Ministry for Regional Development: Czech Republic improves in drawing EU funds

The Ministry for Regional Development has revealed that the Czech Republic will successfully draw all EU funds allocated for 2004, a total of 12.5 billion crowns, the equivalent of around 570 million US dollars. On Thursday Radko Martinek, the outgoing minister for regional affairs, said the situation with drawing funds from the European Union had improved, although problems with certain programmes - for instance in Prague - remain. Even so, the outgoing minister has expressed hope that as much as 80 percent of funds for the years 2004 - 2006 will be used.