By Vangelis Dourakis

‘Green Light’ The benefits designed by the government is essentially given the positive assessment of the progress of implementing the Greek Medium Term Plan by the European Commission. The Commission finds that our country is keeping fiscal rules and its expenditure is moving lower than the agreed ceiling.

At the same time, activating the escape clause will allow Greece to “spend” … More than 500 million next year.

In other words, approved by Brussels the “packet” Benefits recently announced by Maximus and ‘Opens’ the road And for new announcements with a time horizon of the Thessaloniki International Exhibition.

Which “spelling” in the Greek economy did the Commission identified

The Commission, in the context of the European Semester Spring Exhibition, however, refers to both the positives and the negatives of the domestic economy.

Particular reference to the acute housing problem that plagues our country, with a special reference to high housing prices.

In addition, the Commission finds again ‘Macroeconomic imbalances’ related to labor market competitiveness, a high external deficit and the debt that, although left, remains high.

It, however, stands on the major issue of the housing crisis and especially the high rental and sale prices.

The Commission points out that increases in housing prices have led to a deterioration in the economic accessibility of housing.

Home prices in Greece increased on average by 9.3% annually in the period 2020-2024 (compared to the EU average that was 4.9%) and is estimated to be over -estimated by about 20%.

He also stresses that high housing prices disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, while preventing people from moving to find work.

The European Commission argues that the acceleration of construction activity (residential building permits measured in a square meter of utility have increased by 31.5 % in 2024) may mitigate the increase in housing prices in the coming years.

The strong increase in housing prices has also caused rental increases, suggesting that financially affordable housing is still a major challenge.

What changes by activating the “clause” of escape

Whatever the case, the Greek economy is having a good degree- something that was expected- from the assessment of the Commission.

The European Commission points out that Greece improved its fiscal performance in 2024 by recording budget surplus 1.7% of GDP against deficit 0.7% of GDP while its debt reduction reached the 10.3% of GDP.

At the same time, the activation by the Commission of the National Defense Clause for Defense Expenditure enables our country to spend more than 500m euros for 2026, as the Minister of National Economy and Finance estimated Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

According to the European Commission’s relevant decision, the activation of the clause gives Greece an average annual fiscal space 734 Million euros for four years 2025-2028.

The Commission estimates that defense spending on Greece for the whole period of 2025-2028 will cumulatively increase the deficit by 1.2% of GDP (2.93 billion euros) and debt per 1.8% of GDP (EUR 4.04 billion).

Defensive expenditure that will cause overall increase in deficit by 1.2% GDP, divided linearly in four years, mark an average annual increase of 734 billion euros, which is considered possible for the country’s data.

Deficit Increase is compatible with the maximum increase of expenditure by 1.5% GDP set as a maximum of the Commission in the “White Paper” for Europe’s re -equipment and is the limit of costs that will not be recorded in the deficit.

The text of the Commission makes it clear that the year of reference to calculate the increase in defense spending for Greece is 2024 and not 2021 in general for all EU countries. Thus, the first “account” The increases in defense spending that will not be recorded in the deficit will be made for 2025 compared to 2024.