PM Babiš: Summit a success, Czech Republic will draw 960 billion CZK from EU fund

The Czech Republic will receive 35.7 billion euros from the EU budget, increased by the EU recovery fund, during the next seven years, Prime Minister Andrej Babis (ANO) told journalists Tuesday after the five-day EU summit.

The Czech Republic will be able to borrow another 15.4 billion euros with advantageous terms within the fund, he added.

There will be a more flexible transfer of money between the funds, which is crucial for the Czech Republic, the PM said.

“The outcome of the EU summit is good for the Czech Republic. I am happy with this,” Babis said.

Thanks to the officials agreeing on the basic parameters of the fund, the Czech Republic will improve its position by almost four billion euros in the period between 2021 and 2027, compared with the ending seven-year period.

Within the future budget, it will receive 27 billion euros, drawing 8.7 billion from the fund.

Babis said it would depend on the terms under which the EC would borrow money on financial markets whether the Czech Republic would get its share from the package of the loans.

“If the terms under which the European Commission will be borrowing the money are considerably advantageous, we will borrow the money. However, we do not yet know the terms,” Babis said.

He said it was vital for the Czech Republic that it got the chance of transferring up to 25 percent of the contributions between individual structural funds according to its needs.

The government will soon present a reform plan to the European Commission, which will be a condition for its receiving the money from the recovery fund for the next three years.

“There is a need for restructuring our economy, we must put more focus on investments, we must focus on our healthcare system,” Babis said, citing some of the priorities.

“We should maximally speed up the digitization,” he added.

An agreement over the recovery fund was reached following one of the longest EU summits ever.