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Brussels – State Secretary of the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization (MIRRI) of the Slovak Republic Richard Maraček met on Thursday in Brussels with the directors-general of the European Commission (EC) departments responsible for health as well as science, research, and innovation. He confirmed to TASR that the European Commission appreciated Slovakia’s investment efforts in the field of innovation.
In Brussels, he discussed with representatives of the Directorate-General for Health the revision of the Slovakia Program, where they presented the project of building a military hospital in Prešov, which is expected to serve the citizens of eastern Slovakia as a top-quality hospital and also as a military hospital in one of the countries on NATO’s eastern flank from 2029.
The State Secretary specified that MIRRI must present this hospital and the investments in it in light of the new priorities of the EU’s cohesion policy. “We are trying to build dual infrastructure, and the military hospital in Prešov will certainly be both civilian and military. We must demonstrate to the European Commission that the hospital, which is financed both from the recovery plan and from European funds, has a clear dividing line – what is financed from the recovery plan and what is financed from European funds. This is to prevent any overlap of these investments,” explained Richard Maraček. He added that Slovakia is gaining investments through this path that will be sufficient to build the hospital.
He pointed out that the EU has initiated activities since May of this year to strengthen the regions of member states on its eastern border. “Europe cares about having a strong, clearly defined border. A prerequisite for this strong border is strong regions that create this border. We need those border areas to catch up on the investment debts that exist there, and to improve the quality of life for people, to enhance infrastructure, and to complete the things that are missing,” he described the situation.
The second part of his discussions was with representatives of the Directorate-General for Science, Research, and Innovation. He also spoke about the revision of the Slovakia Program, under which MIRRI reallocated over 300 million euros to activities related to development, research, and innovation.
“Slovakia is not among the best countries in terms of innovation. On the contrary, we are at the bottom among the 27 EU states, we are in 24th place, and we need to do something about that,” he said. He emphasized that Slovakia’s disadvantage is that it is merely an “assembly plant” and there is a risk of having an industry sharply focused on automotive production, which is mainly about assembly work and not about development, research, and innovation.
“Slovakia must intensify investments in development, research, and innovation. I presented the activities of the ministry under the leadership of Minister Samuela Migaľa (independent), which are aimed at accelerating the financing of research, development, and innovation. Our position and approach were positively assessed by Brussels,” Maraček stated. (November 20)
“Slovakia is not among the best countries in terms of innovation. On the contrary, we are at the bottom among the 27 EU states, we are in 24th place, and we need to do something about that.” Richard Maraček