The European Union (EU) is working on a proposal to punish Slovakia for "departing" from democratic norms, which could lead to the suspension of funding to Bratislava.
Bloomberg writes about this with reference to sources.
The European Commission has already prepared a decision to launch the procedure for suspending the financing of Bratislava. All because of Prime Minister Robert Ficoʼs decision to liquidate the special prosecutorʼs office, which supervised some corruption cases related to EU funds.
The process is 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 excessive public finance deficits.
According to the sources, one proposal is for the EC to use its so-called conditionality mechanism, which allows the EU to freeze funding if there is a risk of it being misused.
Also, the European Commission is studying the possibility of returning all or part of the €2.7 billion in grants for the fight against Covid, which Slovakia received as part of the EUʼs expenses for the fight against the pandemic. The creation of a special prosecutorʼs office was one of the conditions for the allocation of these funds.
What preceded
Since Fico returned to power in October 2023, he has come under scrutiny from Brussels as he decided to overhaul the criminal code and dismantle a special prosecutorʼs office that handled high-profile bribery cases, including those involving his allies.
In May 2024, Fico was injured during an assassination attempt. After recovering, he declared that the assassination attempt was due to a hostile atmosphere fueled by the press and the opposition. After that, he reformed the state media, putting broadcasters under government control.
- Slovakia could become the second country to fall under the EUʼs conditionality mechanism after the bloc froze €6.3 billion for Hungary over Budapestʼs rule of law violations.