The European Commission on Friday afternoon approved the disbursement of 3.56 billion euros to Greece – 1.7 billion in subsidization and 1.9 billion euros in loans – as part of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the primary “tool” of the EU’s ambitious and massive NextGenerationEU temporary recovery instrument.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen officially made the announcement with the statement: “Excellent news for Greece today… congratulations to Greece. The road to recovery continues and the Commission stands by you.”
The country fulfilled 28 milestones several months ago for the second tranche of aid, and three dealt with the portion of loans for the third tranche.
The disbursement of the tranche is expected to flow into Greek coffers next month, while the Mitsotakis government’s economic team aims to increase investments – as listed in the 2023 state budget – by 16 percent, compared to the 2022 budget.
Overall, the Greek government expects to allocate 8.3 billion euros from the public investment program and 5.6 billion euros from the Recovery & Resilience fund, of which 3.5 billion euros will be subsidies. A total of 372 projects, budgeted at 13.5 billion euros, have been included in the scheme so far.
“The country has made sufficient progress in implementing its national recovery plan to receive a second NextGenerationEU tranche…Greece is pushing forward with ambitious reforms in key sectors, such as renewable energy, rail infrastructure, public transports and the digitization of SMEs. Greece is also encouraging new investments in tourism, manufacturing and agriculture,” von der Leyen said. She added that Greece has also met commitments in terms of managing and protecting taxpayers’ money.