The EU will not release Slovakia’s sixth Recovery Facility payment  of €590m for now, citing the abolition of the Whistleblowers Protection Authority. Strengthening the authority was one of the conditions for the payment. Parliament approved its abolition at the end of last year, but the Constitutional Court suspended the law. The European Commission will await the Court’s final ruling. Although the Commission has approved the payment, it still requires endorsement by EU memb

The tax on sweetened soft drinks  introduced in January 2025 generated €98.6m for the state budget last year, exceeding the planned €80m. The Finance Ministry had expected higher stockpiling in the initial months. Traditional sweetened beverages accounted for nearly three-quarters of revenue, followed by energy drinks and syrups. Sales of sugary drinks fell 14% annually overall, with syrups posting the steepest decline, while energy drinks recorded a slight increase. Beverage

About 37% of employees in Slovakia feel at risk of losing their jobs , up from one-quarter in 2024, according to a Focus survey. The share of employees who fear imminent layoffs doubled to 20%. Workers in the Prešov region reported the highest level of uncertainty, while those in Nitra and Bratislava reported the lowest. Concerns rise as income declines. Only one-quarter of employees view the labor market as favorable for changing jobs, the lowest level since the pandemic; in

The anti‑trust authority PMÚ fined four companies €1.1m for forming a cartel in a tender for a photovoltaic power plant. The EU‑funded investment was carried out by BarCom Košice (Juraj Barkáč). PMÚ alleges that BarCom, Rasema, M‑D‑J, and Sima plus coordinated their bids to ensure a pre‑agreed winner. In the end, they were unable to finance the contract from EU funds. PMÚ also banned the companies from public procurement for three years. ( antimon.gov.sk )

Regional GDP per capita in purchasing power standards (PPS) ranged from 30% of the EU average in France’s Mayotte region to 268% in Ireland’s Midlands in 2024, Eurostat reported. PPS data have many issues, as they ignore regional price differences and inflate GDP in economic centers. Regional GDP in PPS as a share of the EU average:   2024 2014 Prague 192% 192% Budapest 168% 144% Warsaw 157% 145% Bratislava 153% 193% Vienna 137% 157% ( Eurostat )

Slovakia’s slide in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index continues. Last year, it fell 12 places to 59th out of 180 countries, and this year it dropped another two positions . Perceptions of corruption are also worsening amid the current government’s rollback of anti‑corruption measures through legislative changes and shifts within the police, the prosecutor’s office, and the courts. Rankings of neighboring countries (index 0-100, where 100 indicates no co

Danish waste‑management company Marius Pedersen , which is selling its Slovak and Czech branches, has received initial non‑binding offers and will finalize a shortlist of investors within two weeks. Strategic investors (Veolia, Remondis, FCC, Ave) as well as financial ones (Wood&Co) are reportedly interested. The deal is estimated at €0.5–1bn. Last year, the two branches reported combined revenues of €400m and EBITDA of €114m. The sale is driven by tightening waste legislatio

Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba held talks with Japan’s Nippon Steel  on state support for modernizing its Košice steel mill. “We can find support for the rational decarbonization of U.S. Steel Košice,” he said. Changes are likely to the original plan to replace coal with electricity in two of the three blast furnaces. Taraba said the original plan would have sharply increased production costs and required a new 400–500 MW power plant. The state had been prepared to provide

Peter Šimko, legal representative of two companies owned by Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák  and his long‑time associate, owns 49% of Kaumy through his Austrian company Pann. Kaumy owns several food companies. The remaining 51% is held by Jaroslav Strnad , from whom Slovakia purchases military equipment and with whom Kaliňák signs contracts. Šimko says he and Strnad have known each other for years and therefore do business together. Kaliňák denies any conflict of interest, ev

Deutsche Telekom IT Solutions  laid off 150 of 3,800 employees at its Košice branch last summer. These were lower value‑added positions, some replaced by AI and others moved to India. The company is currently hiring 100 senior‑level employees. ( sme.sk )