The ministers of the V4 countries want to renovate panel housing estates from EU funds

BANSKÁ BYSTRICA - Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary will request support from European funds for the renewal of panel housing estates. Today, this was agreed upon by the ministers of the Visegrad Group countries responsible for regional development during a joint meeting in Sielnica near Banská Bystrica. The Czech Ministry for Regional Development was represented by Deputy Minister Jiří Patočka.
Slovak Minister of Construction László Gyurovszky believes that Central European countries are capable of revitalizing panel buildings without EU assistance. "They are remnants of totalitarianism and are common to all our countries. We expect that housing support can be a legitimate request for drawing from structural funds," he said.
Ministers István Kolber from Hungary and Grażyna Gesicka from Poland both pointed out the enormous scale of investments needed for renovations. "We will advocate for our views at the upcoming conference of EU states in Bristol. However, to push them forward, we must remain united in our approach," Kolber noted.
Another item on the agenda of today's meeting was the possibility of including value-added tax as an eligible expense when drawing from EU funds. According to the Slovak minister, this option is already included in the draft EU budget for the years 2007-2013.
Today, the V4 prime ministers discussed the budget with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Budapest. "Unfortunately, this proposal, which is advantageous for us, is part of a package that anticipates an overall reduction in support from the funds," Gyurovský added.