Prague, Dec 11 (CTK) – The EU budget cannot cope with the challenges the EU is facing without member countries´ support, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and EC Vice-President for budget and human resources Kristalina Georgieva agreed in Prague on Friday.
At a joint press conference following their meeting, Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) said economic growth, employment and tackling the consequences of the migrant crisis are the top priorities of the European budget.
“We agreed that the European budget is incapable of managing all these affairs and that it is very important for financial aid to be simultaneously provided by individual European countries,” Sobotka said.
Georgieva said the solving of the migrant crisis is one of the top priorities of the EU budget for 2016. She said she agrees with Sobotka´s opinion that the EU should focus on the protection of its outer border, a quick registration and identification of the incoming migrants and deeper cooperation between secret services on uncovering terrorists.
Sobotka and Georgieva also discussed a higher representation of the Czech Republic in EU bodies.
Sobotka said his government checked the situation after it was appointed in early 2014. It found out that Czechs are represented in EC bodies, but mostly in junior posts.
“We have no representatives in posts such as general directors,” Sobotka said.
He said he and Georgieva agreed that a way towards reinforcing the Czech representation is the raising of the number of experts working within the EC.
Georgieva praised the Czech Republic for effectively drawing money from EU funds.
The Czechs have become the leader in this area in 2015. The times when the Czech drawing of EU money was delayed are over, Georgieva said.
