By Martin Santa
BRATISLAVA, July 9 (Reuters) - Euro zone member Slovakia
swore in on Friday the reformist centre-right government of
Prime Minister Iveta Radicova.
Here are key priorities of the ruling coalition of Christian
Democratic Union (SDKU), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the
mostly ethnic-Hungarian Most-Hid and the Christian Democrats
(KDH).
GENERAL PRIORITIES
- Stop rising public debt, shrink the fiscal deficit. Fiscal
consolidation aimed to reached a balanced budget in the
mid-term, although no details given.
- Fight against corruption, fundamental changes to the
system of public procurement aimed at boosting transparency and
cutting costs.
- Audit and adjustment of the size of government
administration and public offices. Analyse possibilities of
merging some public institutions: for example the Energy
Regulator, Telecommunication Office, Mail Office, Transportation
Office and Rail Transport Regulator into one office.
- Rein in conflicting laws on ethnic minorities - such as a
language law that limits the use of minority languages or
citizenship law which is designed to strip its citizens of their
Slovak nationality if they take a second citizenship.
- Draft and introduce measures to solve the issue of the
Roma minority, which must cope with a jobless rate that reaches
more than 50 percent in some settlements, as well as difficulty
accessing public services such as education and healthcare.
- Restore the ministry of environment, which was abolished
by the previous government.
- Improve relations with its southern neighbour Hungary,
which deteriorated over the past four years under Prime Minister
Robert Fico, who ruled with far-right Slovak Nationalists.
PUBLIC FINANCES, TAXES
- draft a constitutional law on balancing the budget in the
mid-term, and a constitutional law on fiscal rules for the
public debt.
- no plans to increase overall tax burden. The 19 percent
flat tax system will be upheld and no new taxes.
- adjustments to public procurement and reform of public
finances.
- tighter fiscal rules for cities and towns aimed at
preventing risks to public finances and fiscal consolidation.
- unification of income and payroll tax collection
ECONOMY, BUSINESS CLIMATE, ENERGY
- liberalise market conditions, ease energy market
regulations, support renewable energy sources.
- abolish state subsidies that make business environment
difficult for some companies' competitors
- allow foreign investors to acquire minority stakes in
state-firms such as Bratislava airport and rail-freight company
Cargo
- revise large highway projects, financed via a
public-private partnership scheme, and allow financing of these
project through Slovak pension funds.
- support building of a new nuclear power plant in Jaslovske
Bohunice, but only using private capital.
SOCIAL AFFAIRS, LABOUR MARKET
- liberalise labour market, ease employer burden in terms of
labour costs
- introduce a combination of job training and unemployment
benefit for the long-term jobless
