Bratislava, April 5, 2023 – Slovakia cannot cope with the fight against environmental pollution from a financial, systemic or managerial point of view. The auditors of the Supreme Audit Office (NAO) of the Slovak Republic found that the proportion of rehabilitated locations to a total of 328 registered polluted areas increased by not even one percent between 2016 and 2021. More than a billion euros are needed between 2022 and 2027 to solve environmental problems, while the necessary resources are not available in full by the responsible ministry. State budget resources are not allocated for rehabilitation, and European funds will cover a fifth of the necessary financial resources (graph). The removal of environmental burdens and the processes associated with them proceed rather slowly. The auditors recommend the government to create a specialized entity that will cover complex solutions for the removal of environmental burdens. The legislation also needs to be changed so that this issue is regulated by a special regime and the state can apply accelerated procedures in the process of public procurement, in the substantive solution of particularly serious ecological threats.

A fundamental shortcoming is the fact that the district authorities cannot effectively determine the causes of pollution, or obligated persons (26 %). If it is not possible to determine the person who caused environmental pollution, the obligation to remove it passes to the state, which, however, does not have enough financial resources to do so. The situation is worsened by the law on environmental pollution, which does not specify a deadline for when the government should decide which department will ensure the removal of polluted areas, which prolongs the whole process even more and thus increases the risk of endangering the lives and health of residents living in the affected area. In the recent past, the SAO warned the government and the Ministry of the Environment (MŽP) of the Slovak Republic about the significant risk associated with the awarding of financial sanctions for insufficient action in the closure and re-cultivation of waste landfills. Today, Slovakia faces a million-dollar lawsuit from the European Commission in this area for inaction and failure to fulfill its obligations.

The full text of the press release about this issue in Slovak language