BACKTRACKING SLOVAKIA 

Rajika Jayatilake reports on why Bratislava was compelled to reinstate sentencing for fraud involving EU funds

The EC has expressed concern about the rule of law in Slovakia and was recently considering freezing billions of EU funds for the country in reaction to Prime Minister Robert Fico’s possible dismantling of Slovak democracy.

According to Bloomberg, up to 80 percent of public investments in Slovakia consist of European Union funds. The news agency notes that Slovakia would be the second EU member state after Hungary to earn the displeasure of the European Union over rule of law issues, to the extent it would consider freezing funds dedicated to the country. The EU previously froze EUR 6.3 billion intended for Hungary over similar rule of law concerns.

Even before the dust settled on the political victory of Slovakia’s fourth time prime minister in 2023, Fico’s new government launched a strategy to reform criminal law and reduce punishment for serious crimes including graft and corruption. It passed a controversial penal code reform that reduced sentences and statutes of limitations on corruption.

The Slovakian government then proceeded to eliminate its Office of the Special Prosecutor, which supervised the work of the national crime agency NAKA – a police force that investigated corruption and terrorism.

This elite unit used to partner with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), in cases involving high-level corruption, terrorism and organised crime.

In line with these criminal law reforms, NAKA was to be replaced by the Office for the Fight Against Organized Crime (ÚBOK) from September. A politician from the non-parliamentary party Demokrati Juraj Šeliga commented: “Effectively, the responsibilities handled by NAKA will now be divided among three separate organisations.”

NAKA responsibilities were divided among three divisions in ÚBOK, and included an anticorruption unit, a criminal investigation unit, a financial police unit, and a financial investigation and analytical unit.

A new national anti-drug unit was also to be established while investigations into extremism were to be transferred to regional police authorities. About 700 specially trained police personnel would be transferred to local and regional districts across the country.

The Slovakian government’s argument was that this alternative arrangement is a strategy to improve police efficiency in fighting crime including high-level corruption.

However, the EC’s recently published 2024 Rule of Law Report on Slovakia notes that the disbanding of NAKA will lead to fewer corruption cases being handled by this new unit while more cases would be transferred to lower level district police directorates.

Observing all of this, the European Commission warned Slovakia’s government to consider carefully the consequences and pitfalls of these drastic changes that are “far-reaching and touches on a lot of EU law.”

In particular, EPPO was emphatic about the risk to the effective protection of EU financial interests and anticorruption framework. The European Union was also concerned about the Slovakian government’s attempts to increase state control over the country’s public media.

Meanwhile, the opposition and media have noted that the prime minister’s actions are traversing dangerous ground. And Slovakia’s former president Zuzana Čaputová recently threatened to constitutionally challenge the changes to legislation, which jeopardise the rule of law and inflict un­predictable damage to society.

Director of Transparency International Slovakia (TIS) Michal Piško says: “In the areas of the fight against corruption and for the rule of law, Slovakia has experienced a continuous negative turn since last year’s parliamentary elections, manifested not only in the weakening of legislation and institutions but also in the government coalition’s evident efforts to ensure impunity for its people.”

In the meantime, the EC began dialoguing with the Slovak government. And Fico tried his best to reassure Brussels that the criminal law reforms his government was trying to bring about were in line with the values of the EU.

Knowing full well that the European Commission had been critical of Poland and Hungary for years because they had dismantled independent institutions and eroded judicial independence, Fico did not want Slovakia to fall into the same category in the estimation of the EC, and have billions of euros withheld from the country.

Finally, he reinstated sentencing for fraud involving European Union funds to reassure the European Commission and prevent the European Union freezing 799 million euros as post-pandemic recovery funds. Brussels cleared the payment after reassurances from Bratislava that any fraudulent dealings with EU money would continue to be criminalised.

The EC’s decision to release European Union funds to Slovakia was subsequent to an evaluation that the Slovakian government had indeed complied with European Union criteria, along with the institution of reforms to fight corruption, and strengthen the integrity and independence of the justice system.

Former US National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden’s comment is relevant to this situation: “There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny – they should be setting the example of transparency.”