Commission endorses positive preliminary assessment of Slovakia's fourth payment request for €799 ml
The Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Slovakia's fourth payment request for €799 million (net of pre-financing) under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.
Following its assessment of the payment request, submitted by Slovakia on 15 December 2023, the Commission has preliminarily concluded that Slovakia has satisfactorily completed the 15 milestones set out in the Council Implementing Decision for the fourth instalment.
The payment request covers important steps in the delivery of 15 reforms that will drive positive change for citizens and businesses in Slovakia in the areas of sustainable transport, inclusive and modern education, healthcare, and the pension system.
Flagship measures in this payment request include:
- Education curriculum: Slovakia adopted a State primary education programme that paves the way for the introduction of a new curriculum for primary and lower-secondary education. The new curriculum includes modernised and higher standards in the basic learning objectives.
- Healthcare: Slovakia has improved the efficiency and availability of its emergency care network, with emergency services now expected to be available for 90% of the population within 15 minutes.
Next steps
The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Slovakia's fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to deliver its opinion. The payment to Slovakia can take place following the EFC's opinion, and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.
Background
The Slovak recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures (more information on the Slovak plan, including a map of projects financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility in Slovakia are available here). The plan will be financed by €6.4 billion in grants. The payment request preliminarily endorsed today follows Slovakia's third payment request, that was endorsed by the Commission on 24 November 2023 and paid out to Slovakia on 21 December 2023.
This payment request will bring the funds paid out to Slovakia under the Recovery and Resilience Facility to €3.5 billion (including the €823 million in pre-financing it received in October 2021 and the €80.5 million pre-payment under REPowerEU it received on 13 December 2023).
Furthermore, the Commission is monitoring the continued implementation of other previously assessed milestones and targets, including milestone 15.5 entitled “Package of laws to fight corruption and strengthen integrity and independence of the justice system”. In that respect, it is noted that legislative amendments to the Slovak Criminal Code and other related laws of 8 February 2024 are subject to constitutional review by the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic which also suspended the effectiveness of some of these provisions.