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Bratislava – Eurofund subsidies provided through the Agricultural Payment Agency (PPA) went to accommodation facilities that do not meet the purpose for which they were financed. In connection with the unfair practices of government officials, it is necessary to file a complaint with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), opposition MPs from the Slovakia movement stated at a press conference on Wednesday, TASR reports.
Opposition MPs pointed out that these are European Union funds that were clearly not used for the purpose they were intended for.
The issue with the agency’s subsidies was also highlighted by opposition MP Veronika Remišová (Slovakia movement, KÚ, For the People) and former Minister for Investments and Regional Development, who stated that she is filing a complaint with the European Commission.
“It is a tangled system of subsidies for individuals with ties to PPA officials. Is this how European money intended for tourism development is handled? Accommodation facilities that are actually family homes, and are rented out as apartments? This is a disgrace and a circumvention of European law,” emphasized Remišová.
Opposition politicians from the Slovakia Movement pointed out, for example, a villa in Limbach, for which agricultural subsidies of 200,000 euros were supposed to be used. The villa was supposed to serve as a guesthouse for the public, but it is being used for private purposes, the opposition MPs emphasized.
“The daughter of one of the PPA employees also received a subsidy of 150,000 euros for the construction of a quasi-guesthouse, which is now being used as a private private property, a private house. And we would find many such examples across Slovakia,” stated former Interior Minister Roman Mikulec (Slovakia movement, KÚ, For the People). He also called on people in the regions of Slovakia, if they suspect the misuse of subsidies by “local potentates,” to provide information about it, because “these are things that should not be happening in Slovakia.”
EPPO member, European prosecutor for Slovakia Juraj Novocký, on April 16, in an interview for the Euractiv portal, pointed out that after personnel changes at the Agricultural Payment Agency, which occurred after the last parliamentary elections, the quality and partially also the number of criminal complaints that the PPA itself forwards to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office have noticeably decreased. (April 23)