Slovakia to keep fighting against power cost jumps

By Peter Laca

BRATISLAVA, June 5 (Reuters) - The Slovak government will continue in its effort to prevent jumps in the cost of electricity as local power prices are already high enough to allow a period of stability, economy minister said on Thursday.

Lubomir Jahnatek said he did not expect domestic electricity prices to rise "in a near future", and predicted a series of talks with utilities over how much they will want to charge households and corporate customers.

"There is a big buffer between production costs and the final price for the consumers," Jahnatek told a Hospodarske Noviny business conference.

"The time has come when energy companies cannot go only through improper increases of profits, but they can go through efficiency measures," Jahnatek said.

Shielding people from rising energy costs was a key promise that helped leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico win a 2006 election. His government has since tightened its grip over the energy market and strengthened powers of the state regulator.

Fico has said it is cabinet's pressure on utilities, run by western investors following privatisation earlier this decade, which has prevented major increases in energy prices this year.

According to Eurostat data, the Slovak electricity price for households was 0.1292 euros per KWh, without taxes, at the start of 2008, less than in the Netherlands or Germany but higher than in neighbouring Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary [ID:nL05631206].

"Prices here are already so high that the Slovak market can stay still for a little while and wait until more developed EU countries catch up with us," Jahnatek said.