Remisova in Budapest: EU Cohesion Policy Must Continue in Future

Budapest, February 18 (TASR-correspondent) – The EU cohesion policy must continue in the future, as it is an extremely important tool and one of the fundamental pillars of the European Union, Vice-Premier and Investment Minister Veronika Remisova said at the summit of the Visegrad Four (V4-Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) ministers in charge of the cohesion policy on Friday.

“V4 countries must continue to promote common interests in the EU. After almost two decades in the EU, our countries are still not doing as well as the old member states and there are still big differences between regions,” stated Remisova.

Remisova stressed a need for more flexibility and to remove useless red tape in the distribution of EU funds. “Together with our partners, we called on the European Commission to speed up the process of approving the documents for drawing of new EU funds in 2021-2027,” underlined the Slovak minister, adding that the preparation of the partnership agreement and operational programmes is progressing successfully in Slovakia.

Commenting on Wednesday’s (February 16) verdict of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), which fully dismissed the actions brought by Hungary and Poland against the conditionality mechanism, in response to a question from the TASR reporter, Remisova said that Slovakia has no problem with this decision. “The cohesion policy of the countries of Central Europe must continue, it cannot become hostage to other political decisions,” she said, adding that respect for the rule of law is equally important.