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Bratislava – The Ministry of the Environment (MŽP) SR does not endanger the drawing of any financial resources from the recovery plan. There are shifts in all the milestones that Slovakia presented to the European Commission. This was stated by the head of the environmental department, Tomáš Taraba (SNS nominee), after the government meeting, following the publication of a document from the government office, which says that Slovakia may lose two billion from the recovery plan out of six, reports TASR.
Many areas in the national recovery plan that the previous government put there are, according to Taraba, “unfeasible nonsense that Slovakia does not need.”
“Despite that, we communicate with the European Commission on a daily basis,” Taraba pointed out.
According to him, the problematic issue is the purchase of private land in national parks. As the purchase was set up according to Taraba, it is unfeasible. “They predicted a purchase price that is four times higher in reality,” the minister stated.
The second issue is the question of decarbonization, where they determined a saving of 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide. For example, compared to Polish industry, Slovak industry is cleaner; Slovak factories have higher costs for decarbonization, claims Taraba. “We will look for agreement and a solution with the EC in these two areas. All other things are going according to plan,” the head of the department specified.
The National Implementation and Coordination Authority considers three milestones to be at risk within the framework of the fifth payment request, where there is a threat of not meeting them. Within the MŽP, it concerns the measure Adaptation of regions to climate change with an emphasis on nature protection and biodiversity development and the measure Landscape Planning Reform.
The Ministry of the Environment is delayed in eight milestones of the renewal plan and Slovakia risks losing two billion euros out of six. The document stating this was obtained by the information portal
Euractiv based on an information request.
Government analysts in this document calculate what Slovakia risks if it fails to fulfill the recovery plan. They divide the problematic milestones into those with large and small delays. The sanctions, by which the recovery plan would be cut, are seen in the case of the first ones at 967 million euros and in the case of the second ones up to 1.15 billion euros. To this penalty for non-fulfillment of the recovery plan, the actual money from the recovery plan that we could use for these goals, amounting to approximately 500 million euros, must also be added.
Minister Taraba describes the document from the government office, which says that Slovakia may lose two billion from the recovery plan out of six, as a tool of political struggle and claims that Slovakia will not lose even a cent from the recovery plan. (August 28)
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