The European Union is working on a proposal to censure Slovakia over the erosion of democratic norms in a move that could result in the bloc withholding funds earmarked for Bratislava,
Bloomberg reports.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has prepared a decision to trigger the procedure over the increasingly populist Prime Minister Robert Fico’s decision to abolish the special prosecutor’s office that oversaw some corruption cases involving EU funds, according to people familiar with the matter.
Almost 80 percent of state investments in Slovakia are financed from European Union funds. Any problems related to access to these funds will be a serious blow for Slovakia, which already has an extremely large deficit of the state budget, writes the periodical.
One of the options for penalties considered by the European Commission would allow the EU not to provide Slovakia with a part of the nearly 13 billion euros planned within the framework of the European Union budget.
