EC Approves Slovakia's 6th Request for Payment from Recovery Plan Worth €591 mn

Bratislava/Brussels, 16 January (TASR) - The European Commission (EC) on Friday greenlighted Slovakia's sixth request for a payment of €591 million from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, with the Commission concluding that Slovakia has satisfactorily met all eight pre-defined milestones and 11 targets. "This is a crucial step towards implementing reforms and investments linked to this request in the areas of the business environment, digitisation, education, public administration, a green economy, the labour market, research and health," reported the EC Representation in Slovakia's press department. One of the key measures included in this latest application was the formation of regional centres to support schools. Slovakia has launched 40 curriculum management centres with teams ready to assist in implementing curriculum reform, improving education and supporting school staff. "The sixth payment request was extremely demanding, containing 19 milestones and targets, each with specific projects, deadlines and responsibilities. This makes me appreciate the European Commission's positive assessment of our application even more. I'd like to thank all the ministries, colleagues and people in the regions who worked on this. It's the result of persistent and honest work," stated Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD), who is in charge of managing the Office of the Vice-premier for the Recovery Plan and a Knowledge-based Economy. Slovakia submitted its sixth payment request in June of last year. Its value is €683 million, but after deducting pre-financing, Slovakia will receive a net amount of €591 million. "After receiving the payment from the sixth request, Slovakia will have more than €4.55 billion in its account out of a total of €6.4 billion. At the same time, we're awaiting the assessment of the seventh payment request worth €658 million, which we submitted at the end of November 2025," added the vice-premier's office, noting that in 2026 Slovakia expects to submit the final two payment requests from the recovery plan totalling €1.2 billion. am/df