Posted by 
Fearful of losing access to EU funding, Slovak lawmakers on Tuesday tweaked a recent overhaul of the country’s criminal code that had sparked protests across the country.
The remake of the code, which was approved in February but is not yet in force, had reduced the penalties for a broad spectrum of crimes, including corruption and fraud. Tuesday’s hasty revision once again increased punishments for crimes involving EU funds, requiring jail terms for more serious offenses, and extended the statute of limitations in such cases.
“The purpose of the amendment is to protect the interest of the Slovak Republic … the risks that Slovakia could lose any resources from the EU are being minimized,” admitted Slovak Justice Minister Boris Susko at a press conference following an extraordinary session of parliament.
The climbdown comes after Slovakia’s Constitutional Court ruled on July 3 that most of the reforms the government pushed through earlier had been in line with the country’s constitution, including the abolition of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, which had handled serious corruption cases.
The changes were criticized, on the other hand, by Slovakia’s political opposition, the European Commission and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). The Commission warned Bratislava in a March letter that it risked losing funding from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, for example, because the criminal code revamp could hurt the EU’s financial interests.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico accused some of the country’s MEPs, representing opposition parties, of being responsible for the extraordinary session of parliament. “This meeting is happening because the opposition did dirty work at the European Commission, complained about Slovakia and wanted to damage it financially,” he said in a video shared on Facebook.
MP Mária Kolíková from the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party pushed back: “The European Commission is really not stupid, it can read, it can read its directive and what you have written in the amendment,” she said.
SaS Chairman Branislav Gröhling said the changes approved on Tuesday following pressure from Brussels would lead to a two-track approach to corruption in the country. “European corruption will be punished more severely than Slovak corruption,” he said.
“They [Slovak ruling coalition MPs] are making it clear that we will protect the money within the EU because they require us to do so, but the money of all Slovak people can be stolen and there will be very light penalties.”
