“The Czech Republic plans to more than triple the cost of humanitarian aid to other states.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Source: “European truth” with reference to ČT24
Details: The previous government of Petr Fiala allocated about 165 million crowns (6.8 million euros) to humanitarian projects for other countries. Now the current cabinet of Andrey Babis proposes to reduce these expenses to 50 million Czech crowns (2 million euros).
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Petro Matsinka, the reason for such reductions is to save budget funds.
The Czech Republic used these funds to finance humanitarian initiatives in other countries of the world, for example, the operation of helicopters to eliminate fires in Spain or aid to the Gaza Strip.
This aid also went to Ukraine – the Czech government paid for these funds bought generators for the critical needs of Ukrainian cities.
The reduction of humanitarian expenses was criticized by the opposition. The ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Jan Lipavsky, called it “revenge on humanity.” According to the politician, in the case of humanitarian disasters, the head of the Foreign Ministry should quickly make decisions on urgent aid, and not wait for the allocation of funds from the entire government.
As Lipavskyi noted, these costs were also used for projects in Ukraine, in particular regarding the restoration of schools or housing for internally displaced persons. It is not yet clear whether these initiatives will be continued.
As they wrote, the Czech Republic is preparing to send it to Ukraine 55 generatorswhich provide urgent humanitarian aid due to the difficult situation in the energy sector in conditions of shelling and harsh winter.
At the same time, the Czech public collection accumulated 3.8 million dollars for energy assistance for Ukraine – in addition to other grassroots initiatives and support from local authorities.