Slovakia will most likely face negative consequences for the scandal concerning the drawing of euro funds for science and research. The new education minister Martina Lubyová said this on her return from Brussels, where she discussed the issue with the European Commission representatives.
"In the beginning, this sum was horrific, we spoke about 72 million euro due to this decomittment. However, with efforts from EU partners we have managed to reduce this sum to 32 million euro," stated Lubyová on Thursday, explaining that since the calls for research funding were blocked, Slovakia now faces a problem with drawing the allocated funds by the end of the year. According to Lubyová, nobody in Brussels wants Slovakia to lose out on funds. However, she also noted that the European Commission is concerned about the issue.
Meanwhile the Education Ministry has initiated a control by the Supreme Audit Office, cancelled the problematic fund call for long-term strategic research, and proposed an action plan to increase the transparency of the project selection. Based on this plan, the ratings of the evaluators will be published and the evaluators will be divided into several categories according to their expertise. Once approved, the measures envisaged in the plan will be implemented by the end of this year and the ministry will announce new calls for proposals in early 2018.
