Ladies and gentlemen,

The Annual Report you are just holding reintroduces the Slovak Association of Petroleum Industry and Commerce as an umbrella organisation covering companies developing business in our industry as well as its activities.

As a new SAPPO Chairman, jointly with the Board of Directors, I would like to provide you with cross-section of our activities and the entire industry together with analyses, figures and diagrams, which we hope should illustrate development of our indicators accordingly.

We believe we have improved the quality in ensuring wide range of the Association‘s tasks in the past period. We have intensified participation of SAPPO and its elements in preparation of legislative modifications both at the level of working groups at particular ministries, as well as directly in the legislative process in Slovak Parliament’s committees. Similarly we have done in fulfilling the Government’s legislative plan.

We focused our prime attention to the Act on Mineral Oil Excise Duty, Governmental Regulation on the minimum amount of biofuels in fuel, construction of the umbrella law on the introduction of the euro and the related amendment to the Act on cash registers, the development of Ministry of Environment‘s Regulation on fuel quality, Regulation No. 96/2004 laying down the principles of fire safety in handling and storage of flammable liquids, heavy fuel oils and vegetable and animal fats and oils, and the related need to build emergency tanks.

In this respect, in 2010 we managed to contribute with our analyses and recommendations to a significant reduction of excise duty on diesel, which contributed to increased competitiveness of our petrol stations in the sale of fuel in comparison with surrounding countries, which ultimately meant increased sales of diesel compared to the previous period.

Active SAPPO contribution can also be noted at the launch of electronic toll. Through active communication with the Ministry of Transportation, National Highway Company and SkyToll Company we enforced the acceptance of member companies fuel cards for payment of electronic toll, when the law originally assumed payment only through bank cards.

In the near term, we want to focus on deepening our pro-active approach in finding common interests of member companies and their enforcement. Similarly, we feel our role in defending our industry position as one of the main elements of covering energy needs in Slovakia in wider European context, and at the same time, as one of the biggest employers, and who wants and should fulfil its role in the search for social dialogue on the social future of Slovakia.

At the same time we see one of our priorities in more intense cooperation with partner associations in neighbouring countries. Since we operate in an open European market with free movement of goods, services, capital and workforce, we shall also fulfil tasks related to coordination of legislative and other activities towards a common European prosperity of the industry to prevent administrative imbalances of the market, hence distortions in the competitiveness of various European regions and countries.

I would therefore like to wish us - on behalf of the Board - a lot of strength and determination in achieving our goals so that their results could not only be benefitial for SAPPO member companies, as well as many other industries and companies dependent on us, similarly like all citizens, not only of Slovakia but also the wider European area.

Ing. Igor Janok
Chairman of  SAPPO