EU recovery plan opens a window of opportunity if Slovakia can use it well

Experts recommend spending billions of euros from the recovery fund on transforming Slovakia’s industry-driven economy.

(Source: Sme archive)

While Slovakia has done well so far in scaling down the COVID-19 virus pandemic, its economy is feeling the consequences.

The lockdown and decreased demand in Slovakia’s trade partners has brought the country’s small and extremely open economy to a halt and straight into what the central bank governor calls a free fall. The European Commission in its summer forecast expects Slovakia’s GDP to drop by 9 percent in 2020, the sixth biggest drop among the EU28, after Mediterranean countries.

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The recovery package worth billions of euros that the European Commission is expected to allocate to Slovakia should be used not merely to restart the national economy, but to take it one or more steps further. In short, Slovakia will be expected to make fundamental changes to its economy.

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Stock image.

Twice as many Ukrainians work in Slovakia now than before the Russian invasion.


Píšem or pišám?

"Do ľava," (to the left) I yelled, "Nie, do prava" (no, to the right), I gasped. "Dolšie," I screamed. "Nie, nie, horšie..." My Slovak girlfriend collapsed in laughter. Was it something I said?


Matthew J. Reynolds
Czech biochemist Jan Konvalinka.

Jan Konvalinka was expecting a pandemic before Covid-19 came along.


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