Economy minister wants to decrease number of national parks

Economy Minister Pavol Rusko has proposed reducing the number of national parks. He argued that there are too many and that no new tourism infrastructure, notably ski lifts, may be built in such areas. But his proposal conflicts with a Cabinet resolution n national parks, that Slovakia intends to have included in the European NATURA 2000 network. According to the Environment Minister Laszlo Miklos the list of parks has been sent to Brussels, and the European Commission is due to spend three years evaluating it. During that time, the current state of the parks must not deteriorate. Local environmental groups have denounced the proposal as unacceptable.