Today, the Commission approved a positive preliminary assessment of 20 out of 21 milestones and targets related to Slovakias fifth payment request for €516.8 million in grants (net of pre-financing) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, a core part of NextGenerationEU.
The payment request includes key steps in the execution of 14 reforms and 5 investments that will bring positive changes for citizens and businesses in Slovakia in areas such as education, green transition, public health, social and healthcare, research and innovation, anti-corruption measures, and digitalisation.
Flagship measures in this payment request include:
- Transition from coal in the Upper Nitra region: Slovakia has ended coal-based electricity production at the Nováky power plant.
- New curriculum reform: Slovakia trained over 49,000 teachers to develop new teaching content, prepare for the new curriculum, inclusive education, and improve digital skills.
The Commission found that one milestone is not fully met at this stage. It concerns an investment to adapt regions to climate change, aiming to reach property settlements with private landowners in protected areas, mainly national parks, to preserve nature and biodiversity. Therefore, the Commission proposes to suspend part of the payment as per applicable provisions. This process gives member states additional time to meet outstanding milestones while receiving partial payment for those satisfactorily fulfilled.
Next steps
The Commission has now forwarded its positive preliminary assessment of the milestones and targets considered satisfactorily met to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to provide its opinion.
Concurrently, the Commission has informed Slovakia of the reasons why it considers the target on property settlements with private landowners unsatisfactory. Slovakia now has one month to submit its observations to the Commission.
Following the EFCs opinion on the positive preliminary assessment and after reviewing Slovakias observations, the Commission will make a payment decision, after which the payment to Slovakia can proceed.
If the Commission, following Slovakias observations, confirms its assessment that the target in question is unsatisfactory, it will suspend part of the payment. The suspended amount is determined using the Commissions methodology for payment suspensions (outlined in Annex II of the Communication published on February 21, 2023), applicable to all member states.
From that point, Slovakia will have six months to fulfil the outstanding milestone. At the end of this period, the Commission will assess whether the target is satisfactorily fulfilled. If so, it will lift the suspension and proceed with the payment of the suspended amount.
Background
Slovakias recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures. The plan will be financed by €6.4 billion in grants.
More information on Slovakias Recovery and Resilience plan is available on this page, featuring an interactive map of projects financed by the RRF, and the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard. More details on the payment request process under the RRF are available in this questions and answers document.
For more information
Commissions preliminary assessment of Slovakias fourth payment request
Slovakias Recovery and Resilience plan
Plan overview, full plan and all other related documents
Recovery and Resilience Facility
Recovery and Resilience Facility
Recovery and Resilience Facility project map
Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard