More than two decades of European Union membership have brought Slovakia nearly 29 billion euros in funding, helping to boost economic growth, reduce regional disparities, and support macroeconomic stability. However, according to a new assessment by the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic, the effectiveness of these investments has been undermined by bureaucracy, weak oversight, and insufficient fraud prevention.
The auditors gave Slovakia’s management of EU funds over the past 22 years an average grade of three. They recommend decentralising the distribution of funds, launching funding calls earlier, and giving local governments greater autonomy. According to Supreme Audit Office Director Ľubomír Andrassy, Slovakia has seen too little innovation from European funding, with more EU money spent on the country’s day-to-day operation than on its long-term sustainable development.
The European Commission says the report is valuable and largely confirms its own findings. Peter Stano, head of the European Commission Representation in Slovakia, points to systemic failures, late project calls, delayed spending, changing conditions, weak control mechanisms, and shortcomings in project assessment as some of the most common problems.
The European Court of Auditors has identified similar shortcomings across the EU. The findings are also helping to shape new rules for EU funding in the next programming period, which begins in 2028. Not everyone, however, agrees with all of the report’s conclusions.
Government Plenipotentiary for Territorial Self-Government Michal Kaliňák (HLAS-SD) argues that some of the findings are flawed. He says the definition of conflict of interest should be revised, as the current rules can be problematic in a small country like Slovakia.
Source: STVR
