Prime Minister Robert Fico's government in Slovakia is contemplating reallocating €300 million from its Recovery and Resilience Plan to construct an underground carbon dioxide storage facility. Initially, these funds aimed to make Slovakia's industry more eco-friendly. The Environment Ministry, led by Tomáš Taraba, and the Economy Ministry are launching a call for industrial emission reduction projects to utilize the funds, which must be spent by 2026.
These funds were previously designated for the US Steel Plant in Košice, but investment ceased following a change in ownership. The government is urgently seeking alternative projects. Recently, the European Commission permitted Slovakia to call for industrial proposals, to be assessed in one month. As a contingency, the Environment Ministry proposes capturing CO2 emissions from industrial plants and storing them underground using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, potentially in empty natural gas wells.
Though the government seeks EU approval through a feasibility study, Slovakia's recovery plan faces significant delays, with several milestones missed, jeopardizing the disbursement of billions of euros from the EU.