I. Tsakiris: Greece in the first place in the absorption of the resources of the NSRF

“The 2022 budget is presented in much more favorable conditions than last year. Despite the difficulties, 2021 was a year of unprecedented recovery and recovery of the economy to spectacular growth rates,” said Deputy Minister of Development and Investment Ioannis Tsakiris, during the budget discussion. in Parliament.

As the Undersecretary did not mention, Greece in 2022 can and will have a stable economy, starring at European and global level.

Regarding his responsibilities, public investments and the corporate pact for the development framework, Giannis Tsakiris said that Greece managed to be approved first, by all other European countries, for the new corporate pact for regional development, the new NSRF that is, which marks the beginning of the implementation of an ambitious strategy for regional development. The Deputy Minister of Development and Investment referred to the pillars of the new NSRF. innovative and smart economic transformation, energy transition, green and blue investments, transport infrastructure, human resources and spatial investments. He also referred to the specific objectives, fair transition-de-lignification and technical assistance.

“Our bet is not only for Greece to be able to utilize these resources, since we have proved that we can achieve this, since a few days ago Greece took the first place in the absorption of the existing NSRF, with a percentage close to 80 “But our bet is to use it properly according to the needs created during the pandemic”, said Mr. Tsakiris and pointed out in the past EU funds, in combined transport, port infrastructure, were used improperly.

Referring to the use of NSRF resources to deal with the consequences of the pandemic, Mr. Tsakiris said that the government worked with coordinated moves to improve the framework of co-financed programs, to simplify the procedures for integration and monitoring of investments, progress, at project level, through specific action plans, mobilization of relevant ministries and regions, smooth funding of projects through the public investment program, which has been overstretched in recent years, and targeted revision of NSRF operational programs.

“The high absorption rates have been reflected in the increased payment requests to the EU. To date, € 12.8 billion have been received and flowed into state coffers. Most of them, together with state funding. “, they have gone to the market”, said Mr. Tsakiris and underlined that emblematic projects amounting to 200 million euros were included in 2021 and show the development, the upgrade but also the social face of the country.

An important contribution through European programs is the strengthening and access of SMEs, through financial instruments, as stressed by the Deputy Minister of Development and Investment, who pointed out that, in the midst of a pandemic, with the financial instruments, only in 2021, provided by the Guarantee Fund and the TEPIX, more than 3 billion euros were given to more than 30,000 companies.

SYRIZA parliamentary representative Socrates Famellos raised the issue of delays in construction projects.

“I read that 1 billion has been lost from the NSRF. 1 billion has not been lost from the NSRF, obviously. We have greatly accelerated the implementation of the NSRF and payments. Especially in the pandemic we had 580,000 media outlets and various other actions that needed We have reduced the payment time of the NSRF to two to three months, as opposed to the period that took more than 12 months, and there is a huge demand for “I can not respond to the overload. I repeat that payment times have been greatly reduced. Everyone will be paid very soon,” said Giannis Tsakiris.