An influential factor in ensuring the energy security of the Slovak Republic in the winter of 2021-2022 is the possible escalation of the security situation around Ukraine. According to our experts, the security situation around Ukraine is already having negative consequences for the Slovak economy, and the implementation of any scenario of escalation of the crisis will lead to rising prices for natural gas and electricity in the Slovak Republic.
In the event of a large-scale armed aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, supplies of strategic energy raw materials (Russian oil and natural gas) to Slovakia are expected to cease. Another scenario is the strengthening of US and EU political and economic sanctions to deter Russia from aggression, which could be directed against Russian energy companies and lead to even greater gas shortages in Europe.

On November 22, 2021, Bratislava hosted an important annual international event in the field of energy, the Central European Energy Conference 2021 (CEEC2021), organized by the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA) in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy and the Office of the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic.
Representatives of the European Commission, the governments of the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, expert organizations and energy companies in the region discussed post-crisis economic recovery, energy transition (decarbonization, digitalization, decentralization) and energy security in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

According to the participants of the international conference Energy Community – “16th Gas Forum”, held on September 22-23, 2021 in Ljubljana, Slovenia and the joint international event of OSCE and World Energy Council Austria – “The 4th Vienna Energy Security Dialogue” Energy Markets and Security During the Global Recovery” conference, held on October 22, 2021 in Vienna, Austria, a combination of such factors as the start of commercial operation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and a possible decline in the importance of Ukraine as the main transit of Russian natural gas to the territory of EU member states, may be the cause of the most significant changes in the topology of gas transmission routes in Europe over the past 20 years, after the commissioning in 1999 of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline.

According to the RRZ report “On the assessment of compliance with budgetary responsibility and the rules of budget transparency for 2020” (Správa o hodnotení plnenia pravidiel rozpočtovej zodpovednosti a pravidiel rozpočtovej transparentnosti za rok 2020), submitted by the organization’s secretariat to the Slovak parliament, the public debt of the Slovak Republic constitutes 60.5% of GDP, which threatens the economic stability of the country.

At present, the automotive industry remains the key “driver” of the Slovak Republic’s economy, which, in the setting of the crisis, causes a rapid deterioration of macroeconomic indicators, and in the case of stabilization of foreign demand and production conditions – a sharp growth of the Slovak economy.
In June 2021, the Slovak industry offset the decline caused by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Industrial production in Slovakia in June 2021 increased by 13.7% as compared to the same period last year and exceeded the level of production in June 2019 by 4.1%.

On August 3, 2021 at the Slovak-Polish border near the Slovak town Výrava (Medzilaborce region) the physical connection of the Slovak and Polish GTS as the final stage of the project of the interconnector PL-SK. Construction and technical testing of the gas pipeline infrastructure are expected to be completed by the end of this year. The beginning of commercial operation of the PL SK interconnector is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2022.

On June 15, professionals from the country’s oil and gas industry gathered in the Slovak city of Žilina to take part in a traditional event of the Slovak Gas and Oil Association (SPNZ) – a conference on “Operational Reliability and Security of Main Supply Systems of the Slovak Republic – gas, oil, water”. Experts and managers of the key enterprises in the industry discussed aspects of the current state and prospects of hydrocarbon energy in the Slovak Republic within two days.

A feature of the economic crisis in Slovakia, which is developing against the general background of the global economic recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, is the significant dependence of the small, open Slovak economy (the share of foreign trade in GDP reached 85.7% in 2020) on revenues from export in the field of industrial production, primarily automotive.
The economic losses of the Slovak economy in 2020 amounted to 5.2% of GDP or EUR 4,7 billion, which is fully in line with the basic government scenario of the economic situation forecast of the draft state budget for 2021-2023. According to the results of 2020, the Slovak economy includes: construction (-20%), automotive (-18%) and services (-10%).

With relatively small volumes of natural gas transit at the level of 3.8 billion cubic meters (2020), up to 80% of which is used for domestic consumption and insignificant volumes of own production (31 thousand cubic meters, 2020), Bulgaria continues to implement measures for transit gas infrastructure and underground gas storage, trying to strengthen their role in the regional gas market. To this end, the government is making efforts to diversify transit routes and sources of natural gas supply, increase the liquidity of the Bulgarian gas market, improve the terms of the current long-term contract with PJSC Gazprom.