Slovakia Willing to Boost Contributions to EU Budget If Needed

(Bloomberg) -- Slovakia is prepared to send more money to the European Union’s budget if required following the U.K.’s departure, Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said, calling on all members to equally share the financial burden.

The euro-zone member of 5.4 million people will follow “a really pro-European course” and seeks to be in the core of the EU, because it wants to take part at decisions shaping the bloc’s future, Pellegrini said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Thursday. He said Slovakia could raise its contributions by as much as a fifth to 1.2 percent of gross domestic product.

“I think there must always be an agreement, and all member states must contribute the same amount or the agreed percentage of GDP,” he said when asked about the preparations of the EU’s next budget.

Pellegrini replaced Robert Fico last month after the veteran leader resigned halfway into his third term amid pressure from the largest demonstrations since the fall of Communism. The public protests, which still persist at a smaller scale, marked a month of political turbulence triggered by the murder of a reporter investigating crime with political links.

The prime minister said he hoped the new cabinet will stabilize the situation in the country, adding that the “biggest investigation team in the history of Slovakia” was trying to solve the murder case.

--With assistance from Peter Laca and Krystof Chamonikolas

To contact the reporters on this story: Caroline Connan in Paris at cconnan@bloomberg.net, Lyubov Pronina in Brussels at lpronina@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andrea Dudik

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