Breclav, South Moravia/Prague, May 2 (CTK) – The Czech Republic will demand in the EU that it should be able to use the money it receives from EU funds according to its own ideas, Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) told journalists on Wednesday.
At present the Czech Republic is facing problems when spending all the money on some of its set programmes, Babis said.
In the next programme period, the Czech Republic may have a bigger say in the drawing of the EU money, he added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the European Commission proposed a long-term EU budget for 2021-2027 or after the departure of Britain, which was one of the biggest EU payers.
The money on the protection of borders, migration and asylum policy should treble.
The sum on the cohesion policy, which is to help eliminate differences between old and new EU members, is to fall by 7 percent. The Czech Republic is one of its recipients.
“We are glad that the money should be moved to the cohesion countries. There is the positive fact that the EU perceives this and within the cohesion policy we will have a substantially bigger influence on this than now,” Babis said.
The Czech Republic will try to use the allotted money more according to its needs, he added.
“We are facing the problem that we are drawing 11 billion crowns from various programmes. We want to draw the money for the health and education spheres. For this, we must demand the consent. In the future, we would like the money to be allotted to us according to our wishes and ideas,” Babis said.
He said this would be discussed at the European Council meeting in Bulgaria in May.
