According to Večer, Maribor's new mayor Andrej Fištravec already stopped a few days ago some of the project activities over an unclear financial set-up of the project.

All the activities of the EYC project office have now been frozen until further notice, the daily reports.

The website further explains that instead of the EUR 1.25m envisaged for the project, only EUR 300,000 are said to have been secured.

The city authorities blame the financial trouble of the project on the poor planning in 2012, on an oversized EYC office and its exclusion from the relevant office of the municipality and assignment directly under Deputy Mayor Astrid Bah.

Moreover, the office took up a wrong role in the project, as it wanted to produce content itself instead of offering a supporting environment to the organisations and others providing content for the EYC 2013, Večer quotes the local authorities.

The municipality officially confirmed in a press release that that the project was frozen temporarily, however only with the aim to establish the actual state of the finances and adapt the programme.

"We will try to secure the funds with a supplementary budget, but we must not forget that it is necessary to approach this in line with the financial possibilities in a time of crisis and in relation to the town's other priorities," the press release reads.