September the application for the second tranche of €1.97 billion from the Recovery Fund

By Tasos Dasopoulos

Alongside the difficult process of revising “Greece 2.0”, the Ministry of Finance is running to keep up with the timetable for the implementation of milestones and the disbursement of installments, from the total 30 billion euros of the Recovery Fund.

After the first tranche of 3.56 billion euros, which was disbursed to Greece last April, the Ministry of Finance is preparing to take the next step, submitting in mid-September the application for the second tranche from the Recovery Fund, corresponding to grant of 1.97 billion euros.

Previously, it has completed a series of 25 milestones, which are “prerequisites” for the disbursement. The milestones cover the full range of activities financed by the Recovery Fund, i.e. green and digital transition, employment, skills, social cohesion and private investment.

As in the first tranche, the completion of the 25 milestones should in principle receive a preliminary approval from the general directorate of fiscal policy of the Commission. Subsequently, the Greek request will enter the process of substantive control, by the services of the Commission, as well as the Budget Committee of the European Union, which will last approximately 3 months.

At the end of this process, after the tranche receives the final approval, the disbursement order to Greece will be given. However, as far as the second tranche process is concerned, Greece loses – unfortunately – in August, due to the summer vacation of the Commission.

For this reason, the Greek request will have to wait until the middle of next month to advance the request for the next tranche. However, the Ministry of Finance estimates that the money is expected to enter the special account of the Bank of Greece until November.

On Tuesday, the head of the economic office of the Prime Minister, Alexis Patelis, once again publicly denied the rumors of the previous days that he wanted the Commission to stop the second tranche of the Recovery Fund to Greece. He also assured that this is fake news, clarifying that the disbursement procedures are proceeding normally.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance is running for the next 45 milestones which are connected to the third tranche of 3.5 billion euros from the Recovery Fund, which should be completed by the end of the year. Based on the procedure followed, the request for the next tranche will be made at the beginning of 2023 and the money will be disbursed until the beginning of next summer.

Along with the pursuit of milestones and installments, the Ministry of Finance should run until the end of the year the review of the national program “Greece 2.0”, incorporating the Greek proposal of REpowerEU. The latter will be completed with the issuance of the relevant regulation by the EU, which has been pending since July.