DURING his visit to London on December 5, Slovak Deputy PM Pál Csáky spoke with his British EU affairs counterpart Douglas Alexander about the financial prospectus for the EU for the 2007 to 2013 period.
According to the TASR news agency Csáky explained to Alexander that Slovakia saw the budget as a complex issue containing both figures and conditions.
Csáky named five conditions that Slovakia regards as fundamental, including accepting VAT as an expense in investment projects, changing the way in which projects are co-financed, and changing the rules for EC cohesion projects. The latter change would reduce the pressure of time on the final recipients of funds.
The fourth request that Csáky submitted in London was that Slovakia not be left out on major modernization projects involving universities, science academies and other institutions. The fifth concerned underwriting the costs of closing down the nuclear power station at Jaslovské Bohunice, scheduled from 2006 to 2008.
Alexander and Csáky also discussed the European Union's constitutional treaty, which was voted down in referenda in the Netherlands and France earlier this year. The pair agreed they did not see any way to continue the ratification process of the treaty in Great Britain.
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
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Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
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