Martin Klus: Italy is ready to help Slovakia with energy diversification

"Russian military aggression against Ukraine has forced us to reassess some European Union (EU) policies, especially with regards to energy now. Therefore I highly appreciate the offer made by Italy to lend a helping hand to Slovakia in our efforts to free ourselves from energy dependency on the Russian Federation, especially when it comes to gas."

This was said by the State Secretary of the Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Ministry Martin Klus in Bratislava on Monday (17 May 2022) after the meeting with Undersecretary for European Affairs of the Government ´s Office of the Republic of Italy Vincenzo Amendola.

The partners appreciated the existing direction of political and trade relations between Slovakia and Italy. State Secretary Klus also told his Italian counterpart about key objectives of Slovakia´s upcoming Presidency in the Visegrad Group (V4) and the Slavkov Format (S3) to be taken over on 1 July 2022. The meeting of the state secretaries was dominated by current European topics - energy, the Conference on the Future of Europe and EU enlargement.

In relation to the Conference on the future of Europe, the partners agreed that if the fundamental EU treaties are to be opened, then it has to have a clear objective, general support and cannot be for its own sake.

"The presented proposals and recommendations by citizens, seen in the outcomes from the Conference, show us expectations for a change and for improving the functioning of the EU. Therefore our task is to delve into concrete solutions and implementing them in practice, with the knowledge that several of them can be carried out in a short time without revising the treaties," Klus further explained.

As for EU enlargement, both partners supported the strategic enlargement of the Union not only with the Western Balkan countries but also Ukraine. The state secretaries also visited together a large-capacity assistance center to help refugees from Ukraine on Bottova Street in Bratislava. Klus took this opportunity to thank Vincenzo Amendola for the humanitarian aid Italy has provided in the form of technology equipment to build an emergency tent camp in another large-capacity center in Michalovce. In his opinion this is evidence that solidarity among the EU member countries in uneasy and crisis times has functioned exemplarily and must be further developed.