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The European Commission is working on a proposal to punish Slovakia for undermining democratic norms, which could lead to the termination of the allocation of funds for Bratislava.
Bloomberg, citing its own sources, reported this.
The European Commission has prepared the launch of the procedure to prosecute Bratislava in connection with Prime Minister Robert Fico’s decision to abolish the special prosecutor’s office, which supervised some corruption cases related to EU funds.
The process is currently at an initial stage and needs the approval of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
About 80% of all public investments in Slovakia are financed from EU funds. Any potential funding problems could be a major blow to this EU and eurozone member state, which is already struggling with an excessive public finance deficit.
One proposal is for the European Commission to use its so-called conditionality mechanism, which allows the EU to freeze funding when it sees its money at risk, according to the people who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Thus, the EU could keep part of the 12.8 billion euros from the cohesion funds allocated to Slovakia in the EU budget. Slovakia should receive this amount for the period 2021-2027.
According to one of the interlocutors, the European Commission is also studying the possibility of returning all or part of the grants for the fight against Covid in the amount of 2.7 billion euros, which Slovakia received as part of the EU costs for fighting the consequences of the pandemic. The creation of a special prosecutor’s office was a condition for the allocation of these funds.
Since Fico returned to power in October, he has come under scrutiny from Brussels as he decided to overhaul the criminal code and dismantle a special prosecutor’s office that had dealt with high-profile corruption cases, including among his allies.
In May, Fico was wounded during an assassination attempt. After recovering, he blamed the attack on a hostile atmosphere created by the press and the opposition. After that, he reformed the state media, putting broadcasters under government control.
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