Slovak Premier Urges Faster Aid Use as EU Budget Debate Heats Up

Slovakia should relax its public-procurement rules to speed up the absorption of European Union aid funds to gain leverage in the intensifying debate over whether the bloc should reduce financing for its less developed members, Prime Minister Robert Fico said. Slovakia has so far spent 11 percent of the 19.6 billion euros in EU aid -- including national co-financing -- that it's been designated in the bloc's 2014-2020 budget.