BRUSSELS, March 12, (WEBNOVINY) – The Slovak Republic will be able to redirect additional finances to D1 highway construction also from those operational programs where the allotted sum will not be used completely. This is the outcome of talks between Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso. The bilateral meeting took place on the sidelines of an extraordinary summit of EU leaders dedicated to the situation in strife-torn Libya, held on Friday in Brussels.
The prime minister reported that the European Commission expressed “understanding for the completion of D1.” “They have understood why we do not want to continue in PPP,” Radicova elaborated. The previous Cabinet of Robert Fico was pushing for the private-public partnership projects but the team of Iveta Radicova considers them unpropitious and does not want to carry on with the third package.
Radicova and Barroso agreed upon three principles regarding the completion of D1 highway: faster drawing of EU funds for already contracted projects that has been extremely weak until now, reaching some 17 percent; reallocation of funds from the Transport Operational Program except for the budget for railways; transfer of money from other operational programs from which Slovakia will not draw the overall sum allocated.
Transport Minister Jan Figel has attempted to gain support for the proposed transfer of unused funds to D1 highway some time ago but his effort clashed with Brussels’ lukewarm attitude.
SITA