[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
uh
welcome everybody good afternoon we
continue with the sessions at the globe
sac 2021 british lava forum and for this
next session
we're going to be discussing the eu
economic reboot on track towards
resilient economies
please keep using the globe sac app with
the questions we're here ready to
receive them and hopefully to answer all
of them of course during the session
we're gonna also get some questions from
you here in the audience those who are
physically with us
in the room and i have to remind you
that
this session is of course streamed
online at it will be broadcast
so if you are in the room uh
try to check if there are cameras around
you so that you know the stream goes
well
and we can be joined by as many people
as possible the session will last one
hour
we will get questions towards the end of
it and
without further ado
the policy response to the pandemic has
been hardly debated across all the
european union and
in the european capital since spring
last year a shared solution materialized
into a rescue package
five times larger than the marshall plan
with the aim of providing relief
and increasing eu economies resilience
how will it work how are we going to get
there and how we are going to
jump start the economies of the eu
member states and consequently
the economy of the bloc this is what
we're going to discuss with our speakers
today i'm very pleased to be joined here
on stage
by carl halvicek deputy prime minister
minister of industry and trade minister
of transport
czech republic
edward hagger prime minister of the
slovak republic
and sebastian kurtz chancellor of the
republic of austria
thank you so much for being here it's a
great pleasure to have you all here for
this session as we are discussing of
course some of the most important
economic issues when we're looking at
the future of the european union and of
the member
states and let me start with the asking
you
on the recovery and resilience facility
of course there's been so much debate
over it and do you think
chancellor let's start with you do you
think it will be enough to jump start
this recovery and the economies
well first of all thank you very much
for inviting me to the globsec
conference
um and to answer your question yes i i
think that it will be enough
and i would also say it has to be enough
you know that
austria and some other countries in the
european union
the so-called frugal countries were
quite skeptical at the
about the recovery fund at the beginning
we agreed in the end because we think
that the package is good
um we think that this decision was good
and we think that it was necessary
um to invest a lot of money to to kick
start the economy but
we would have not agreed to a permanent
debt
union and we do not
want to repeat it several times we
think that it was a tool necessary
at this time but nothing we should
repeat
um quite often and so
i think it is not only enough it has to
be enough
and i think it should also it would also
be good to remember
ourselves why we are talking about the
need to kick-start our economy
the reason for the um economic
um um uh or for the negative
development of our economies we had is
uh the pandemic and most people here are
still wearing masks
we still have some rules necessary rules
at the moment
but in austria for example we have more
than 50 percent of our people vaccinated
so far
um at the beginning of summer we will
have more than 50
vaccinated in all eu member states by
the
end of summer we will have two thirds or
70 or 75 percent
vaccinated in most european member
states so i think
there's a good chance that we win
against the pandemic
and that we can go back to a normal
situation and this is the best support
for our economy
and so my answer would be yes i think it
is more than enough
it's okay that we did it but it is more
than enough and now we should not
discuss
if we need more we should focus more on
the debate
where to invest because i think it's not
only important how much we invest
it's even more important where we
invested
now you just mentioned some of that
skepticism that the frugal countries had
in the beginning with the conversations
and some really heated debates
would you say that now there is less
skepticism yes there is less
skepticism because we agreed on numbers
we agreed on a wider package including
rule of law and other criterias
um we agreed that there should be a main
focus
on investment in digitalization and
also um in in in green
uh economy which makes our economies
more resilient and
also more powerful uh and last but not
least
we also agreed that it is a single tool
uh and that it is not a permanent debt
union which was for us the most
important point
thank you so much uh prime minister
hagar what's your take on that would
that be
enough and what are some of the
cornerstones of national strategies in
your case
well first of all i think it's uh
important to
look at the time when it was agreed it
wasn't
easy that this proposal uh was born
uh because of the discussion we had and
there was a lot of question marks on the
risks
of this uh whole action but yes we are
here
it's been uh decided it's been agreed
that's important
but i think we have to think of a strong
element of this whole package and the
the element is the
uh focus on reforms because that was
the condition of the uh responsible
countries as i would say
we said okay if we want to uh invest a
lot of money
out of the government pockets and
increase the debt
we have to have the investments into
or linked with the reforms so because we
know the reforms are the ones that bring
the healthy public
finances so that must be going hand in
hand in order to prevent
a further growth of the debt rather uh
having instruments where the debt could
later on
be decreased by uh helping the economies
to grow
so and therefore the pension reform tax
reform
uh education reforms and it depends from
country to country
but the element of reforms must be
discussed i think every time we speak
about this package of the money because
if we don't conduct the reforms
we invest the money but it won't have
such uh
such impact as it should be and as i
said
uh the milestones in the recovery plans
are based on the fact that in the first
couple years
should be developed or conducted the
reforms
and we know that the investments take a
longer time
when we speak on the investments i fully
agree it's very important to
speak where to invest this is one time
great activity first time in the history
of eu where we take such a debt where we
take
actually that together uh in in this way
so we have to be very wise but it's
only a kind of the beginning because we
know also from the part of slovakia
that our recovery plan doesn't include
everything
and we have to do a lot of uh
changes in in the regulations
and allow the business environment to
grow
and what's important what happened also
during this year
there was a and last year there was a
massive help
of the economies that's not really part
of the recovery plan
where we invested a lot of money and
increased the depth of our countries
to to help the the environment business
environment to survive
and that was very important so this goes
hand in hand
and we have to see it as the whole
package thank you deputy prime minister
well first of all thank you very much uh
it's very pleasure for me to me that you
is an honor for me and congratulations
to the football team of austria and
slovakia and czech republic because all
of these teams they won as you know
[Applause]
well but from the point of view of
recovery and resilience
facility so from the point of view of
the czech republic
it will not be the only instrument
but it could be the key instrument
definitely what are the priorities or or
let's say the
main vehicles in the czech republic the
fresh this is a
industry efficiency we are medium-sized
country
and it's not about amount it's not about
revenues about turnover because i came
from business from small and medium
sized business i i know that
medium-sized business it's
based on efficiency not on the turnover
on the revenues
and to achieve the uh for efficiency
that means that we have to invest and to
do innovation
into the research to the development
into the science and you can expect a
few
years uh we can expect that we will be
aided
value uh oriented economy this is the
first
sms activity as a small and medium
enterprises
we are the smes country and as i know
your countries they are also based on
the small and medium enterprises
and 99 percent of all the companies they
are active as a small and medium
companies it's extremely important from
the point of view of regional activities
services and
let's say the niche marketing is a very
flexible
environment which you have to prepare
for small small companies
startup and spin-offs for creativity
we need young people they are starting
their business
we need of new technologies we need
for let's say the new companies uh they
are
starting uh the business at the regional
regional
uh levels and of course we need uh
unbureaucratic uh
public sectors and it's important to say
that even
before the crisis the czech republic we
defined
uh the new priorities we completely
changed the priorities at the level of
czech republic and we start
to invest into the research development
and we have
introduced the so-called innovation
strategy which is called the czech
republic country for the future
and that's from our point of view
the key step because
it includes the new system of financing
and
evaluation of the research and
development new system of the
digitization of
the czech republic
we are creating the environment for
startups and and
pin-offs uh starting to uh to
support smart investments
and so on and also we are promoting
the new brand of the czech republic no
more length of stories but
as a country for the future we would
like to present the czech republic and
promote the czech republic
no more as a country of the chi beer as
a beautiful
country site and the charles bridge that
is a country of the knowledge is
innovation uh science and university and
uh for recovery and tourism resilience
plan
uh is based on this innovation strategy
and the question if it's enough
from our point of view the amount it's
enough so there's also a moment to
to change and innovate and to come up
with the new ideas now after this year
of course
now all the three countries have
submitted their plans and all of them
are based on the eu guidance of course
when it comes to green ambitions when it
comes to digitalization
but at the same time when it comes to
the eu funds they're of course
tied to the issue of conditionality and
some structural reforms
for many many people in europe once you
hear structural reforms
you think of some very strict control at
the same time that's of course some
memories that we have from the financial
crisis now where is this balance in
terms of how to
uh try to make sure that the funds are
of course used with the
respect to the eu guidance with the
national strategies respecting the needs
of every eu member but also
not to overdo this control over
structural reforms not to bring back
something that would even slightly
remind anybody of
the troika strategy
well if you allowed yes me to start i
i would say a bit more control
would not be wrong so
i don't i don't think that uh uh we
should fear too much
control uh and uh i think uh
the troika was not uh only negative at
all because without structural reforms
um
all these uh new money will
will not um will not fly so i
i i think uh and this was also one of
the points we criticized as
the frugal countries was that we
discussed
far too long um about the numbers
uh and how much to invest and we
discussed
too little how to invest where to invest
and
how to control it so from our point of
view um
control is not bad uh it's necessary uh
um if you invest 700 billion euros
uh in a very short period of time i
think it's important
to decide where and to control that
i think the the goal from the european
union that at least one third should be
invested in uh green transition and at
least 20
in innovation uh and digitalization
is not that high for example in austria
um if you combine these two uh
areas we have more than 90 percent or
about 90 percent
invested uh in in green transition and
in
digitalization so it is doable and i
think that
on the long run the countries will
profit
if they do it and last point because the
prime minister mentioned it
i think structural reforms are the basis
if you look at the unemployment rate for
example
in the different member states it's
extremely low
in czech republic and it's much higher
uh in in countries like portugal spain
and others so
uh i think um
if if if we don't focus on these
structural problems as well
um we will lose competitiveness within
the eu and
competitiveness is the basis for
economic
um uh recovery uh and
positive development of the european
union and for the recovery and then
afterwards for the growth stage for the
economy prime minister what's your take
on when it on the on the issue of
conditionality and structural reforms
and control over those yeah of course
it's very needed and that's why the
whole plan was
called it's good plan it's not a
strategy actually all the countries had
to develop a
very detailed plan we never experienced
this with the structural funds
it was a new exercise for all the
countries and i think it was very good
exercise
even though we didn't have that much
time but i think the countries knew
their own problems and they saw what
came with the
with the panda me but uh if you lay down
a plan
and you know what you want to do the
next six years five six years
where you want to invest because that's
what you needed to submit by the end of
april
so uh and and the european commission
said very clearly
you need to have milestones and we'll
see whether you meet the milestones and
based on meeting the milestones we will
release the money
beautiful that's a motivation it has uh
it
uh it's the journey so i think for
for countries who didn't have this
experience uh it was a great exercise
for them
to prepare and therefore uh i fully
agree
the control is needed because otherwise
the money will be just spent
and there will be a disaster such a
money you don't want to just spend you
want to invest them
because the debt grew in the eu by
average up to 100
of gdp and and that's not a low number
so uh and if we don't want to be a
continent where
we don't uh we have to i think we have
to be responsible toward the depth
always
because we have different economies etc
so so that therefore you need to
have very wise investments and i know
that the commission did a very good job
on
communicating with all the countries uh
about explaining where the investment go
whether these investments are really the
good
good mate and uh therefore i have a
strong uh or strong hope that this is
gonna bring
good results if it's going to conduct it
and by having the milestones
there in the plan and the condition of
releasing the money only by achieving
the milestones i think it's going to be
a successful
exercise and it's going to move europe
uh
stronger and that's what we need this
continent needs to be very strong
continent needs to be competitive
with the world uh and and we know that
europe
is a rather difficult continent because
there's so many countries
so many strong countries that getting an
agreement
on so many countries is not always easy
i as the prime minister of
foreign coalition know what i speak
about so
so that's why uh but i'm glad it worked
well so far
yeah thank you uh carl hublich what's
your take on that when it comes to the
issue of conditionality
and the funds being tied up to
structural reforms well the recovery and
resilience plan is covering
the czech republic and many of the
strategies as i mentioned
innovation strategy investment plan uh
let's say
transport strategy and so on and the
government is a specific government we
came many of the members of the
government came from business
and uh let's say we are a little bit
results-oriented
government and business about management
the vision mission long-term growth and
short-term goals and so on
and it's about controlling about your
risk management i would like to
implement the controlling into
this mechanism to do this activities
especially
at the innovation level special adult
research and development level
uh as you remember i present that or
introduced that we completely changed
the priorities of the czech republic for
example
in a field in area of research and
development it's not easy
to for control results
in a science let's say it's the
universities activities and so on
but it's extremely important for example
now my long-term long-term
objective in this field is to achieve
in a 20-25 2.5 persons
uh so-called gert indicator
that's a total expense to r and d
to gdp 2020
uh the level it's uh two cent we achieve
it
in 2020 uh the next goal is 20 25 2.5
percent and 20 30 to achieve the three
percent as a girth indicator three
percent is extremely high that mean
that then we have a chance to be in the
top five top seven
most innovative countries uh in a in
europe and that's all strategy that's
mean to manage
vision mission but on the other hand to
control
and also uh to balance it at the level
of risk
management because it's a lot of lots of
money
we have received a few questions and i
would like to bring uh the first
of uh the first of those questions to
our speakers the question is coming from
heidi
mara if we can see it now on screen
what are visions of our speakers and how
political solidarity across european
societies
will accompany the economic reforms that
already
highlighted
prime minister well uh what is the
vision
uh on the political solidarity across
europe i think uh well
of course this is uh always uh important
to have in mind and uh we discussed this
on on the summit as well
we have we cannot forget about the fact
that the european union
is one of the best place to live uh in
the world
and i think it's important for us as a
politicians
uh to be sensitive on that uh on the in
the political debate or in this
social debate on the national levels
uh because of course even now after the
pandemic we feel
that uh the people are tired out of wha
they've been locked down they've been
going through a crisis
we had to help as the governments but we
cannot forget in in the in the general
debate
that uh there are other places in the
world where uh
we we have to help and i think the
solidarity in general
it's a word that we need to explain much
more
in general even in the local local
politics
what i see in the past or over the past
months or years and i think it came with
when we heard first time uh united
states first
uh is this i would say
selfishness and i think it's very very
dangerous for
for the uh developed world to to become
selfish
because we want to allow also other
countries
to have a good life in the in the world
and there is other topics in the foreign
policy where we speak of other countries
they will become part of eu etc etc
so yes solidarity is definitely an
important part of our politics
i i i totally share the the vision of of
solidarity in the european union and i
think
all member states can agree on that um i
think where we should become
better is also to have the vision of
being successful
uh because what we sometimes forget
within the eu
is that we compete with other parts of
the world with china with the us
um and and many other countries and if
you look at the economic growth rates
um we have to avoid that we become
a museum with a high standard of living
and i think we always have to repeat
and remind ourselves that the basis
for solidarity the basis for
public investments the basis for
higher social standards is
competitiveness
and economic growth and if we look for
example at uk
of course they had a very negative
development last year but this year
they will have an economic growth rate
of seven percent for example
um if you look at china at the moment
there's enormous economic growth so i
think
what we should focus on is solidarity
definitely but we always have to remind
ourselves that solidarity is possible
if we are all all 27 27 member states
on their own and all united successful
but how to find that balance how to be
successful and as much as possible
competitive when it comes to the global
stage but also
not scale back that much on solidarity
when it comes to the eu block
well i i think that it is
even easier to show solidarity if we are
all together successful
i think uh it's a question of focus and
what we really want and if we look at
our debates
for example in the european council of
the prime minister level
there are many debates about the green
transformation
which is important there are many
debates about social standards
which is important there are many
debates about foreign affairs which is
important as well
but i think a strong focus on
competitiveness
um would also be important and i think
we have it more
in the political debate in the eastern
european countries
and we have it a little less in the
western european countries and in
some probably central european countries
like austria so i think
more focus on these issues
[Music]
is good for all of us thank you thank
you
it works together you're going to do a
great business and
you can also support your social
responsibility why it's the same so
you have to to balance it just from the
point of view of the sustainable
environment from the point of view i
don't know
green environment or to smart
intelligent growth and
and so on and you have to support let's
say circular economy you have to support
the process of the carbonization
at the same time if you can to implement
the smart solutions
let's say the smart solution in the
industrial segment in agriculture
smart solutions i don't know from you
know
energy sector of of course and uh
from my point of view it's really great
potential great potential
uh for in the cooperation between the
member members member states
but we have to involve also all of the
involved presence while there's a
non-profit institutions
universities let's say the platforms
chamber of commerce confederations trade
unions and so on
i have another question from the from
the audience from
jamie prentice at least 37
of total spending must be allocated
towards the green transition
jamie is asking should this figure be
higher than that and i'm gonna add to
that
to jamie's question with such a strict
guidance how to make sure that the whole
process
doesn't become just a box ticking
exercise in some cases about
making sure that it's enough when it
comes to the green transition
well you know actually i will add it
because it's not just green transition
it became over the time a climate
change and uh do no significant harm
came to it etc so
uh i must say for a country like
slovakia it wasn't an easy exercise
but on the other hand in general on the
eu level
uh the investments go this direction
anyway so it's not like
that we pushing something that we are
trying to invent and i don't think it's
a ticking box so uh
there's a lot of talk on on feed 455
etcetera so it goes hand-in-hand in this
and that that's why it was
uh invented uh this this figure
uh it's just important again on what do
we
invest into within this framework
and we really have to encourage also the
companies
to uh bring uh bring ideas bring
projects
where they bring the higher highest
added value
in some countries it is very developed
so it's going to be easy
to spend uh this percentage and actually
some of them will be
will have even higher uh in country like
slovakia where in certain parts i said
of slovakia we still kind of got stuck
in in time and we weren't able to
invest enough into getting out of 20
20th century
into the 21st we had to really uh
rethink uh what do we do and where do we
spend it
but we went the direction toward the
the emissions decrease and we also went
uh
into schemes for uh houses
where we know that a lot of uh families
has a
has a bad condition houses with the bad
uh
energy uh energy consumptions so that's
where we put a lot of
of this money into these schemes because
it decreases the
emissions it also helps the energy usage
so so yeah i think uh i i don't see this
as a ticking box
i'm gonna bring here uh the recent few
months ago the european parliament had a
survey showing
europeans want the eu to spend and
invest more in health
of course this is something we all
understand having been through the
pandemic
when asked this question given the
current context on which of the
following
would you like the eu money to be spent
they're very interesting results when it
comes to austria most of the people
said climate change and environmental
protection when it comes to the czech
republic economic recovery and new
opportunities on businesses
when it comes to slovakia employment and
social affairs
this is the results of this area from
just a few months ago
how well when it comes to austria the
people replied that their
that they would like the money to be
spent on climate change environmental
protection and this is what is reflected
in the plan that you have submitted well
i i didn't know uh that but but
sounds good because it's what we what we
do
so uh i i'm happy if people are happy
we we invest more than forty percent of
it uh in
in uh green transformation and about uh
a bit more than forty percent in in in
digitalization
uh so that that that that sounds uh
quite okay but
um i think for for many people um this
whole thing is still
quite abstract uh and so probably
um i'm not sure if if there's really
such a big gap between the member states
but
i don't know the figures thank you would
you comment on the results from your
country
yes so the czech republic uh recovery
and resilience plan
presents forty four zero percent of the
uh let's say the green uh transition
uh projects it's a little bit more than
so it's it's uh i'm sorry
and uh you know any czech republic it's
uh
quite uh let's say the specific uh
economic environment uh economic
structure
because especially from the point of
view of energy sector 60
of the central heating systems are based
on a co
45 percent of the electricity is based
on the coal
it means that that means that we have
now to transfer all of these
sources to do low emission sources it's
extremely
uh difficult way we are starting now and
of course the futures and renewables
but also nuclear energy and at the same
time we need
support from the european union of the
gas well in the next
maybe let's say 10 15 15 years the same
is it in the industrial segment well
so we are uh one of the most
industrialized
country in the in in europe in the top
three
and that means that we have to
completely change
the industrial segment and industrial
infrastructure infrastructure
uh to the low emission low emission uh
technology as well and the same is it in
a
transport whereas a 20 percent of the
emission in czech republic are based on
a
segment of of of transport so there are
huge challenges
and uh we are let's say
uh of uh conservative that's right but
on the other hand
uh the goals well they are i think
extremely
ambitious and uh that's the reason that
40 percent it's the check number of the
resilience plan from the point of view
of the
of the climate changes promised it was
interesting to hear for slovakia
a couple things i need to share here we
know that the recovery plan
cannot be used for uh recurring uh
expenses that that's not allowed it's
only for the investments
but even in this era we're going toward
the results of the survey even not
knowing that it will be this result but
uh that's why we have investments
into uh hospitals into the uh
healthcare because we know that there is
a great gap and i think this is one of
the reasons why
the server came as as it came we also
have a lot of investments into the
education
into the kindergarten uh broader
infrastructure and again it's toward the
people to weather
uh their care and also digitalization of
the schools
etc but on the other hand we're thinking
because this is kind of for the presence
for the better
well-being or for the quality of life on
the other hand we had a second pillar
that was thinking about the future
investments for the future part of it is
the
education but that's a long term but
also
a big amount of the money goes toward
innovation
reform plus really over 600 million
euros goes toward innovations
because this is where we see the future
we are very industrial country
automotive as we know and uh we want to
develop and build on this backbone of
our economy
uh into investments into innovations and
as i see the the countries around as
well so
it's a it's a good foundation for future
cooperation
which i very much look forward and and
these are our great neighbors and
and friends uh as well so uh that's why
uh even uh despite of this this survey
we had to invest into the future which
is very important for slovakia
i've got another survey for you all
right according to the recent euro
barometer results
uh 43 percent of europeans are satisfied
with measures taking so far by
national governments to fight the
pandemic 43
that sounds good could it be better of
course it could be my question is how to
make sure that these funds and how to
use those funds to increase that
confidence and increase the trust
towards national governments
from the citizens because of course we
know that this pandemic
has been much more than the healthcare
crisis that was a massive economic and
social crisis
with so many people losing their jobs
and you know their their lives changing
how to use that investment and this
money now to increase this confidence to
help people and maybe what i mean
going a bit more social and human
oriented
well i think that that we are in a quite
good
starting position now because the the
pandemic
was was difficult to for all of us um
and it took by far too long but now with
with the vaccination
uh campaign going quite well i think
life is already much better for all of
us
at the moment imagine how the situation
would be without the vaccination think
back
how the situation was a few months ago
it was impossible to meet
we had video conferences all day many
people lost their jobs so
we are already in a much better
situation now
and i think if we keep on vaccinating
um we will we will be able to overcome
uh
this this whole story of course um the
virus will not be gone
of course there will be another wave but
as long
as we are able to protect especially
older people
i think we are in a much better
situation and i can only speak for for
our country
but of course the pandemic hit us hard
of course
it was terrible to see how many people
lost their jobs
we have about 15 percent of our gdp
dependent from
tourism um this was terrible for for
many regions of austria and now even
these sectors are coming back
tourism is coming back uh people get uh
back into their jobs so i i think that
that
we will have a very positive development
in the next uh months and years
and the whole um recovery fund um
uh is is is is still uh
in in in the in the in the planning
status so
so um spending this money will help even
more
thank you prime minister well uh first
of all we have to admit that
the kovit 19 found us unprepared
we didn't expect something like this
happen and when we saw it in china we
still
didn't believe that it's going to come
in europe and it's going to come in such
a strong
strong wave so that's first thing on the
other hand uh
i think everybody was trying to be
flexible as much as possible
we haven't uh finished yet with the
pandemi
but we learned a lot and of course it
could be uh done better but
on the other hand i think we introduced
a lot of
instruments for example the the green
pass now
and and a lot of procedures uh a lot of
protocols been developed on
how to move around uh wearing masks how
many people can enter etc
this is already prepared and if
something similar comes we already know
how how to act much faster and we can
protect the people much better
we can prevent to go into such
a peak as it was so so we learn from
our own mistakes we'll learn from each
other i think that that's very important
43 is it good is it bad well that's what
it is
it should be better next about that
glass yes
exactly so uh the important thing is
that we don't stop
we didn't as i said we're not finished
we're still thinking on how to
uh live uh with the kovit for the for
the upcoming uh period vaccination is
very important we know that we'll have
to vaccine
the whole world if we don't want to if
we really want to get rid of
uh kovit uh but definitely the level
that we are
that we will be will be much better for
the quality of life
uh in in europe so
definitely move forward and and not to
give up
and not uh relax thank you uh carol
havelichik what's your take on that
and as just as before before you start
get ready with the questions because
we're going to go into the questions
from the audience and i would like you
afterwards to raise your hands to so
that i can see them please
well it was extremely difficult prayer
but now we have to look into the future
because everybody's expecting the act
for from our for
from us and we have to outline the
future
not only at the economic level about the
society level i don't want
uh to to call that we are let's say
restarting only the economy we are
starting the
society and the resilience and
recovery plan from our point of view
it's not a typical
economic plan it is a plan as an
infrastructure plan which is based on
economic activities research activities
but also
the health and resilience activities and
that's the reason that we are
investing from from this point of view
six percent uh to strengthening the
resilience in a
health uh care systems and free prince
persons to the research activities based
on a health
health area so so it's not only about
the economic restart well
thank you we gonna go into the questions
from the audience i'm gonna just ask you
to keep them rather brief because you
know you cannot hold the microphone due
to of course the coveted measures
we have a question there could you could
we please go for the
yes could you stand up q and please keep
it rather
brief there we go um i'm ayman
visiting a professor at the college of
europe my question is about
conditionalities are they only about
structural reforms
or there should be because the eu is a
normative force also in the world
conditionality is related to rule of law
when it comes to independent judiciary
free press non-discrimination lgbt
rights etc what's your take on this
thank you
well i i i share um
that it was a big debate and also one of
the
points we as frugal countries brought
into debate
that rule of law has to be a basis if
one member of the european union wants
to get a lot of money from other member
states which have to pay for that and
of course as always in the eu we had to
find a compromise so a bit more would
have been good
but at least we agreed to something on
rule of law here
on behalf of the action and the decision
process i think it was important that
this was recovery and resilience plan
in order to help the economies the
governments
that's why the structural reforms are
very important and it goes from country
to country which needed uh what reform
more
so therefore i don't really see a reason
for having such a
condition in the conditions on the other
hand
we are a european union as i said one of
the best place
to live it's a democratic environment
and
for us rule of law is is uh importance
number one because any democracy cannot
grow in
other environment other than in a state
of uh where the rule of law is
fully active so uh so therefore i think
this is
this is a ground field and if we see
that there are
uh some other views on it it's
definitely good to have a debate on it
and and try to understand what's what's
behind it
uh but we have to also understand that
uh european union
is a is a union of uh autonomic
countries with their with their
sovereignty
therefore i am a very much a great fan
of
communication of a discussion because
that's what
friends do and we shouldn't be uh be
afraid of
talking also about difficult topics but
it always starts with
listening and then it goes further on
but for slovakia as you see
the the current situation rule of law is
really something that we want to build
slovakia into
we want to make a slovakia a solid
democratic country
with uh strong roots of rule of law
so we have an opportunity a great
opportunity to manage the plan as a
european plan known only as a plan of
the particular country as well
and that's the power of of this uh
initiative of
of this plan and it's like any business
in a balance sheet as you know on the
left side there are the assets on the
right side and the other equity and
liabilities
assets that's right so infrastructure
and digitization
physical infrastructure and um
assets on the right side uh equity
social responsibility well and of course
the debts we have to
to pay to the 2d to the let's say
suppliers in this
from this point of view uh they are the
uh that uh they are closely connected
well because it's closer connected to
the
national uh financial budget so and all
of this must be
balanced and that's that's that's the
way how to tell me a little bit about
your plans to address this issue
thank you for the question prime
minister do you want to start
well uh yes the the question
of the winners and losers yeah
this
the whole pandemy was definitely very
asymmetric in this and
slovakia is a country of industry uh it
helped us a lot
to to really not have such a bad numbers
we
when at the beginning we expected that
we're going to have a decrease
in gdp or almost 10 percent and uh it
end up
not even 5. uh it was also
that we invested on uh the government
help toward the
employment this uh very famous court
serbiate
everybody knows it uh by now in slovakia
it'll
help very much to protect the the people
with their jobs etc so therefore i think
the countries responded depending uh as
they need it in their recovery plans and
i think it's good
but as i mentioned in the beginning it's
not only about with the recovery plan it
was also about what we did during the
pandemic how we were helping
uh to maximum possible uh and still
protecting the south
and the czech republic it's extremely
low i know well but uh
definitely in all of the central
european countries the rate of
unemployment is raw differential flow
uh and the losers of course the
retailers
small services well that's the reason
that we uh
supported these segments uh extremely a
lot of a lot of
sources 15 billions check
15 billion euros we uh
by 50 milli billion euros we supported
uh the segments of the small
and medium pattern prices especially in
a business field like
services restaurants and and small small
retailers
but we have to finish this support now
and to start a new
type of support based on investment
support based on innovation support
based on let's say the programs as a
guarantees
the loans and banking loans guarantees
and to stop
now uh the special program based on a
cool sub and so on because we have to
balance and manage also the labor market
well
thank you so much thanks to all of the
speakers for this session thanks for
everybody participating here i wish we
had more time for your questions and for
questions from the audience from
those participating online it's always
like that we next time hopefully we're
going to have
more time and we're going to have more
questions and more conversation here
thank you
you