MOD supports proposal for one-off payment to support WW2 veterans

The SVK Ministry of Defence welcomes the initiative of MPs for a one-off payment of €630 for WW2 veterans. The payment is being introduced symbolically in recognition of their dedicated service in WW2 as we commemorate the 77th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising (SNP) on 29 August. The proposal must still be approved by Parliament.

Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said: “Our veterans as members of the Czechoslovak Army and the Allied Armies, and as partisans and their aids risked their own lives and the lives of their close ones, while making a contribution, on an indisputable scale, to victory over Nazism. That's why we fully support the effort to reward them with a lump sum payment to mark this year's anniversary of the national liberation struggle whose heroes they became.”

As Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Security and one of the MPs submitting the proposal Juraj Krúpa said, this is a mark of gratitude and respect to Slovak WW2 veterans. “Even dozens of years on since the battles [of the Slovak National Uprising], we have not forgotten their courageous and extraordinary acts and we value them highly. Their legacy lives on and we remain immensely grateful for what they did for Slovakia. I'll be very delighted if the parliamentary plenum supports this form of gratitude as a moral recognition for their service. Our heroes do deserve it,” he said.

The one-off payment for Slovak WW2 veterans comes part of an initiative by MPs to pass a law supplementing Act No. 285/2009 on provision of payments to WW2 veterans and their surviving widows and widowers and on amendment and supplementation of certain acts as amended and supplemented, which supersedes Act No. 461/2003 on social insurance as amended and supplemented.