Restaurants remain closed, government negotiates compensation – SME.sk

BRATISLAVA. All shops and services can be opened in Slovakia from Friday including fitness centers for the vaccinated and those with the disease Covid-19 overcome in the last 180 days.

Essential stores will continue to be open to all without restrictions, no restaurants so far the government has left it closed. On Wednesday after the cabinet meeting Eduard Heger (OĽANO) informed the Minister of Economy Richard Sulík (SaS).

“Restaurants are not opening yet, the government has not succeeded,” Sulík said. However, according to the minister, the government began negotiations on “real” compensation for catering facilities. According to Sulík, they could receive support due to a decrease in turnover, overpayment of rent and also an employee allowance.

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“There will be intensive negotiations on this and I will do everything to ensure that the restaurants, when it was no longer possible to open them at the moment, are at least properly compensated,” Sulík added.

Window sales are still possible, but according to him this is an unfortunate solution and he can imagine the opening of restaurants in the OP regime, as in the case of shops.

According to the minister, state aid with the payment of part of the rent for traders who had closed operations due to pandemic measures will be launched on Friday, at the latest on Monday. It should be a one-off payment according to the set criteria for the entire third wave of the pandemic.

Sulík described the opening of stores as good news, also given that some traders have a large part of their income, especially in the pre-Christmas period.

According to him, compliance with the OP regime in shops must be ensured and controlled by the relevant branches of the state administration. “My job is not to take care of OP, my job is to make sure that those who want to do business have as few obstacles as possible,” Sulík added.