EC halts 4 calls instead of 2

The European Commission has halted payments in four calls for funding at the Education Ministry. It also banned this institution from signing new contracts with entities that had been approved for funding. According to opposition MP Veronika Remišová, the European Commission wants to know if members of the evaluation committee are experts in evaluating projects. Moreover, it requires information on whether the private entrepreneurs who received the grants have real experience in research and innovation and if they are sufficiently solvent. The chosen method of distributing EU funds also disturbed Slovak scientists who are active abroad. They are also puzzled by the lax attitude of the government. Slovak scientists abroad point to the country's continuous brain drain, noting that EU funds are also important for stopping this trend and enabling them to return to work at home under conditions similar to those they have at foreign institutions.