Slovakia has achieved a small success by being granted an extension of three instead of two years to draw European funds by the European Commission, Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday, May 22.
Fico was speaking after a meeting with Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, ahead of a planned summit of European leaders in Brussels. Fico reiterated that there is still a real danger that almost €300 million of European funds allocated to Slovakia for the 2007-13 period may be lost. He blamed this on inactivity by the previous government, the TASR newswire reported – even though that administration, led by Iveta Radíčová, was in office for less than 2 years of the 6-year programming cycle, while Fico himself was prime minister for the remaining 4-plus years.
The European Commission has proposed that Slovakia along with other countries be granted an extra year to use all the resources allocated from European funds. The decision isn't binding, as it still needs to be approved by EU foreign ministers and the European Parliament.
In addition to Slovakia, the proposed change should also apply to Romania, the SITA newswire wrote.
Sources: TASR, SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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