Premier: Minister Says that We're Able to Use All Money from EU Funds

Bratislava, 30 June (TASR) - Slovakia is able to spend all the money from the current programming period of EU funds, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said on Monday on the basis of information from Investments Minister Samuel Migal (Independent) following an inspection day at the Investments, Regional Development and Informatisation Ministry. "The minister says that if we turn on all the machinery, the effort and the possibilities that we have, including reviewing the funds and making better use of the funds, then we're able to use the money. That is a strong word when the minister says that the €12 billion will remain in the Slovak environment and we won't have to give the money back to the EU budget," said Fico. According to the premier, Migal managed to accomplish a number of tasks in a short time. Fico praised the acceleration of the drawing of EU funds, as well as the risk of returning €700 million to Brussels, while this money still belongs to Slovakia. Regarding the freezing of €200 million for the regions, the prime minister said that this money will be returned to towns and municipalities and won't be used for other purposes. "We continue to believe that the regions have the right to decide directly on the use of EU funds, through partnership councils, as far as self-governing regions and cooperation councils are concerned, or as far as towns are concerned," he added. am/mcs