SLOVAKIA's progress in preparing to draw EU funds has put the country among the region's best-prepared acceding states, officials said.
Deputy PM for EU Integration Pál Csáky, European Commission Ambassador to Slovakia Eric van der Linden, and Regional Development Minister László Gyurovszky agreed that Slovakia was the second acceding state, after Hungary, to ask its people to submit project proposals requesting EU funding.
The Slovak economic daily Hospodárske noviny wrote on January 26 that, according to van der Linden, the country's recent progress in growth and development could soon turn Slovakia into the tiger from the Tatras, an economic predator of the new Europe.
In the course of the next three years, as much as €1.7 billion in EU funds will be available to Slovakia.
