{"id":731038,"date":"2026-01-30T14:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/731038\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T14:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:54:11","slug":"eu-commission-launches-probe-into-slovakia-over-ficos-rule-of-law-crackdown-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/731038\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Commission launches probe into Slovakia over Fico\u2019s rule-of-law crackdown \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels\u2019 move comes amid strong pressure from lawmakers and NGOs to act against Fico\u2019s crackdown against independent institutions and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/farm-fraud-slovakia-state-agency-fake-guesthouse\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suspected fraud involving EU farm funds<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Zuzana Dlugo\u0161ov\u00e1,\u00a0the head of the whistleblower protection office, said that she had repeatedly warned Slovak officials that the plans were in contradiction with EU law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf expert feedback had been taken into account, Slovakia could have avoided EU infringement proceedings. Still, we believe that this process itself can help foster a more professional and substantive debate on how whistleblower protection should be properly set up in Slovakia,\u201d Dlugo\u0161ov\u00e1 said.<\/p>\n<p>Slovakia\u2019s permanent representation in Brussels and interior ministry did not immediately respond to POLITICO\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Brussels has given Bratislava one month to respond to its queries before taking further action \u2014\u00a0which could potentially include cutting EU payouts to Slovakia after a multi-layered process.<\/p>\n<p>Since returning to power in 2023 for a fourth term, Fico\u2019s Smer party has taken steps to dismantle anti-corruption institutions, including abolishing the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/slovakia-pm-fico-rule-of-law-concern-smer-partys-eu-brussels-over-plan-scrap-special-prosecutors-office\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Special Prosecutor\u2019s Office<\/a>, which handled high-profile corruption cases, and disbanding NAKA, an elite police unit tasked with fighting organized crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe European Commission\u2019s decision \u2026 sends a clear message: protecting whistleblowers is not optional \u2014 it is a core obligation of every EU Member State,\u201d Czech MEP Tom\u00e1\u0161 Zdechovsk\u00fd said in written remarks to POLITICO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brussels\u2019 move comes amid strong pressure from lawmakers and NGOs to act against Fico\u2019s crackdown against independent institutions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[7156,1194,2575,45787,2000,12921,299,5187,1699,10779,349,11665,9899,5111,52252,6566,2558,30827,657,1781],"class_list":["post-731038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-breaches","tag-budget","tag-corruption","tag-daniel-freund","tag-eu","tag-eu-budget","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-farms","tag-fraud","tag-meps","tag-ngos","tag-parliament","tag-piotr-serafin","tag-robert-fico","tag-slovakia","tag-tomas-zdechovsky","tag-ukraine","tag-viktor-orban"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115984627406662108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}