Press Advisories
6. 9. 2018 20:19
Prime Minister Babiš met with Commissioner Creţu to discuss the future programming period and the current absorption of the European funds
Out of the current programmes, Premier Babiš mentioned e.g. the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness where intensive work is underway on measures that should help to unblock the spending soon. Another theme were the reallocations of funds. For example, the Czech Republic proposes to use a part of the unabsorbed CZK 14 billion, earmarked for high-speed internet coverage, in other priority areas.
Prime Minister Babiš said that for the next programming period, the priority for the Czech Republic remains to be the completion of the missing infrastructure and higher competitiveness of the economy. Therefore, sufficient flexibility is important, as well as the possibility to set the rules at the national level.
Another topic was the preparation of the future European budget. "I told the Commissioner about the unfavourable opinion of our government on the European budget. We think that it is not necessary to spend so much money on defence. We are NATO members, we increase budgets. We also spoke about cohesion, which is decreasing. And mainly I expressed our wish to be able to decide about the next money we are to receive," said Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
Premier Andrej Babiš also appreciated the efforts of the European Commission to simplify the rules of programme implementation in the 2021-2027 period and the possibility to transfer money between funds.
As of the end of August 2018, more than 166 thousand legal acts on providing or transferring support were concluded at a total value of over CZK 350 billion, i.e. over 60% of the main allocation. The project promoters have already received more than CZK 135 billion.
