Double Standard Complicates Euro Introduction, Says PM Robert Fico

ovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Slovak Radio on Saturday that Slovakia's entry into the Euro zone does not have unambiguous support of countries using the euro. He indicated in the program `Saturday Dialogues' that the fulfillment of the Maastricht criteria would not necessarily lead to the introduction of the euro. "New political criteria that were not here are starting appearing," said the prime minister. He sees behind that efforts to introduce a double standard in the process. Foreign partners of the Slovak government are prudent regarding when they are to unambiguously answer the question whether the meeting of the Maastricht criteria will secure the country's entry into the Euro zone. "Nobody wants to answer us this question," said the prime minister. However, he believes that Slovakia will not become a scapegoat of some political criteria or tiredness of expansion. "We sacrificed very much to the euro and it would be bad if that what we have done ran to waste," Mr. Fico underscored that the adoption of the euro has more pros than cons.
Mr. Fico also said that the temporary opening of the second pension pillar is a more effective solution that the change of percentage ratio of division of social contributions between the state-run social security provider Socialna Poistovna and the second pillar proposed by the People's Party -- Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LS-HZDS) . He added that the Cabinet no longer negotiates with pension asset management companies that proposed this solution. He confirmed that the Cabinet is preparing the fourth "super-guaranteed" fund that should secure return on savers' deposits in the capitalization pillar.
Mr. Fico believes that Hungarian politicians who compete for who is a bigger nationalist are behind the worsened relations between Slovakia and Hungary. According to him, Slovakia has become a tool in Hungarian politicians' hands used for settling accounts on the local political scene. He also said that also Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) aggressive policy entered this game. He thinks that its chairman Pal Csaky does nothing else but provokes since he took up.