Fico: The Visegrad Group countries should jointly oppose ETS2

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Sunday that the Visegrad Group (V4) countries, including Poland, should jointly oppose the EU emissions trading system ETS2. He asked Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar to ask Hungary, which currently chairs the V4, to convene a meeting of prime ministers on this matter.

Fico said that although he had not discussed this matter with the leader of the ANO party, Andrej Babis, who is forming the new Czech government, he was convinced that he would support such a solution. According to Fico, when the prime ministers of Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary meet within the V4, consisting of Fico – Donald Tusk – Andrej Babisz – Viktor Orban, they will have a common opinion on emission allowances. The head of the Slovak government called the ETS2 system “stupidity”. He also expressed his belief that he could also talk about ETS2 with Tusk.

The Slovak Prime Minister argued that the V4 countries, when they acted together, always achieved success in the EU. In this context, he cited the example of the common position of the V4 countries on the issue of immigration quotas and the mandatory admission of refugees.

The head of the Slovak government declared that his country would not participate in any EU program financing military aid to Ukraine. He recalled that Brussels plans to transfer EUR 140 billion from frozen Russian assets to Kiev in the coming years, which he described as “the biggest mistake (the Community) is making.” He repeated his current position that Slovakia will support Ukraine with humanitarian aid or non-military supplies, but does not agree to using Russia's frozen funds to grant a loan to Kiev.

ETS2 (emissions trading system) is an extension of the EU CO2 emissions trading system, which is to cover the construction and road transport sectors from 2027. Its goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but for households this means a potential increase in fuel and heating costs. In practice, the fee will be added to the prices of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, heating oil and gasoline.

Last Thursday (October 23), the issue of the planned introduction of ETS2 was discussed by EU leaders during the summit in Brussels. Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced at a briefing in the capital of Belgium that thanks to, among others, Poland's efforts managed to add a provision on the revision of ETS2 to the summit conclusions. He emphasized that almost all EU leaders agreed that European climate policy should be more flexible and focus more on responsibility for the competitiveness of European economies.

Piotr Górecki (PAP)

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