Slovakia might not be able to draw €250-600 million from EU funds that were allocated to the country for the 2007-13 programming period, Prime Minister Robert Fico told a press conference after he met with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels on Monday.
According to Barosso, the EU Commission is committed to minimizing such risk. “We want to avoid financial losses [for Slovakia] by the end of this year,” he said.
In order to help Slovakia use the fund effectively, a working group of experts will be set up.
"The group of experts is set to draft a report in May about how Slovakia and the European Commission can work towards a greater deal of flexibility and a more effective spending of €250-600 million," said the Slovak premier who would like to use the money to create jobs for young people and help build much needed infrastructure. Apart from Barroso, Slovakia’s Premier also met with the European Commission Vice-President for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration and Slovak national Maros Sefcovic. Their discussion focused on major economic issues, including EU funds that Slovakia may receive in the current programming period as well as the re-allocation of these funds. The cohesion policy and topical EU issues were also broached.
Lucia Pazičová
