Greece remains first in terms of National Recovery Plans resources as a percentage of GDP and will not lose any euros from the Recovery Fund, Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Nikos Papathanasis stressed, speaking earlier today in Parliament and underlined that the government’s goal is that by the end of the year, Greece will have applied for and received 80% of the Recovery Fund resources.

Papathanasis was responding to a topical question by New Left Party President Alexis Haritsis on whether “the government will redirect resources from the Recovery and Resilience Fund to the defense industry and armaments.”

The President of the New Left said that the countdown for the completion of the TAF program has begun and asked the Parliament to be informed what the government’s strategic plan is so that the country does not lose resources and whether it intends to redirect resources “either under the dictates of the European Union and the Americans, or in order not to lose funds, to the war industry.”

“The country needs very important interventions in infrastructure projects, it needs public projects which we need, such as flood control projects which have been recently diverted from the Recovery and Resilience Fund, it needs interventions in the issues of green energy and renewable sources, it needs interventions for the digitalisation of the public administration, it needs interventions to support workers who are seeing their purchasing power constantly decreasing,”

“In terms of disbursements, Greece remains first with 9.7% as a percentage of GDP, always related to 2023 – these are the figures that have been announced – but the disbursements have taken into account the last disbursement, where in total we have received 18.2 billion euros,” the deputy minister of National Economy and Finance said: “In total, Greece has received, in terms of the percentage of the amount to be received, 59.4%. This places it sixth in the European ranking. In terms of the percentage of fulfilled milestones of Development Fund projects, among the twenty-seven countries, Greece is again ranked fifth with 43% completed payment requests. And in terms of claims, Greece again ranks fourth with five payment claims out of twenty-seven countries.”

The government’s goal, the deputy minister of National Economy and Finance said, is for Greece, by the end of the year, to have applied for and received 80% of the CDF, and explained the next steps: “because we are currently in the phase of completing the negotiation of the Recovery Fund, as far as the revision is concerned, it is a process that is currently underway with all European countries, with all member states. We are almost at completion. As long as it is completed and agreed, which is going to happen by the end of June, maybe in the first days of July, we would prefer to submit the sixth payment request of EUR 3.9 billion. Look, with this request Greece will go from 60% of the funds received to 71%, and in November we will request another EUR 3.5 billion, which, if the seventh request, which will be made within the year, is completed, exactly as we had planned, will bring the total disbursement of the funds to 80%. So, our target is, as long as we stick to all that we have planned, by the end of the year, we will have requested and received 80% of the Recovery Fund resources in total.”

The European Commission, the deputy minister of National Economy and Financ,e said, plans to come back for all member states with a review starting around October. “We have worked on five key pillars in the green transition. We have worked on digital transformation, employment, skills and social cohesion, private investment and economic transformation, but also on the RePowerEU plan for energy self-sufficiency,” the deputy minister said, informing about the additions to the review.