At 39 milestones and 3 goals for investments in electrification and electric vehicle charging infrastructures, the start of projects for renovations of energy upgrading of houses, the digitization of public administration and the spread of building fiber optic infrastructures, the third payment request from the Recovery and Resilience Fund submitted by Greece to the European Commission.

The said request also includes a series of reforms to improve the efficiency of public administration – among others by dividing responsibilities between the central and regional and local authorities – to speed up the administration of justice and strengthen the fight against corruption and smuggling.

Other reforms concern addressing urban planning weaknesses, upgrading the skills of workers and the unemployed, establishing a new water and sanitation regulatory authority for more rational management of water resources, strengthening the regulation of the public urban and intercity passenger transport market, and improvement of the regulatory framework of industrial zones.

From the specific request, an amount of 1.72 billion euros will flow into the state coffers, which concerns the part of the “Greece 2.0” subsidies. With the addition of this amount, the liquidity from TAA resources will be 12.8 billion euros. It is noted that our country is among the first three EU-27 member states to submit the third payment request from the TAA, with Italy and Spain completing the trio. Whereas, there are four states that have submitted two payment requests, eleven that have only submitted the first request and nine states that have yet to submit a payment request.

The submission of the third request required the achievement of a number of milestones, such as, among others, housing renovations through the “Save” program, the launch of the “Charge Everywhere” program, the contracting of urban plans and the awarding of tenders for public works digital transformation. At the same time, there were the new “Pothen esshes”, the national register of proceedings “Mitos”, the national action plan for the fight against corruption, the judicial map, the legislation for employment in the cultural sector and for industrial parks, etc.

Regarding the procedure for the disbursement of the new funds, the payments, according to the Commission, depend on the performance and the implementation of the investments and reforms described in the Greek recovery and resilience plan. The European Commission will assess the request and then send to the Economic and Financial Committee of the Council a preliminary assessment regarding Greece’s fulfillment of the milestones and targets required for the payment in question.