By: Sara Kovač / Nova24tv
After his scandalous visit to Moscow, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia, Drago Šketa, now also visited the European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi, where he once again caused trouble for the country, which is why Slovenia is once again threatened by the possibility of the European Commission freezing the European funds that have been granted to us. We are still trying to find out why Šketa misled the European Chief Prosecutor, as we demand to know the answers. The President of the Social Democrats party (SD), Tanja Fajon, previously had similar intentions to Šketa’s, but her plans failed in the end.
Slovenia’s Prosecutor General, Drago Šketa, visited the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Luxembourg today. The website of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office wrote that Šketa visited the European Chief Prosecutor, Ms Laura Kövesi, because of the “extremely worrying press reports about developments in Slovenia, which might affect the efficient functioning of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Slovenia.”
They also wrote that in addition to discussing a combination of measures including budgetary restrictions and the suspension of appointments to prosecutorial positions, the European Chief Prosecutor and the Deputy European Chief Prosecutors also inquired about the implications of recent legislative changes or legislative proposals, which affect or could also affect the work of the EPPO. Namely, they discussed the proposed amendment to criminal law rules on the statute of limitation, currently under examination by the Slovenian Parliament under an expedited procedure. They believe that should the amendment be adopted as proposed, for the vast majority of offences under the competence of the EPPO, prosecutors would have drastically less time to investigate the cases.
Based on Šketa’s report, the European Chief Prosecutor concluded that the ongoing developments testify to a clear and persisting intention to hamper the effectiveness of criminal prosecution of cases of fraud in Slovenia, including tax fraud, tax evasion and corruption. Consequently, the European Chief Prosecutor has addressed a letter to the European Commission to initiate the general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget against Slovenia, which could also mean that the European funds we had been granted would be frozen.
Jelinčič’s proposal does not even have the support of the coalition
Given the report of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, Šketa presented lots of disinformation to Kövesi and the two deputy European chief prosecutors. As is well known, it was not the government who filed the aforementioned amendment to criminal law rules on the statute of limitations, but the President of the Slovenian National Party (Slovenska nacionalna stranka – SNS), Zmago Jelinčič. Namely, the coalition already decided last week that it would not support the SNS party’s proposal to shorten the deadlines for investigations at the upcoming session of parliament.
And surely Šketa also knows about that, and if he does not, the reason for it is his complete disregard of the issue. However, the damage has already been done, and the Slovenian government will have to work very hard to persuade the competent institution that this was nothing more than uncorroborated insinuations, similar to those of Tanja Fajon and the Slovenian media outlets, which regularly exported lies on the rule of law and alleged repression of the media in Slovenia under the Janez Janša government. The situation escalated to the point where Fajon demanded that the European Commission confiscate the European funds that had been granted to us, and Sophie in ‘t Veld‘s commission visited Slovenia.
In any case, the editorial team of Nova24TV will demand an explanation from the European Chief Prosecutor, Laura Kövesi.
Prime Minister Janez Janša also commented on what is going on, writing on Twitter: “The coalition had already decided last week that it would not support the SNS party’s proposal to shorten the deadlines for investigations at the upcoming session of parliament. Prosecutor General Šketa surely knows about that, as the parties publicly announced their decision. But in spite of that, he is lying and misleading in Luxembourg today, and even demanding that the European funds for Slovenia be frozen.” Janša also added the hashtag “vile.”
