Prague – The amount of money for the so-called directly managed EU programs in the Czech Republic fell year-on-year by roughly 600 million crowns (23.9 million euros) to 10.8 billion CZK (428.6 million euros) in 2023. Calls for drawing support from these programs are managed directly by the European Commission, and applicants from all over the European Union compete for it. Directly managed programs include, for example, the largest European education program Erasmus+ or the research program Horizon Europe. This follows from a report that the government will discuss on Wednesday. According to the material, the values do not correspond to actually spent money, but to those that are bindingly agreed.
The report states that drawing money on directly managed programs in the Czech Republic is hindered by the administrative complexity of project preparation, high competition among applicants, or insufficient administrative capacity. According to it, the Czech Republic manages to draw especially from the Erasmus+ program and the European Solidarity Corps, which focus on involving young people in publicly beneficial projects.
Support for Erasmus+ amounting to 2.4 billion crowns (93.5 million euros) was agreed upon last year, nearly 300 million CZK more than in 2022. For projects from the European Solidarity Corps, it was 83 million crowns (3.3 million euros), ten million crowns less year-on-year. The administrative process of these programs is led by national agencies, for example, in the case of Erasmus+ it is the House of Foreign Cooperation.
At the same time, according to the report, the Czech Republic manages to draw directly from the Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund to support immigration. For projects from it, the Czech Republic received binding support of almost 1.4 billion CZK (about 55 million euros) in 2022. The war in Ukraine began in 2022, and a large number of Ukrainian refugees headed to the Czech Republic. In the previous year, only 14.7 million CZK (583,000 euros) were bindingly agreed for projects from this program.
Significantly most, the Czech Republic drew money from the directly managed program Connecting Europe Facility focused on transport. Support for transport projects from the program was agreed upon in 2023 for 9.8 billion CZK (390 million euros), one billion crowns more year-on-year. According to the report, the Czech Republic also succeeds in drawing from the LIFE program for the transition to a sustainable economy based on renewable energy sources, from the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) program, and also from the Creative Europe program to support culture. (January 7)
