Rasi: Old EU Funds Being Drawn at Level of over 94 percent

Bratislava, January 10 (TASR) - Slovakia is drawing EU funds from the 2014-2020 programme period at a level of over 94 percent, while a further €800 million is still being processed, said Investment, Regional Development and Informatisation Minister Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) at a news conference on Wednesday.
        According to Rasi, EU funds have been drawn at a level of €420 million per month over the past couple of months.
        "Some 93 percent has been withdrawn from the first programme period. We'll withdraw even more in the current programe period. If we include in this the money that we've already sent to applicants and the sum that we used for the energy crisis and addressing the impacts of Ukraine, we get above 94 percent. We should add to this the more than €800 million that is being processed. I believe that we'll announce by the end of April that the level drawn is approaching 99 percent," said Rasi.
        According to Rasi, measures also had to be resolved at the level of the European Commission (EC). With its approval, €1 billion was used to address the energy crisis, otherwise Slovakia would have lost this sum. "We've had to do a lot of 'rescue work' in the past couple of months so that we don't have to return the EU funds to Brussels," he added.
        Rasi said that the amount drawn from the new programme period 2021-2027 is at zero, while surrounding countries have already exceeded at least €1 billion. "We've announced 36 calls to date. I believe that this year EU funds will finally begin to be used for what they were meant," stated the minister.