Slovakia will contribute €8.75 million to the EU Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing the root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa. This stems from a document approved by the government at its February 21 session.
A contribution from the Visegrad Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) totalling €35 million should go mainly to Libya, the TASR newswire reported.
The money will be used to resume boat patrols, train security units for border protection and create a Libyan monitoring and rescue centre.
“The project’s aim is in line with Slovakia’s current position of fully supporting the reinforcement of borders in order to control migration flows,” reads the document, as quoted by TASR.
The Finance Ministry is supposed to provide funding to finance this contribution by the end of April. This money goes beyond Slovakia’s official development assistance.
The Visegrad Group’s prime ministers announced the total sum of the joint contribution at a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni last December. They agreed that all four countries would contribute the same amount, TASR reported.
