Taraba divided up hundreds of millions of euros. The winners of this game are the factories, the municipalities no longer are, claims a former state

What do national parks, water mains and large factories have in common? The answer is the Environmental Fund. In the green fund, hundreds of millions of euros accumulate every year, which the state is supposed to distribute for ecological goals. Whether it is reducing emissions in industry or building new water mains or sewerage systems in municipalities where this infrastructure is missing.

„The entire system of drawing funds from the environmental fund in Slovakia is, in our opinion, set up very unfairly and inequitably,“ the head of Železiarne Podbrezová, Vladimír Soták, complained in the past. The money in the fund was merely collected, and the package contributed mainly to reducing the deficit of public finances.

The head of the environment ministry, Tomáš Taraba, showed at a government meeting in Modra how the state will newly redistribute the multi-billion budget over the next three years. The cabinet approved the proposal.

Millions will go to Saková or Ráž

The environmental fund manages a large volume of money every year. The figures say that last year more than 584 million euros flowed into its account. The majority was for emission allowances, sent into it mainly by large factories.

In total, there were almost two billion euros in the fund's account. These are thus significant resources from which hundreds of green projects are financed.

Over the next three years the state wants to spend almost a billion euros. In 2023 it is to be more than 284 million euros, a year later already 335 million euros, and in 2027 more than 326 million euros. The change compared to the current division means that half of the funds will remain in the fund's account.

The other half will be divided among three ministries – the economy, transport and agriculture. According to this key, next year the fund will allocate 142 million euros to new projects and the mentioned ministries will receive the remaining 142 million euros.

For illustration, this year the state will redistribute 289 million euros.

Since the funds come from the fund, the ministries are to spend them on green or climate measures. An example is insulating buildings, which is the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport under Jozef Ráž Jr. But the law does not clearly state what these ministries are to do with the sum.

Criticism from the opposition

Former state secretary at the environment ministry Michal Kiča of the Democrats criticises the proposed division. He claims that the factories can be pleased, but the municipalities no longer can.

Although it is a major change that determines how the state will distribute an almost billion-euro package over the coming years, the discussion on the law was, according to Kiča, limited.

„In the presence of state secretary Gabriela Matečná, authorised by Minister Tomáš Taraba, it was promised that the manner of division would go through inter-ministerial proceedings. That was a lie. We were able to read the material for the first time on Tuesday evening,“ says the former state secretary.

According to him, the adjustment will not please municipalities and towns. The reason is the cutting of funds for building new water mains and sewerage systems. Kiča calculates that last year the fund supported water supply infrastructure with a sum of almost 76 million euros. „Taraba proposes to allocate only 56.8 million euros for 2025 and 67 million euros for 2026,“ he pointed out.

For the minister, the topic of water mains is key, and he has repeated several times that he wants to support this topic at the ministry. He confirmed this in September too, when the major water management act was before the government. Likewise, at the government meeting in Modra he announced that the cabinet would support several projects in the area of the water supply and sewerage network in the surrounding municipalities.

Local governments have meanwhile long pointed out that they lack money in their budgets for basic tasks. Large water supply infrastructure projects are often counted in millions of euros.

Industry, on the contrary, may be in a different situation. According to the former secretary, its compensation for electricity prices will increase. Next year, factories are to receive more than 40 million euros. That, according to Kiča, is a twofold increase.

Industry sees it similarly and assesses that the funds can bring real results that will contribute to reducing emissions.