European Commission unblocked four Slovak operational programs

The European Commission has renewed financing of four Slovak operational programs, namely the Informatisation of Society, Research and Development, Health Care and Bratislava region, reported TASR. According to the Deputy Prime Minister for Investment and Informatisation, Peter Pellegrini, this decision releases half a billion euro from the EU funds for Slovakia. The programs were blocked due to various errors and incorrect settings in mechanisms. To avoid such problems, the government increased the powers of the office of Deputy Prime Minister Pellegrini, which will now approve and continually monitor and evaluate binding plans for programmes' implementation. If the ministries fail to follow them, Pellegrini's office could temporarily take control of the programmes.