'Slovakia' Party Files Complaint with European Commission Over Subsidy Fraud

Bratislava, April 23 (TASR) - EU subsidies provided through Slovakia's Agricultural Payment Agency (PPA) were allocated to accommodation facilities that do not serve the purpose for which they were funded, representatives of the opposition 'Slovakia' party warned at a press conference on Wednesday. MP Roman Mikulec (Slovakia-KU-For the People alliance) added that a complaint will be submitted to the European Prosecutor's Office over alleged misconduct by government officials. Mikulec pointed, for instance, to a villa in Limbach (Bratislava region), which reportedly received subsidies amounting to €200,000. The villa was supposed to operate as a public guesthouse, but is instead being used for private purposes. "The daughter of one of the PPA employees also received a €150,000 subsidy for building a so-called guesthouse, which is now being used as private property, a private house. And there are many such cases across Slovakia," stated Mikulec. MP Veronika Remisova (Slovakia-KU-For the People) also raised the issue of PPA subsidies, announcing that she is submitting a complaint to the European Commission. "This is a tangled web of subsidies for people with ties to PPA officials. Is this how EU money intended for tourism development is being handled? Accommodation facilities that in reality are family homes, being rented out as apartments? This is a disgrace and a circumvention of EU law," stressed Remisova. mf/df