Representatives of SK8 in the European Commission requested to maintain 400 million euros for Slovak regions

Brussels (TASR) – The presidents of four of the eight Slovak self-governing regions met on Wednesday in Brussels with the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission (EC) responsible for regional development and EU funds, Raffael Fitt. They warned him that the government of the Slovak Republic wants to transfer 400 million euros from EU funds for regions to large state projects, TASR’s correspondent reports.

The meeting took place at the initiative of MEP Ľubica Karvašová (RE, PS), who is a member of the European Parliament Committee on Regional Development.

The head of the Association of Self-Governing Regions of Slovakia (SK8) and the president of the Trnava region, Jozef Viskupič, clarified to TASR that the delegation spoke to Commissioner Fitt not only on behalf of SK8 but also had a mandate from the Union of Towns and Communities of Slovakia. The mandate emphasized that the regions perceive the irreplaceable role of EU funds for development and reducing the investment debt of towns, municipalities, and regions, and that self-governments have high reliability in implementing EU funds.

“Regional money should stay in the regions. We discussed this topic with the Vice-President of the European Commission. He is one of those who understands the regions because he himself chaired one. He promised to address the fact that the government is considering taking 400 million euros from the money that regions, towns, and municipalities can implement into their projects,” he said. He added that the second issue they discussed is the release of flexibility or 15% of EU funds and appreciated that Fitt accepted the invitation to Slovakia to “look at the whole situation up close.”

The president of the Bratislava region, Juraj Droba, emphasized that the delegation conveyed a common message to the Commissioner from all regional groupings last week. “A specific request for Slovakia was to maintain the 400 million allocation. I also insist that the money intended for the regions must remain in their territory,” he stated.

The president of the Košice region, Rastislav Trnka, reminded that together with colleagues from other regions, they were in Brussels even before the current programming period began and appreciated that they managed to “find common ground” with Fitt.

“The European Commission has adhered to the lines of drawing EU funds. I will highlight the most basic points, that projects will be created from the bottom up, that the state will not interfere with allocations and will not change the rules on the go. Nevertheless, all this is happening,” Trnka described the situation. He specified that towns, municipalities, and regions are the ones that create projects and are now surprised to find that the government wants to deprive them of 400 million euros, which it can transfer to other priorities, such as defense.

The president of the Banská Bystrica region, Ondrej Lunter, emphasized that self-governments provide 80% of all services that the state provides to people, and expressed hope that they will manage to save the resources they informed about in Brussels.

“We talked about roads and schools where this money could be used, about the reconstruction of kindergartens and investments in social facilities. The Commission today showed that it is interested in specific projects for people in the regions. For us, this is a continuation of a long-term struggle that the government cannot decide without agreeing with us that money for people and services for them can be given somewhere else,” Lunter said. (May 14)

“Regional money should stay in the regions.” Jozef Viskupič