Opening
the meeting with the Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic,
Andrej Danko, Viacheslav Volodin
Vyacheslav Victorovich
The Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the eighth convocation. Elected in single mandate constituency № 163 (Saratov constituency - Saratov Oblast)
noted that relations between Russia and the Slovak
Republic are developing very dynamically. In particular, over the past year,
the trade turnover between the countries grew by more than 12%.
At the same time, he stressed that “the formats of cooperation should be filled with specific content”: “Our task is to ensure that this dialogue continues for the benefit of our citizens via inter-parliamentary cooperation and the parliamentary dimension.”
Andrej Danko thanked the Russian colleagues for the warm welcome and support on the international arena.
“I am very pleased, Mr. Chairman, that although Slovakia is a small country, it nevertheless receives a great deal of respect from you. I have been Speaker of the Parliament for three years and have visited dozens of countries, but I want to sincerely say that nowhere did I feel the same way as here, nowhere did we have that trust, the friendship that we see in you,” said the Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic to Viacheslav Volodin.
The Chairman of the State Duma emphasized that “there are no small and large states. Every state is sovereign, this sovereignty shall be respected and relations shall be developed on a bilateral basis so that these relations are mutually beneficial and are in the interests of the peoples.”
Further collaboration
Andrej Danko stressed that he plans to participate in the Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries’ Parliaments in Astana this year. “I will promote the idea that as many representatives of European countries as possible shall take part in the Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries’ Parliaments in Astana to my European colleagues. This is a platform where we can reach a common opinion,” said Andrej Danko.
He also said that in 2020 “we would like to organize such meeting in Bratislava and welcome you as our distinguished guest.”
Viacheslav Volodin supported the initiative to hold a Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries’ Parliaments in Slovakia and noted the relevance of the event. “We can communicate, discuss any issues on this platform,” he said.
In addition, Andrej Danko invited the State Duma members to visit Bratislava with an official visit in May-June this year.
Viacheslav Volodin accepted this invitation: “We will definitely send a “friendship group” to Slovakia so that they can more effectively build relations with their Slovak colleagues.”
“Let's think, maybe these will be the formats of contacts between the specified committees so that our dialogue will go from assurances of friendship and the desire for cooperation to specific things, and we could discuss issues that will be interesting for our citizens,” he suggested.
According to Andrej Danko, it is necessary to develop relations between Slovak and Russian business: “Businessmen should be members of our official delegations, so that inter-parliamentary cooperation brings its contribution to the development of economic cooperation.”
The Chairman of the State Duma believes that a forum with the participation of business representatives supported by the parliaments of the two countries can become that such a new form of interaction.
Andrej Danko also invited the Russian delegation to visit Slovakia to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising (liberation from fascists). “This is the heroic page of our history. The Slovak national uprising would not happen without Russian support,” he said.
Viacheslav Volodin invited his Slovak colleague to attend the Victory Parade on May 9: “This is a sacred day for all of us. It unites all nations, because it was a Russian, Soviet soldier who liberated Europe from the plague of fascism. It will be great if you come.”
Digital Security Issues
The Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, during subsequent meetings, called for special attention to be given to the cybersecurity issues, the modern digital space.
“I generally criticize the European Union for not addressing cybersecurity issues sufficiently. There should be new rules in this field, universal for all, where we could protect our citizens,” Andrej Danko said.
Viacheslav Volodin called for the harmonization of legislation in this area, development of model laws. “The issue that you have just mentioned is the freedom of person, freedom in cyberspace, using Internet technologies — this is an important issue that needs to be addressed through a universal legal space, understanding that this legislation, if you want, on the one hand, will harmoniously be integrated in our huge European home, and on the other hand, will take into account the specifities of the countries,” noted the Chairman of the State Duma.
As he said, a thematic section can be held at the Forum “Development of Parliamentarism”. “Maybe, following this conversations, we will reach solutions that will later be used by other states, but this will be an extremely important moment for us when we can address the issues by concrete measures and protect the rights of our citizens,” he stressed.
User data storage
As Andrej Danko said, he discussed with the President of the National Council of the Republic of Austria Wolfgang Sobotka “individual taxes for large networks to protect personal data, for example, for Facebook”.
The French Parliament has raised the issue of taxation in this area for several years, as Viacheslav Volodin noted. “Today large companies like Google, Facebook work in the territory of European countries, like Slovakia, Russia, but at the same time do not pay taxes,” he stressed.
The Chairman of the State Duma noted another important issue in this area — the storage of data of citizens who use social networks. “As the databases are located outside our countries and that is the matter of our concern,” he said.
“On the one hand, we must do everything to make new technologies available to our citizens, on the other hand, to know that our citizens are protected and the sovereignty of the country is not violated,” he concluded.
The Chairman of the State Duma stressed the importance of the harmonization of legislation in the digital area: “It would be right to discuss these issues in terms of forming model legislation and developing legislation in countries. This will alleviate a large number of problems and make the adopted laws more effective.”
