Scientists and university lecturers are rejecting the Finance Ministry's proposal to cut more than €1 million from the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) budget. The Finance Ministry has recently asked the Academy to draft measures to streamline their budget. The reason behind the step is that state budget for 2016 hasn't taken into account two actions approved by the Cabinet: hikes in teachers' salaries and state support for milk producers. "The Government Manifesto states that the Cabinet considers science, research and innovations as 'above-ministerial categories'. If it's true, then it's unacceptable for the Government to patch up holes in the budget of the Education, Science, Research and Sport Ministry with the money dedicated to the development of the Academy (of Sciences)," said Imrich Barák, from the Academy and the Science Wants to Live! initiative.
Nonetheless, in July 2015, the academy's chairman Pavol Šajgalík, Finance Minister Peter Kažimír and then-education minister Juraj Draxler inked the Stabilisation Agreement between the Academy of Sciences and the Slovak Republic guaranteeing it a yearly budget of at least €60 million for each year in the period 2016-2018. The Education Ministry is convinced the agreement should be kept. On the other hand, the Finance Ministry argues that in order to solve the issue at the dairy market and to increase teachers' salaries, it has used a standard tool that includes taking money from all budgets. Moreover, scientists along with university lecturers, who came to support their colleagues, warned that if the Academy loses such a huge amount of money, it will be forced to lay off employees.
