Education Minister Martina Lubyová (source: SME)
A company makes minimum revenue and lacks research experience, but still gets millions of euros to build up an R&D centre. In a nutshell, this is how the scandal revolving around EU funding arose in the summer of 2017, causing ex-education minister Peter Plavčan to resign.
As soon as he stepped down, new Education Minister Martina Lubyová of the Slovak National Party (SNS) pledged to do everything she could to fix his misconduct.
The police even initiated criminal proceedings for dubious allocation of money from EU structural funds, but they have not yet been concluded. No one has been charged, either.
Veronika Remišová, MP for Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO), recently pointed to the fact that the Education Ministry has still failed to distribute the EU money for research and innovation.
"Taking into account information from the Finance Ministry and our estimates, Slovakia will lose up to €100 million," said Remišová.
The reason is because Slovakia draws money from the European Union slowly.
Every year, Slovakia should draw a given amount. In 2018, we were to spend €238 million, but we have managed to use only €138 million.
Contracts are still valid
Last year's €600 million scandal concerned two calls for tenders that the Education Ministry published.
