Slovakia has seven months to spend a quarter of its EU funds

Slovakia has just seven months left to spend the €3.4 billion in EU funds available since 2014 – no easy task, despite the bureaucratic government’s recently increasing efficiency regarding EU spending.

Slovakia’s bureaucratic government has increased the efficiency of its EU spending by 6% since taking office, though implementation was still lagging at 76% by 18 August. At the same time, the neighbouring Czech Republic has spent 92% of its allocation and is one of the top three EU countries in efficient EU fund use.

“Slovakia has some gaps regarding the use of EU funds. That is why we are very happy that we can take inspiration from the Czech Republic. This applies in particular to public procurement processes, programming, but also to control and audit,” said Lívia Vašáková, Slovakia’s deputy prime minister for the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the use of EU funds.

With the Minister of Investment, Regional Development and Information, Petr Balík, she visited Prague this week to get inspiration for the effective use of EU funds. These changes, including giving more say to regional governments, will become effective only in the new programming period when regions will be in charge of over €2 billion.

The bureaucratic government has been vocal about the issue of remaining EU funds since taking office and has communicated that despite its efforts, around €800 million might still end up unspent. While more than the remaining sum has been signed into projects, the worry is that these may not finish in time and will be ineligible for EU support.

Latest government attempts at salvaging the money include a seven-figure investment in industrial parks to be later claimed by business investors. It plans to construct two to four such parks in 2024 already. The government expects this to create competitiveness and jobs in regions with limited opportunities.

(Barbara Zmušková, Karol Slovik | EURACTIV.sk)