500 Club asks Budaja not to charge environmental burden remediation costs

BRATISLAVA, DECEMBER 2 (TASR) - The 500 Club has called on the environment minister, Jan Bodaj (OĽANO), not to introduce hostility into the Environmental Burdens Act. He also called on entrepreneurs not to charge the cost of remediating 100-year-old environmental burdens. The assembly also appreciates the position of the President of the Slovak Republic, Zuzana Chaputova, who vetoed the law.

The 500 Club considers it necessary to address the issue of age-old environmental burdens. It states that when the state is responsible for environmental burdens, the state must also act. “It is unreasonable for the state to touch someone’s property and oblige him to bear the costs of something he did not cause.” Assembly said. Meanwhile, it is ready to enter into a discussion about removing environmental burdens and helping find solutions for polluted site owners, citizens and the state.

The Slovak Employers Association claims that the law amendment “It severely contradicts the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, seriously contradicts the constitutional principle of the rule of law, the constitutional obligation of the state to protect and promote competition and constitutes illegal interference with the right of property.”

According to the Club 500, nearly all of the company’s buildings were in state hands when the environments were created. These are burdens as old as the relics of the 1960s and 1980s, even older ones, he claimed. When these sites were taken over by the new owners as part of the privatization, they were not classified as responsible persons. According to the association, it is therefore unacceptable to force them to liquidate again. “Reimbursement provisions may at the same time interfere with the right to conduct business and create a discriminatory environment without respecting the need for equal opportunity in an effective market economy,” 500 club CEO Tibor Gregor explained.

Many of the former industrial enterprises on the territory of which there is an environmental burden do not have a source of burden and no responsible person is appointed. Therefore, the state becomes the responsible entity. The amendment of the law on some measures in the area of ​​environmental burden aims to provide a mechanism to return the money spent on addressing environmental burdens. It is intended to respond to the practice problem of ensuring reimbursement of money spent from public funds to renovate privately owned real estate.

The president vetoed the amendment last week. According to her, it is not clear whether the legislation complies with the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. Budag said on Wednesday (December 1) that he would try to persuade parliament to breach the head of state’s veto.