Pavol Rak, Managing Partner, Noerr s.r.o. (source: Courtesy of Noerr s.r.o.)
SLOVAKIA will pay €6.78 billion into the EU budget in 2014-2020 while it will be able to draw €20.29 billion from the EU coffers. Slovakia will thus get €14 billion from the EU in that programming period, Prime Minister Robert Fico announced on November 20, as reported by the TASR newswire, in reaction to the European Parliament’s passing the budget for the EU.
Fico stressed that Slovakia would hardly be able to survive without the EU funds, as practically 76 percent of all public investment in Slovakia is financed from EU resources, TASR reported him as saying.
The EU budget thus came as good news to Slovakia, as did the information that Slovakia and Romania would get an extension for drawing EU funds in the 2007-2013 period. Both countries will be able to continue drawing resources for their projects from this period one year longer.
“If this exemption wouldn’t be passed, we would risk losing €500-600 million and we would never be able to use that money,” Fico said as quoted by TASR.
According to the ‘n+3’ rule that will apply to all states in the next 2014-20 programme period, projects financed by EU funds are required to be contracted, completed, implemented and reimbursed within a maximum of three years following funding approval. This will enable Slovakia and Romania to have EU funds available for another three years instead of two after the end of 2013. As of July 31, Slovakia managed to draw only 42.82 percent of the overall package of €11.5 billion from EU funds that were made available in the current programme period.
For the next programming period, 2014-2020, Slovakia has defined six operational programmes: research and innovation, integrated infrastructure, human resources, quality of environment, integrated regional operational programme, and effective public administration.
