Today, the Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Greece's second payment request of €3.64 billion, €1.69 billion in grants, and €1.95 billion in loans, under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the key instrument at the heart of NextGenerationEU.
On 16 May 2023, Greece submitted to the Commission a payment request for grants, based on the achievement of the 39 milestones and three targets selected in the Council Implementing Decision for the third instalment for grants. On 22 November 2023, Greece also submitted a payment request for loans concerning the achievement of one target.
They also include a series of transformative reforms to enhance efficiency in public administration, including through establishing a multi-level governance system that will streamline the allocation of responsibilities between central, regional and local authorities, and to enhance the fight against corruption and smuggling. There are further reforms to address weaknesses in urban planning; promote upskilling for employees and the unemployed; establish a regulatory authority to enable a more rational and effective waste management system and more sustainable management of water resources; and to introduce fair and transparent procurement for public urban and regional passenger transportation services and improve the regulatory framework for industrial parks. The one target covered by the payment request for loans required the signature of at least €3.5 billion of RRF loans between financial institutions and companies to support private investment related to the green transition, digitalisation, increasing export capacity, economies of scale and innovation.
These requests cover investments in the areas of electromobility and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, the launch of projects related to energy-efficiency enhancing renovations in residential buildings, the digitalisation of the public administration, and the uptake of fibre optic infrastructure in buildings.
With their request, the Greek authorities provided detailed and comprehensive evidence demonstrating the fulfilment of the 43 milestones and targets. The Commission has thoroughly assessed this information before presenting its positive preliminary assessment of the payment request.
The Greek recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures in four thematic components. The revised plan, once adopted by the Council, will be worth €35.95 billion, with €18.22 billion in Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) grants and €17.73 billion in RRF loans.
Payments under the RRF are performance-based and contingent on Member States implementing the investments and reforms outlined in their respective recovery and resilience plans.
Next steps
The Commission has now sent its positive preliminary assessment of Greece's fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), asking for its opinion. The EFC's opinion, to be delivered within a maximum of four weeks, should be taken into account in the Commission's assessment. Following the EFC's opinion, the Commission will adopt the final decision on the disbursement of the financial contribution, in accordance with the examination procedure, through a comitology committee. Following the adoption of the decision by the Commission, the disbursement to Greece can take place.
The Commission will assess further payment requests by Greece based on the fulfilment of the milestones and targets outlined in the Council Implementing Decision, reflecting progress on the implementation of the investments and reforms.
The amounts disbursed to the Member States are published in the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard, which shows progress of the implementation of the national recovery and resilience plans.
