Brussels granted an exception to Slovakia and Romania for extending the period of drawing on Euro-funds in the current programming period. The two countries will be allowed to draw European funds over three years instead of two.
This means that after the end of the 2007-2014 programme period Slovakia and Romania will have EU funds available for another three years instead of two. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Romanian President Traian Basescu pushed for this exemption during a meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at an EU summit in February of this year. “If this exception had not been passed Slovakia might have lost €500-600 million,” stated Slovak Prime Minister Fico. Slovakia would only just survive without money from Euro-funds. MEP Miroslav Mikolasik, representing the Christian Democrats, admitted that Slovakia is lagging behind in spending EU funds. “We're almost at the end of the 2007-13 programme period and we've drawn less than 60 percent, in some sectors less than 50 percent of the funds.” He considers the exception given to Slovakia as good news for the country. The European Parliament also approved the long-term budget of the European Union on Tuesday, November 19th. Slovakia will have to transfer a total of almost €7 billion to the budget of the European Union in 2014-2020. On the other hand, it can get more than €20 billion from the EU budget. “We receive from the budget almost €14 billion more than we contribute to it,” commented Prime Minister Robert Fico.
