The European Commission has given its preliminary approval to Slovakia's request for the first payment of almost €400 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said she had good news for Slovakia. "As soon as it is greenlighted by the remaining member states, Slovakia will get €398.7 million in grants from the NextGenerationEU package. Slovakia has made really fast progress in implementing its recovery plan." The Commission will now send its preliminary positive assessment of the Slovak request to the Economic and Financial Committee, which has four weeks to comment on it. Then EC will make a definitive decision on the release of money. At the briefing, the head of the European Commission Representation in Slovakia, Vladimír Šucha, explained that the amount of the repayment is lower because Slovakia has already received 13% of the total allocation of 6.3 billion euros in the form of an advance payment in October 2021. The Director General of the Recovery Plan Section at the Slovak Government Office, Lívia Vašáková, says that a second payment request is also being worked on. "We want to submit it this autumn. There are 16 milestones and targets, nine of which have already been met. We are working to launch as many of the planned calls as possible this year so as to have a realistic chance of completing all investments by mid-2026."During the briefing, she stressed that the recovery plan will be updated due to three factors. The first, according to her, is the reduction of the financial allocation. At the same time, she says, it is also necessary to think about the increase in construction costs. The RePowerEU plan is also important. According to her, Slovakia, like other member states, can supplement this chapter, for which it will also receive additional money.
Slovakia sent its first payment request to the EC on April 29. It was conditioned on meeting 14 milestones related to reforms in the areas of justice, university education, research and development, the fiscal framework, energy, sustainable mobility, combating corruption and the digitisation of the public sector.
SOURCE: TASR
