B. Sobotka: European Commission approves of the service act, a condition for drawing EU money

On Friday afternoon, I received a letter from European Commission Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, in which he confirmed to me that the European Commission approves of the amendments to the service act and its final form. Therefore, the Czech Republic has officially fulfilled the European Commission's most important condition for drawing EU money. Therefore, the first calls for submissions for selected operational programmes could be announced in the next few weeks. The European Commission chairman also praised our close cooperation with the European Commission, thanks to which the service act has been seen through its successful finalisation.

The active negotiations with our European partners and mainly the ability to reach agreement have shown that unlike previous governments, we keep our promises, and after thirteen months we have seen through to the end the final form of the service act, which will ensure truly professional state administration for us.

At a time when the main obstacle to drawing EU funds has been eliminated, it is up to individual cabinet ministries to complete their negotiations with the European Commission regarding their operational programmes. The sooner we begin approving the first calls for submissions, the sooner we will support the growth of our economy via a new flow of money.

Bohuslav Sobotka, Prime Minister