The Slovak government plans to sign a ten-year memorandum of cooperation with the Slovalco aluminum plant, which stopped producing primary aluminum in early 2023, Prime Minister Robert Fico has said.
As part of supporting energy-intensive enterprises, Fico intends to propose a European solution that provides for several-year exemptions from participation in the emissions trading system.
During a visit to Slovalco, the Prime Minister said that the aluminum plant in Ziar nad Hronom is a modern and environmentally friendly enterprise capable of producing raw materials that are of strategic importance for both Slovakia and the EU. He noted that about 1.2 million tons of primary aluminum were currently produced in Europe.
“However, Europe needs about 6-7 million tons; everything else is imported from other countries. This plant could produce 17-20% of this European volume, or about 200,000 tons of aluminum,” Fico said.
He also stressed that several European companies had to stop production due to high electricity prices, and now Europe imported most of its aluminum from China or Africa, where energy was mostly produced from coal.
According to the prime minister, the problem with energy-intensive industry lies in the emissions trading system.
“It makes no sense to close healthy, modern and environmentally friendly plants just for the sake of ambitious climate goals, while importing aluminum from countries with large-scale environmental pollution,” Fico said.
He believes that several years of exemptions from the emissions trading system could help Slovalco and other energy-intensive companies. The Prime Minister plans to inform other European countries about this proposal and present it to the European Commission.
“However, this is a “marathon”, as reaching such an agreement within the EC and the entire EU will be difficult and not easy,” Fico admitted, noting that he believed that other countries would also support this idea.
At the national level, the Prime Minister intends to sign a ten-year memorandum of cooperation with the aluminum plant in Ziar nad Hronom.
“If we agree on this, I will address the European Commission with the question of whether any investments or state aid can be excluded from all macro indicators, such as deficit and public debt,” he noted. (Minprom)