The states of the European Union have been helping Ukrainian refugees for a couple of weeks now. On Wednesday, the Slovak government finally approved the legislative package Lex Ukraine. The Czech Republic has approved a similar package just before us.
The legislation addresses housing benefits for Ukrainians, integration of children to the Slovak education system, and other measures in healthcare and on the labour market.
Experts have been criticising the delayed response of the government. According to them, the state first dealt with the benefits for Slovak citizens accommodating Ukrainians rather than measures impacting the refugees themselves.
The state has also changed the regime at the eastern border to make the process of entering the country easier for refugees as well as volunteers. People are divided into three groups: refugees who are getting picked up from the border, those who are travelling further, and those without a pickup. Everyone receives a leaflet explaining the transportations system.
Thanks to the temporary protection status, Ukrainians are able to work for a Slovak-based company without a work permit and have access to basic healthcare. TREND goes through all the steps necessary for companies to employ Ukrainians.
Minister of Labour Milan Krajniak said that the Slovak labour market can welcome up to 60,000 Ukrainian refugees without Slovak citizens being impacted.
Slovakia is dependent on Russian oil
Despite being a small country, Slovakia is one of the 10 biggest buyers of Russian oil in the world. It imports 1.5 times more oil than the United States, and it has become the most dependent country on Russian oil and its refined products in the EU. In 2019, 78% of imported oil and refined products came from Russia.
The silver lining is that the oil flows to Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline, while the EU relies primarily on oil tankers. The pipeline is currently the best way of getting Russian oil, as the tanker transport system is frozen because foreign shipping companies refuse to transport oil from Russia.
Our dependency on Russian oil and gas makes changing suppliers difficult, said Vladimír Báleš, a former rector of the Slovak University of Technology. Transitioning to a different source of oil would not be easy for the oil refinery Slovnaft.
The same goes for gas supply – many Slovak factories are set up to work with the specific composition of Russian gas.
From the economic perspective, the Russian war on Ukraine poses a much bigger problem to Slovakia than the COVID-19 pandemic, said Minister of Economy Richard Sulík. The good news, according to him, is that the Russian oil and gas keep flowing to the country even more than usual.
Slovakia expels Russian diplomat after finding spies
Slovakia has expelled three Russian diplomats after receiving information from the secret service. On Monday, the newspaper Denník N reported that Slovak security forces detained three people on suspicion of espionage.
One of them is supposed to be a colonel from the Ministry of Defense, one a member of Slovak Information Service, and one a person associated with the website Hlavné správy.
Other stories of the week
Ermanno Boeris, a developer at Vydrica Development, talked about housing in Bratislava in an interview for TREND. He thinks the capital needs more meaningfully planned neighbourhoods rather than four shopping centres five kilometres apart. He also talks about the 40,000 houses missing in Bratislava and a housing shortage across the country.
The second year of the pandemic became the most successful period for Tatra banka, which ended the last year with a record profit of more than 150m euros. It owes part of the result to the need of individuals and businessmen to borrow money. As usual, there was a rise in housing loans, but consumer loans recorded a year-on-year increase.
Slovak technological start-up Mobility & Innovation Production introduced the first low-floor hydrogen-powered city bus. They plan to be producing 250 buses a year by 2025.
Trade Union KOVO is planning to organise meetings and rallies across the country as a response to the current socio-economic situation. If they fail, they do not rule out a general strike in May.
The approved amendment to the Criminal Code, which takes effect on 1 May, will reduce penalties for possession of marihuana. Even though it is the biggest change in 15 years, the penalties will still be up to one year for three doses, up to two years for less than 10 doses, and up to seven years for more than 10.
Thank you for reading.
See you next week.
