The European Commission on Wednesday announced that it has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Greece's fourth payment request for 998.6 million euros (net of pre-financing) in grants, following the disbursement of Greece's fourth payment request of loans on 23 July 2024, under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.
Following its assessment of the payment request submitted on 6 June 2024, the Commission has preliminarily concluded that Greece has satisfactorily completed the 16 milestones and four targets, set out in the Annex of the Council Implementing Decision for the fourth instalment.
These included, among others, the contracting of projects such as the electricity interconnection of the Cyclades Islands to mainland Greece, the renovation of the Olympic Stadium of Athens, the forest protection programmes Anti-NERO I and II, the improvement of road safety in the road network of municipalities and regions, the security upgrade of the 13 regional airports , as well as reforms such as the Codification of the Income Tax Code and the Tax Procedure Code and the improvement of the justice IT system to accelerate the administration of Greek justice.
The European Commission has already sent its positive assessment to the Economic and Financial Committee, which is in turn to announce its opinion within four weeks, as stipulated in the relevant Regulation. This will be followed by the issuance of the final decision, for the disbursement of approximately one billion euros.
Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Nikos Papathanasis, stated that "the new positive assessment for the disbursement of 1 billion euros from the grant section of the Recovery and Resilience Fund, was not happenstance but a result. It is a result of completing the prerequisite milestones, through the continuous and determined work of every agency involved. We continue to keep Greece among the top countries in terms of disbursements of the Recovery Fund, with the same seriousness and discipline in the reform objectives, with the same adherence to our commitments to our fellow citizens, so that European resources can be catalysts for the country's growth prospects. With the same consistency, we are creating new and more jobs, increasing disposable income for everyone."
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