The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and Informatization (ODPMII), in connection to the extraordinarily serious and unprecedented situation caused by the COVID-19 epidemics, has decided to adopt urgent measures. Their principal goal is to alleviate effects of the pandemics, prevent its further spread and, above all, protect the most vulnerable groups of the population.
Deputy Prime Minister Veronika Remišová intends to provide such urgent financial assistance by means of available or uncontracted EU funds at managing authorities in the total amount of EUR 4.3 billion. “It is necessary to perform immediate audit also of funds in open calls and transfer money from those calls to where it is most necessary”, Deputy Prime Minister put more exactly.
“It is our ambition to make the rule for EU funds for Slovakia as flexible as possible and therefore we are in intensive communication with the European Commission (CK) in order to be able to transfer funds among priority axes and use them immediately in area hit hardest by the Corona virus”, Deputy Prime Minister Veronika Remišová stressed. In her words, it will primarily be used to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs), health care facilities and, in the Operational Programme Human Resources, to help people who are in quarantine and cannot work or are most struck by the epidemic consequences.
In particular, it can be used to support health care facilities, for purchases of medical equipment, recovery of costs of SMEs related to negative impacts of the Corona virus, to support short-term work arrangements, needs of medical doctors, teachers, funding of information campaigns about the Corona virus or support to the police force.
In Slovakia, it is possible to consider use of several operational programmes (OPs) that could play an active role in financing of activities in the fight against the Corona virus. Above all, they are OP Integrated Infrastructure – in particular, part of the former OP Research and Innovations, Integrated Regional Operational Programme, OP Human Resources, OP Quality of the Environment and OP Effective Public Administration.
