Revision of Eurofunds and the transfer of part of this money to new priorities will be the main topic of Wednesday’s meeting of the Minister of Investment, Regional Development and Informatics of the Slovak Republic Samuel Miga with the Executive Vice -President of the European Commission (EC) for the cohesion and reform of Raffael Fitt in Brussels. It will be their first meeting between four eyes, so far they met only in negotiations in larger formats and with other ministers of the Member States of the European Union (EU), reports the special newsletter TASR.
“We are going to talk about the revision of the Eurofunds, the possibility that, according to priorities, which today sets the EU today, change the goal for which these funds will be used. We are involved in this package of nearly 1.3 billion euros. He told Migal to journalists before meeting with the European Commissioner.
In this context, he pointed out that when Slovakia is solidarity towards the EU and Ukraine, on the other hand, he expects a helpfulness by the Union on the topic of the planned complete termination of gas imports from Russia to the EU. “Because we are probably most affected by stopping the flow of gas to Europe. We expect Europe’s belonging to help in compensation for gas prices,” He stated that he has not yet had information about other countries with a similar requirement.
In mid -June, the government decided to temporarily block EUR 1.26 billion from Eurofunds, which should be subject to revision. The reason was that otherwise there would be a threat of forfeiture. Part of this money of EUR 200 million also applies to municipalities that criticize this step. Migaľ re -declared that the Eurofunds for self -governments are not compromised and, first of all, they must do their “homework” in order not to threaten their forfeiture.
“We put money in a common package so that we can revise it and determine the priorities where the money will go. Whether it will be dual use, roads, bridges, whether it will be water, canal, whether it will be an energy transformation,” approached the minister. The other two current priorities are promoting competitiveness and the availability of housing.
Another topic that Migaľ would like to open in negotiations with the European Commissioner is to bring the Eurofunds “to every corner of Slovakia”. For example, municipalities up to 1,000 inhabitants, which are currently not at the use of Eurofunds, could also get them.
According to the Minister, the upcoming revision should bring several benefits. “This is both the possibility of longer drawing on this money by three more years, we will have free hands on where we invest it, and we will tell ourselves which are our priorities that we will want to use within these five,” He explained that the sixth option could be added to them, namely the compensation of the energy prices. The definitive outcome of the negotiations with the EC expects the relevant government resolution.
