Slovakia’s Operational Programmes

The European Commission adopted four Operational Programmes for Slovakia, to cover Cohesion Policy implementation for 2007-2013, which will lead to European investment of € 11.6 billion, in order to create growth and jobs in line with the Lisbon agenda.

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

• Transport programme: This, which will benefit from investment of € 3.2 billion from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund, 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

It should be noted that the European Commission has launched a debate on the future of regional policy until the end of January 2008 and therefore it invites all citizens to take part via the following website:
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/consultation/index_en.htm