MEPs held an 1.5-hour discussion about the euro. No one inquired about the transactions although this is a hot topic in Slovakia. When leaving, Mr. Almunia told Slovak media that this is the matter of Slovakia's authorities.
Mr. Manka stressed that no one in the European Parliament has ever tackled this case. If some one is humiliating Slovakia, it is then us. We should bring this to an end and resolve the problems at home, according to him.
The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) launched investigation into the crown deals carried out on May 28 (Wednesday) before the EU shifted the crown's central parity by 15 percent. The opposition parties maintain that there had been leak of confidential information possessed by top representatives of the Finance Ministry, the NBS and Prime Minister Robert Fico. This information ended up in the hands of private investors who profited from the strengthening of the Slovak currency on the following day. MEP Jan Hudacky of the Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH) presented this problem in the European Parliament.