D. Saková: On the impossibility of paying energy assistance from EU funds, the Ministry of Economy has known for a few weeks

Bratislava – The Ministry of Economy (MH) of the Slovak Republic has known for several weeks that energy assistance for households will not be possible to finance from EU funds. This was stated by the Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic, Denisa Saková (Hlas-SD), after Wednesday’s government meeting. According to her, the government is looking for a “Plan B” for financing, although European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised in a letter in July to finance energy assistance from EU funds to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD). This was reported by TASR.

The minister clarified that she had several meetings in Brussels last week. “There, I reiterated that at the beginning of July, the President of the European Commission sent a letter to the Prime Minister assuring him that our energy assistance could be financed from EU funds,” said Denisa Saková.

“We have been preparing an alternative solution B for about four, maybe even five weeks. And that alternative solution B is that we are looking for projects that are currently financed from the state budget. Those projects would be financed from unspent funds from EU funds. Conversely, this would free up resources in the state budget for energy assistance,” she explained.

“We know that we have a series of projects that we can finance from decommitment (unspent EU funds, note TASR). The projects that we pre-finance from decommitment and not from state budget funds can be allocated to energy assistance,” Saková added.

The President of the Slovak Republic Peter Pellegrini signed a new law on targeted energy assistance on Wednesday, which was approved by the plenary of the National Council of the Slovak Republic during its 39th session. Slovak households will thus receive targeted assistance in compensating energy costs from next year, while the current blanket compensation will end by the end of this year. This was reported by the president’s office. (October 8)

“We have been preparing an alternative solution B for about four, maybe even five weeks. We are looking for projects that are currently financed from the state budget. Those projects would be financed from unspent funds from EU funds.” Denisa Saková