Yesterday the European Commission made a preliminary assessment of Greece’s third payment request for 1.69 billion euros in grants and 1.95 billion in loans, a total of 3.64 billion euros, under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
The funds requested by Greece are earmarked for transformative reforms that aim to make public administration more efficient, fuel the fight against corruption and smuggling, address weaknesses in urban planning, promote upskilling for employees and unemployed, establish a regulatory authority to improve waste management and water resource management, improve transparency of public procurement for public urban and regional transportation, and improve the regulatory framework for industrial parks.
The abovementioned priorities are connected to 39 milestones and 3 targets, and receiving the 1.69 billion euros in grants is conditional upon achievements in all areas, says the Commission.
The Commission adds that the loan request is connected to one target- the signature of at least “3.5 billion euros of RRF loans between financial institutions and companies to support private investments related to the green transition, digitalization, increasing export capacity, economies of scale and innovation.” Investments in electromobility and charging infrastructure are included, as are renovations in residential buildings, fiber optics infrastructure, and digitalization of public administration.
The RRF is the key financial instrument of the NextGenerationEU and the Commission said that it carefully examined all of Greece’s 43 milestones before giving the green light for the funds.
The next step involves the Commission sending its positive preliminary assessment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) to seek its opinion, which should be expected in four weeks. After this the Committee will take its final decision and if approved, will disburse funds.
If and when the Council approves Greece’s recovery and resilience plan, it will be worth an estimated 35.95 billion euros, broken down between 18.22 billion euros in RRF grants and 17.73 billion euros in RRF loans.
