The drawing down of EU funds for Operational Programmes (OP) in Slovakia hasn't been favourable over the first two years of the 2007-2013 programming period according to a recently-published study by the KPMG consultancy examining EU funds’ use in central and eastern Europe (CEE) released in mid-July, the TASR newswire wrote.
Of the overall €11.36 billion approved by the European Commission for Slovakia's Operational Programmes, only 0.61 percent has been drawn down as of the end of May.
“A positive sign for Slovakia could be the fact that the ratio of approved projects is 13 percent of the overall allocation. In terms of resources scheduled to be used in 2007-2008, this share is 46 percent of what was allocated,” TASR quoted the KPMG study.
The study implies that the situation is slightly worse in terms of the share of the money bound by the terms of agreement. It represents 7 percent of the budget for the programme period, or 25 percent of what was allocated for 2007 and 2008.
However, it's not possible to carry out a complete assessment of the drawing down of EU funds over the seven-year period. Partially, the study states, this is because “Slovakia concentrated on the highest possible drawing down of funds from the old programming period 2004-2006, and the setting of the system of management and implementation of new OPs”. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
