In 100% the community funding in the NSRF 2007 – 2013
The European Commission announced yesterday a series of initiatives as part of the plan for a faster absorption of community funds of around 35 billion euros until 2020 to strengthen the Greek economy. In essence, these are existing resources of the new NSRF as well as funds intended for the agricultural sector with the Commission announcing changes that allow their faster absorption in a period of serious liquidity problems.
Thus, funds corresponding to 5% of the previous NSRF (2007 – 2013) which were usually kept until the end of the programming period, will be released earlier. In addition, for the previous NSRF the community participation will reach 100% of the cost of a project (from 95% today). With the two changes, immediate liquidity of about 500,000,000 euros is added to the Greek economy, while about 2 billion euros are saved from the state budget, which should be allocated to cover national participation in community programs. The agreement with the European Commission foresees that the additional funds will be allocated for projects and initiatives within the framework of the NSRF.
The Commission is also promoting the increase of the initial pre-financing for the operational programs of the new NSRF, for the period 2014-2020 by 7%. This is a measure by which the Greek government secures another 1 billion euros which must, however, be allocated to the start of projects that are co-financed in the context of the cohesion policy.
It is noted that in the event that there are no immediate initiatives, Greece is at risk of losing community funds of around 2 billion euros from the previous NSRF. A working group has already been set up, under the vice-president of the Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, whose aim is to absorb all the Community funds for the period 2007-2013, as the time frames are extremely tight (until the end of the year). At the same time, he will cooperate with the Greek authorities so that no more time is lost for the new NSRF for the period 2014-2020. It is estimated that our country can receive around 4.4 billion euros in the next year and a half.
According to the Commission's statement, "Greece has already benefited from preferential treatment". For example, in our country the percentage of community participation in the projects of the previous NSRF is 95% while in the rest of the EU countries the upper rate is 85%. In fact, Greece also has the possibility, if it meets the requirements of the Community rules, to continue with the same percentage of Community funding in the new NSRF (2014-2020). In the same announcement of the Commission, it is mentioned that the new Investment Plan for Europe (known as the "Junker Package") that is being planned at this time can also support sustainable projects in Greece.
