The draft law for the Public Investment Development Program was presented today at a press conference by the Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis and Deputy Minister Nikos Papathanasis.

The arrangements included in the draft law aim to speed up the implementation of the projects financed by national and/or European resources and by extension the fastest and most efficient absorption of funds, in the better planning of the projects, in the timely assurance of their financing and the further reduction of bureaucracy. It is also noted that for the first time, a mechanism is recommended to ensure the required maintenance of the projectsas well as a separate project funding account for dealing with natural disasters.

The Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis stated: “Since 2019, our country has achieved historically high performance in the increase of investments while it is in the highest positions in the EU in terms of the absorption of European funds. However, the effort continues every day, at the level of absorbing EU funds and combining these funds with national funds. In this context, a first step was made by subordinating the Public Investment Program to the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, in order to have better coordination between the planning and implementation of the PDE and the state budget as a whole. The government is now proceeding with a new intervention that will strengthen the national effort with the bill for the modernization of the PDE”.

The Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Nikos Papathanasis stated: “In 2024, the largest Public Investment Program of the last 14 years, amounting to 12.2 billion, is implemented. euro. At a time when Greece is still at the forefront of the absorption of NSRF and Recovery and Resilience Fund resources at the EU level. With the bill under submission and vote, we aim to further strengthen the developmental nature of the PDE. We are introducing reform initiatives for even better immediate and long-term planning, use of digitization, transparent acceleration of fund absorption procedures, continuous monitoring of the operation of projects, special care to address the effects of the Climate Crisis. With the goal of not losing a single euro of the European and national resources we have secured, we are proceeding even more decisively, with the aim of the new APDE supporting the development of the economy and social cohesion, contributing to covering the investment gap created by the crisis. At the same time, the investment dimension of APDE creates the conditions for a further reduction of unemployment, with the creation of new and better-paid jobs for all our fellow citizens”.

In particular, the main provisions of the draft law include the following:

• The PDE is transformed into an APDE (Public Investment Development Program) and is divided into:

– In the Co-financed Section which includes projects financed by resources of the European Union and other International Financial Organizations (such as NSRF, Recovery Fund, programs of the European Economic Area-EEA, etc.) and by national resources, etc.
– In the National Sector which includes projects financed purely from national resources, such as the National Development Program.

• A Long-Term Commitments Axis is established with a 20-year horizon for projects whose completion costs extend beyond the respective programming period, in order to monitor the projects more effectively.

• A Register of Recording and Monitoring of Maintenance and Operation Costs of PDE Projects with a 10-year horizon is recommended in order to monitor and ensure smooth financing for the time period beyond their completion. In particular, it becomes mandatory to submit information regarding the estimated maintenance cost (total and annual), the competent maintenance body and the source of funding.

• A separate account is created for the financing of natural disaster prevention and response projects, the execution and monitoring of related payments. The aim is the faster and more efficient management and monitoring of these projects.

• The individual projects are included in groups and categories in combination with the strategic objectives and Axes of the Programs.

• A new monitoring and management mechanism for projects that are not included in Programs (Other Projects) is created, simplifying the process of including these projects in the PDE.

• The obligation of funding bodies to estimate their expenditures and to provide relevant updates regarding the PDE once a year (September) during the preparation stage of the next year’s State Budget in conjunction with the Medium-term Fiscal Strategy Framework is introduced.

• Provision is made for the automatic re-registration of projects already included in the PDE of the following year without a previous additional procedure.

• Two procedural steps are consolidated, those of financing and allocation for the faster implementation of the annual public investment program.

• The conditions for inclusion of “projects to be matured” in the National Development Program (NDP) are improved in order to be transferred in the future to the co-financed program of the PDE, setting as an additional criterion beyond the relevance of the project and that of the availability of resources.

• The process of over-commitment of credits is rationalized as a greater percentage of absorption of the annual credits by the funding bodies is foreseen, from 60% to 70%, and the “rewarding” of the funding bodies if they present a satisfactory absorption rate of 70%.

In the context of the interview, data were presented regarding the country’s performance in the field of investments and the absorption of EU funds. Specifically:

– Between 2019 and 2023 Greece showed the highest percentage increase in investment in the EU, with a rate of 41.3% compared to 1% which was the Eurozone average.

-The NSRF 2014-2020 currently shows an absorption rate of 97% and it remains to declare the expenses that have already been incurred in order to achieve the full, 100%, absorption of the resources.

– Combined, from the NSRF 2021-2027 and the Recovery Fund, Greece secured the most resources among the “27” in relation to the population. Accordingly, the resources available from the Recovery Fund (loans and subsidies) for our country are 19.66% of GDP, a percentage that is the highest among the “27”.

– The resources secured by Greece from the NSRF 2021-2027 reach 26.2 billion. euros (20.9 billion the EU participation and 5.3 billion the national contribution), while the Greek program was the first among the “27” approved by the EU. According to the most recent (May 8) EU data the our country’s absorption rate of funds from the program is the third highest in the EU, with a big difference from the average of “27”.

– Regarding the Recovery Fund, Greece is sixth among the “27” in terms of the rate of absorption of the Fund’s resources, having absorbed 41.4% of the funds, compared to 29.4% which is the average in the EU. Furthermore , our country has fulfilled 23% of the milestones linked to funding from the Fund against 17% which is the average of the “27”.