Brussels, 25/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - “We continue to believe that an arrangement can be found between Interior Minister Vladimir Palko and the Slovakian police union”, declared the President of EUROCOP Heinz Kiefer on Thursday, regretting that the minister had not yet consented to sitting down at the negotiating table. You may recall that Minister Palko had threatened at end of October to take dissuasive measures against police officers who participate in demonstrations (EUROPE 9061). The President of the Slovakian police trade union Miroslav Litva was even demoted following one demonstration. Heinz Kiefer, who condemned the “authoritarianism” of such measures, nonetheless remains “convinced that the differences between Vladimir Palko and the police union can be resolved using dialogue”. The President of EUROCOP will travel to Bratislava on 3 December to participate in the EUROCOP conference which was expressly organised to lend support to the Slovakian police union. MEPs Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (Denmark), Monika Benova, Milos Koterec and Vladimir Manka (all Slovakia), have all demanded EU intervention in the matter.