R. Takáč: The Slovak agricultural ministry achieved historically the best EU fund absorption last year
Bratislava – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MPRV) of the Slovak Republic achieved the historically best utilization of EU funds in 2024, with a total amount exceeding 209 million euros. The ministry accelerated processes thanks to many systemic measures within the ministry and the Agricultural Payment Agency (PPA), stated the head of the ministry Richard Takáč (Smer-SD) at a press conference on Monday, TASR reports.
The minister also criticized the utilization of EU funds during the previous governments of Igor Matovič, Eduard Heger, and Ľudovít Ódor.
“The Matovič government utilized 45 million euros through the PPA and the Rural Development Program (PRV) in 2021. In 2022, under the Matovič and Heger governments, 39 million euros were utilized. In 2023, the Heger and Ódor governments utilized 64 million euros,” Takáč quantified.
He emphasized that under the current government of Robert Fico (Smer-SD), last year they managed to utilize the historically highest amount of over 209 million euros. Additionally, the utilization this year by the end of June should be at the level of 153 million euros, which according to Takáč is already more than the total amount utilized in three and a half years by the previous governments.
“When the Matovič government took office in 2020, the previous government handed over the utilization of the Rural Development Program in the European Union in seventeenth place out of 27 countries. Do you know what they handed over to us in 2023? The last place, twenty-seventh. Here you see in real-time the total incompetence of those people who ruled us for three and a half years,” said the head of the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to Takáč, the acceleration of utilization was aided by systemic measures at the level of the ministry and the PPA. At the ministry level, this included the introduction of small investments up to 100,000 euros, reducing the number of on-site inspections from 100% to 5%, supplementing financial resources for individual calls, and introducing advance payments. Within the PPA, for example, there was an increase in administrative capacities, streamlining the processes for evaluating applications, and reducing bureaucracy, the minister added. (June 30)
