Parliament on Tuesday approved an amendment to the Penal Code that reflects recent consultations with the European Commission.
The bill, dealt with via fast-track proceedings, was supported by 77 MPs. As many as 44 MPs abstained from voting, with no one voting against.
Parliament approved the application of mandatory prison sentences for crimes against the EU's financial interests if the upper limit of the punishment laid down in a special part of the Penal Code exceeds six years.
Parliament also approved the introduction of a conceptual definition of the EU's financial interests. In the case of crimes of obstructing tax administration, indirect corruption and receiving and granting an undue advantage, it proposes aligning prison sentences with the requirements of the relevant directive of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.
According to Justice Minister Boris Susko (Smer-SD) The purpose of the approved amendment to the Penal Code is to protect chiefly the interests of the Slovak Republic and minimise the risks that Slovakia might lose any money from the EU. Susko stressed that the penalty rates in relation to Slovak and EU money are the same.
Progressive Slovakia (PS) leader Michal Simecka said on Tuesday that he considers Parliament's special session dealing with an amendment to the Penal Code to be confirmation of the fact that the opposition and experts were right when they warned that Slovakia might lose access to EU funds when the coalition previously amended the code in December. "Now, six months later, even the coalition majority has had to admit that it got it wrong, that it had to be corrected several times and that it was in violation of European law," said Simecka.
