Brussels – The European Commission (EC) has approved subsidies in the amount of 928 million euros (about 22 billion CZK) to the Czech Republic as part of an extraordinary recovery fund intended to mitigate the consequences of the economic crisis. According to the commission, the Czechia has met all the conditions in order to receive the first proper payment from a package of roughly 800 billion euros (19 trillion CZK), within which it is entitled to a total of seven billion. The Union executive informed about the preliminary approval in a press release.
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The Czechia already received 915 million euros as part of pre-financing the year before. The commission's positive assessment has yet to be formally confirmed by the representatives of the member states. Today, Brussels also approved 709 million euros for Slovakia as part of the fund.
According to the commission, Czech public institutions have successfully implemented a number of reforms aimed mainly at transitioning the economy to ecologically clean technologies and digitization.
“Once one of the areas where the Czechia has made progress is the prevention of conflicts of interest when drawing EU funds,” declared EC President Ursula von der Leyen. The commission linked this request to the payment of money at the time of the approval of the national recovery plan under the government of former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who, according to the commission's audit, had a conflict of interest.
Von der Leyen emphasized that the Czech Republic had increased investments in digital equipment for schools and issued a strategy to stimulate the circular economy until 2040. According to her, measures to increase the energy efficiency of rail transport and public buildings are also important.
