Robert Fico-LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION URSULA VON DER LEYEN ✉️Dear Madam President of the European Commission,I appreciate the efforts of the European Commission (EC) to offer the Slovak Republic (SR) solutions to the extremely negative impacts of the proposal to stop Russian gas supplies after 1 January, 2028 (REPowerEU), and I thank you for your letter of 15 July, 2025. Slovak Republic will never support REPowerEU in gas supplies, as it will harm Slovak households and the economy and further reduce competitiveness of the entire European Union. By submitting this proposal, EC is grossly ignoring the political mandate approved by the European Council. My position as Prime Minister of the SR on this issue is consistent and should come as no surprise to anyone.I am fully aware that the SR cannot use its veto right on the REPowerEU proposal. We consider this proposal to be a sanction and therefore naturally link it to the proposed 18th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation. We therefore expect that the vote on the 18th package can only take place once the substantial risks associated with REPowerEU in the area of gas supplies from 2028 have been resolved.I must remind here that there is not even the slightest consensus on the Slovak political scene regarding acceptance of the content of your letter, and our business sector representatives also hold extremely negative views. It is also paradoxical that your proposal is not supported by opposition parties either, who otherwise agree with stopping Russian gas supplies after 1 January, 2028. I would find it bizarre if, given my clear rejection of the REPowerEU strategy, I were the only person in Slovakia responsible for accepting your guarantees, which are generally considered to be too vague.Under the circumstances, I would ask you to use the coming hours and days to continue dialogue between the Slovak government and the EC, in particular in the interest of a clear interpretation of the commitments that the EC is assuming at political level and which are formulated in your letter of 15 July, 2025. Until then, the SR will request a postponement of the vote on the 18th sanction package.Yours sincerelyRobert Fico