Yesterday, 18 August, the government met to decide on the allocation of funds for dealing with flood relief, and eventually agreed to earmark EUR 13.3 million as an initial amount for this purpose.
Most of the money will go directly to the towns and villages, which the Ministry of Finance claims have already spent some EUR 11.8 million on dealing with the flood aftermath. They should receive the cash by 10 September.
Additional related expenses will be assessed progressively, but as flooding persists, tallying up the final bill is still not possible. This will only be known once the ministers of agriculture, the environment and interior come up with their respective reports, but projections talk about EUR 600-650 million.
Prime Minister Iveta Radicova made it clear that the government was well aware of the importance of implementing long-term preventive measures, though, and so the government plans to move ahead swiftly in adopting efficient and systematic measures intended as prevention rather than cure.
Slovakia can also request more flood relief money from the EU Solidarity Fund subject to meeting certain conditions, , including the ten week deadline for lodging requests, informed Juraj Tomaga from the State Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministry. He explained that any new request cannot be combined with the one submitted on 14 July for earlier floods. “We are currently waiting on a decision from the European Commission, but the EC has indicated that subject to meeting all conditions, the aid may be allocated by the end of the year”, said Tomaga.