Greece urged to drop delayed projects from EU recovery fund

Greece has until the extremity of October to hold with the European Commission connected which projects and reforms under its Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) should beryllium chopped and replaced, oregon hazard losing available funds, Kathimerini understands.

EU sources said projects successful health, energy, κοινωνικά lodging and railways are under reappraisal for imaginable removal from the RRF portfolio. Renovation works astatine 18 hospitals are not expected to beryllium completed by the August 2026 deadline, while c seizure and storage projects successful the vigor assemblage request further assessment. Social lodging initiatives and planned railway reforms are besides under scrutiny.

Officials clarified that exclusion from the RRF would not mean the projects will beryllium abandoned, since they could beryllium financed done different EU funds, chiefly the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), known successful Greece arsenic ESPA. However, if they stay successful the RRF and neglect to conscionable deadlines, they would suffer that option, on with resources that could support faster-absorbing projects.

“There is nary country for a ‘wait-and-see’ approach,” 1 EU source said, stressing that each investments and reforms indispensable beryllium completed by August 2026, with last disbursements made by December 2026. No extensions will beryllium granted.

A European Commission delegation led by Declan Costello, lawman caput of the Commission’s economical and fiscal affairs directorate, and Celine Gauer, caput of the RRF taskforce, visited Athens successful caller days to sermon the scope of imaginable revisions with Greek authorities.

The connection delivered, according to radical acquainted with the talks, was clear: large-scale infrastructure projects that cannot realistically beryllium finished connected clip should not stay successful the plan.