Het cohesieprogramma voor Slowakije gelanceerd (en)

A ceremony will take place in Kosice today to mark the adoption of four Operational Programmes (OPs) for Slovakia, to cover Cohesion Policy implementation for 2007-2013. Danuta Hübner, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, will sign the programmes in the presence of Mr. Marian Janusek, Minister of Construction and Regional Development and Mr. ?ubomír Vá_ny, Minister of Transport. Tomorrow, together with the Prime Minister Mr. Robert Fico, she will open the new railway station in Presov.

Speaking ahead of the signing, Commissioner Hübner commented: " In total, €11.6 billion will be invested in Slovakia. Much of this will help to create growth and jobs in line with the Lisbon agenda. The wide range of actions envisaged will benefit each and every citizen in the country."

The Commissioner welcomed the commitment of the Slovak authorities to building a knowledge society, as well as to taking action on social inclusion, especially with respect to marginalised Roma groups.

In total, the country has presented 11 programmes to the Commission for 2007-2013. The first four programmes, launched today, are as follows:

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  Transport programme: This will benefit from investment of € 3.2 billion from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund. It aims to support railway and road infrastructure, inter-modal transport infrastructure and public urban transportation by rail. The programme will ensure the modernisation of approximately 200 km of railways and 170 km of new highways and roads.
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  Information Society programme: €993 million from the ERDF; includes actions to support bringing electronics to public administration and the development of public services, development and renewal of the national infrastructure of repository institutions, improvement of broadband internet access. The programme is expected to create 1800 jobs over the period.
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  Regional programme: This €1.4 billion programme aims at improving the quality of life of the population. It includes actions to support infrastructure for education and social services, strengthening the cultural potential of the regions and infrastructure of tourism, regeneration of settlements, regional roads ensuring transport service availability for the regions.
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  Technical Assistance: € 98 million from the ERDF. This will contribute to preparation, financial management, monitoring, audit of the programmes and reinforcement of the administrative capacities in these fields.

The Commissioner will visit projects in Eastern Slovakia which have received support from regional funds: a project for Roma in Velky Saris (notably, teacher's assistants were hired for Roma children at schools) and the Spinea company in Presov, which is the only producer of high-technology cycloid speed reducers for robotics in Europe. She will also attend the opening ceremony of the new Railway Station in Presov, with the Prime Minister.

Background

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  In the new funding period, 2007-2013, Slovakia will benefit from € 11.6 billion of EU funding under cohesion policy. Almost 59% of the available EU funding in the Convergence Objective and 85% in the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective will be devoted to expenditure relative to the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs defined in 2000 by the Member states.
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  Slovakia has eight self-administration regions (VUCs) falling under the Convergence objective. The Bratislava region is covered by the Regional Competitiveness and Employment objective. The country has presented two operational programmes supported by the European Social Fund (ESF) to the Commission and nine others which will be funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) or the Cohesion Fund. All programmes should be adopted before the end of 2007.
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  Eastern Slovakia (Presov and Kosice regions) are among the poorest regions in EU27, with 1.56 million inhabitants and GDP per inhabitant (in PPS) at the level of 42.3 % of the average across the EU (2004).

Have your say - Online consultation on the future of regional policy: The Commission has launched a debate on the future of regional policy until the end of January 2008 and invites all citizens to take part via the following website:

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/consultation/index_en.htm