Greece asking for additional 5.0 bln euros for energy investment loans

Alternate Finance Minister Theodoros Skylakakis has submitted a request to the European Commission for additional loan financing resources from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), amounting to 5.0 billion euros, in the context of REPowerEU.

REPowerEU is the European Commission's plan to make Europe independent of Russian fossil fuels well before 2030, in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is a plan for:

• energy saving
• the production of clean energy
• the diversification of the Greek energy sources

The 5.0 billion euros will be used, primarily, for the financing of private investments in energy - through loans and venture capital - which will concern:

• Renewable Energy Projects (RES), e.g. solar and wind energy, biomethane, green hydrogen, etc.
• Energy efficiency projects, e.g. interventions in existing business buildings, upgrading infrastructure and increasing the efficiency of production processes
• Initiatives to promote "clean" transport
• Clean energy access projects such as off-grid solutions and distributed electricity networks
• Battery energy storage systems (BESS) etc.

The request was submitted in light of the successful course of the "Greece 2.0" loan programme. For this part of the National Plan, there is a high interest from investors, as the loans are granted on extremely favourable terms (borrowing rate, fixed 0.35% for very small and small enterprises and 1% for medium and large ones).

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan "Greece 2.0" already has approved EU resources, totaling 30.5 billion euros, of which 12.7 billion euros are loans and the remaining 17.8 billion euros are subsidies. Including REPowerEU resources, investments are expected to be mobilised, with a total budget of around 70 billion euros.

Alternate Finance Minister and responsible for the preparation and coordination of the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan "Greece 2.0", Theodoros Skylakakis, said: "The loan part of 'Greece 2.0', amounting to 12.7 billion euros, aims, primarily, at strengthening the competitiveness of the country's businesses, contributing, financially, to the implementation of their investment plans. With the request of the additional 5.0 billion euros from the RRF, we are responding to the growing demand recorded for energy-saving investments".