The European Commission has adopted the Territorial Just Transition Plan (TJTP) for Slovakia that identifies territories facing specific challenges in their transition to a climate-neutral economy and directs investments from the Just Transition Fund (JTF) to these vulnerable regions. The JTF will invest €459m to help the metals and chemicals industries in the Upper Nitra, Košice and Banská Bystrica regions to phase out from coal extraction and coal-fired power generation by 2023. Among others, it will support energy efficiency measures for public buildings and innovative renewable solutions in the Trenčín /Upper Nitra region, the only coal mining region in Slovakia, where the Novaky coal-fired power plant will stop burning coal in 2023.
In June 2021, the €17.5bn Just Transition Fund (JTF) was created, combining €7.5bn from the EU’s budget for the period 2021-2027 and €10bn from the Covid-19 recovery program (Next Generation EU, 2021-2023) to support countries and regions affected by the closure of energy-intensive industries and the phaseout of coal, peat and oil shale production. Funds will be dedicated to green investments, and not to the decommissioning of coal-fired or oil-fired power plants nor to the construction of nuclear power plants. Around one fifth on the financings will go to Poland, followed by Germany (13%) and Romania (11%). To access JTF support, the EU countries will have to submit territorial just transition plans. Those that have not yet committed to achieving a climate neutrality by 2050 will only be awarded 50% of their planned allocation.