Illustrative stock photo (source: SME)
A total of 55 people have applied for the second annual active reserves training project. The Defence Ministry will thus fail to meet its aim of training as many as 219 people to become part of the active reserves next year, the TASR newswire reported.
The ministry now wants to amend the law so that more potential active reservists will meet the conditions. Defence Minister Peter Gajdoš (a nominee of the Slovak National Party) admitted that this cannot be called a success.
“We spoke about the need of amending the law back when we were launching the project,” Gajdoš said, as quoted by TASR. “The amendment has already been submitted for interdepartmental review. I believe that we managed to set the conditions so that more people can meet the criteria, since the number of those who have shown interest in joining the project within recruitment groups is much higher than the number of those who have actually applied.”
A total of 49 men and six women have applied, including 17 people who have undergone voluntary military training.
Those who have applied for the active reserves have not yet been assessed in terms of meeting the legal conditions and their psychological condition. Based on the results, the Armed Forces will decide whether to launch training in all planned professions, i.e. chemists, artillery crews and sappers.
Those concerned will receive a motivational contribution of €600 for each calendar year for them to remain in the active reserves. The sum will be paid to them retroactively if they undergo at least 75 percent of the training, TASR reported.
