Slovakia has found itself in a trap of mediocrity. It will tax everything that stands out, was heard at the TREND conference

Slovak industry and energy stand before fundamental challenges. Rapid changes on global markets, rising energy prices, pressure for sustainability and the digitalisation of production processes are forcing companies to seek new strategies to maintain competitiveness. How to increase energy efficiency? How to use modern technologies without threatening the stability of supplies and jobs? The participants of the TREND conference Industry & Energy 2025 sought answers to these questions. It was not only about practical solutions in the field of energy and automation, but also about the broader context of the transformation of industry within European and global trends.

The programme was kicked off by the first panel, which was devoted to Slovak business in times of fundamental change, including rising prices of energy, costs, taxes and increased regulation. The panel participants agreed that the European Union exerts rigid pressure on the member states and wants them to fulfil decisions that are often short-sighted. This is one of the factors that worsens the prospects of Slovak industry, as pointed out by the general director of the Siemens company and vice-chairman of SOPK, Vladimír Slezák. In this connection, he noted that the Green Deal should have been accompanied by an analysis of the possible impacts, which did not happen. The director of U. S. Steel for relations with the government and the European Union, Michal Pintér, considers the EU a good project, but not in the form in which it currently functions. He identified the missing conceptual industrial policy as one of the biggest problems. „We only have goals and we have no idea how to achieve them,“ he added.

According to the general director of the Slovalco company, Milan Veselý, Slovakia is decarbonising in the worst possible way – namely by shutting down top-class factories that are already, to a lesser or greater extent, decarbonised. „We are ready to restart production,“ he remarked. He added that the company needs suitable conditions for this.

However, it is not only about what the European Union pushes through. The other side of the problem was emphasised by the president of the Association of Industrial Unions and Transport, Alexej Beljajev. Slovakia has, according to him, its own homework – to keep industry afloat. Whether it succeeds in this he considers an existential question. „We have found ourselves in a trap of mediocrity, and everything that is above average we are going to tax. But you cannot earn money with mediocrity,“ he stated.