President Zuzana Caputova vetoed the Slovak Arts Council (FPU) bill on Tuesday, on the grounds that she believes it's unconstitutional and likely to jeopardise the freedom of artistic creation, TASR learnt on the same day.
The head of state warned that the final decision on the provision of financial resources will fall under the remit of the newly-created Fund Board, controlled by the Culture Ministry, which will no longer be bound to respect stances reached by expert commissions. "This can be perceived as an interference with the expertise of the fund's decision-making, the stripping of its public character and the infusion of political influence into the freedom of artistic creation and culture in and of itself," stated Caputova.
The President pointed out that about 5,000 applications for the fund's financing are submitted annually and these are then assessed by 70 commissions staffed by 300 experts. "Therefore, it's beyond the realm of the possible to have all of them replaced by a 13-member board. That carries the risk of making the support of art dysfunctional," she underlined and warned that July 1, when the bill is supposed to come into effect, doesn't give any time window to pass changes required by the new law. In addition, the new bill's effects will also be applied retroactively, to projects submitted under the existing rules.
The President criticised the fact that the bill was tabled as a lawmaker proposal and thus has never been submitted for comments. "Thus, the culture community and experts have been excluded from participation in the drafting of the new legislation," she said.
(TASR)
