Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas confirmed to CTK on Friday the existence of the threat by the European Commission (EC) to halt the payment of 53 billion crowns from the Education for Competitiveness Operational Programme. The threat that the Education Ministry will not be able to draw the money was reported by the Euro.cz site earlier today. The Education Ministry, however, claims that it has not received any official information from the EC about the threat of suspension of the whole programme.