European Commission Partially Approves Slovakia’s 07th Payment Request For €658 Million Under NextGenerationEU.

Brussels; February 2026: Today, on 10th February 2026, the European Commission has partially approved Slovakia’s seventh payment request for €658 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the centre piece of NextGenerationEU.

This is an important step in the delivery of the reforms and investments tied to this payment request, in the areas of green and digital transitions, education, healthcare, and business environment improvements.

The Commission found that Slovakia has satisfactorily completed 17 out of 18 milestones and targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision.

Flagship measures in this payment request include:

• Centralised management of state hospitals: a new pilot unifies budgets, procurement, staffing, and performance tracking of 19 state hospitals, allowing for a streamlined oversight. By standardising planning, enabling bulk purchasing (e.g., medical equipment and energy), and strengthening audits, the reform cuts waste, improves accountability, ensuring resources are used more effectively across the hospital network.

• Better home nursing services: Slovakia established 11 new home nursing agencies and has modernised 80 existing providers, improving post-hospitalisation care and enabling patients to stay in their homes longer.

While Slovakia has made significant progress, the Commission found that one milestone related to an anti-corruption and anti-money laundering investment remains unfulfilled. Specifically, the renovation of police buildings has not yet been completed as required. The Commission has therefore proposed to suspend the payment related to this milestone.

Slovakia will be granted additional time to complete the outstanding milestone, while still receiving a partial payment for the milestones that have been successfully fulfilled.

This procedure is in line with the RRF Regulation and the Commission’s implementation guidelines published on 21st February 2023.

Next steps –

The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Slovakia’s fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to deliver its opinion.

In parallel, the Commission has communicated to Slovakia the reasons why it considers the above-mentioned milestone not to be satisfactorily fulfilled. Slovakia now has one month to submit its observations to the Commission.

Should the Commission, following Slovakia’s observations, confirm its assessment that the milestone in question has not been satisfactorily fulfilled, it will suspend the corresponding part of the payment. The suspended amount will be determined by applying the Commission’s methodology for payment suspensions (outlined in Annex II of the Communication published-on 21 February 2023), which applies to all Member States, and which puts significant weight on key reform milestones. From that moment, Slovakia will have 06 month’s time to take action and fulfil the outstanding commitment. At the end of this period, the Commission will assess whether this milestone has been satisfactorily fulfilled. If so, it will lift the suspension and proceed with the payment of the suspended amount.

The payment to Slovakia for the already greenlighted milestones and targets can take place following the EFC’s positive opinion and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission at a later stage.

Background –

Slovakia had submitted its payment request on 28th November 2025. Slovakia’s recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures to support green and digital transition objectives, such as renovation of family houses and public buildings, modernisation of railways or provision of digital equipment in schools. The plan is financed by €6.4 billion in grants under the RRF.

Today’s payment request brings the total funds paid out to Slovakia under the RRF to €3.96 billion, corresponding to 62% of the total funds in its national plan. To date, 44% of all milestones and targets in Slovakia’s plan have been fulfilled.

With a view to the closure of the Facility at the end of 2026, Member States must implement all outstanding milestones and targets by August 2026 and submit their final payment requests by the end of September 2026.

Team Maverick.