Christian Democrats: New EU Funds Must Boost Regions

      Bratislava, 5 May (TASR) - New EU funds must help to kick-start the regions, not get bogged down in ministries, Christian Democrats (KDH) leader Milan Majersky and MEP Miriam Lexmann stated at a press conference on Tuesday, stressing that people in the regions know best where EU funds should be invested.
        "EU funds form the backbone of the entire EU. We know how significantly they help the regions that are underdeveloped. We know how they help the development of our region, our country, our Slovakia. We're facing a new programme period for drawing EU funds, which could influence Slovakia's economic standing for decades to come; whether it will move forward or remain stagnant and lag behind other developed countries," said Majersky.
        "We've had four opportunities to draw EU funds across different programme periods. The first was only partially utilised; the remaining three have largely been a tragedy. We haven't been able to use them fully. From the current programme period we have nearly €12.8 billion allocated, but so far we've only drawn just over 12 percent," he noted.
        A large portion of EU funds is successfully used abroad precisely because the regions know best what their problems are. "They know best what they need, and they know how to transfer authority from ministries and central government to individual self-governing regions," he emphasised.
        "Before the new programme period, we must make it clear that we want to decentralise EU funds and transfer authority to the lowest possible level. We could follow the Polish model, where the regions have the authority to issue calls for proposals, implement and oversee individual EU fund programmes. And as much as 44 percent of the EU funds allocated to Poland end up in the regions. In our country, it's a meagre 19 percent," he stressed.
        According to the KDH chairman, there's a need to reduce inter-regional disparities. "If the EU average were 100 percent, then Bratislava is at 148 percent and the eastern regions, Kosice and Presov, are at approximately 50 percent," he added.