Griekenland: Raad betuigt solidariteit door sneller EU-middelen vrij te maken

On 16 September 2015, the Council's Permanent Representatives Committee backed a Commission proposal to significantly increase the EU financial contribution for cohesion policy programmes aimed at boosting growth and creating jobs in Greece. The draft regulation's main objective is to tackle the lack of public funds available for much needed investments in Greece and to ensure that the EU cohesion policy deploys its benefits as rapidly as possible on the ground.

The purpose of cohesion policy is to reduce disparities between the levels of development of the EU's various regions by promoting economic growth, job creation and competitiveness.

The draft regulation would improve liquidity of Greece by around €2.0 billion. This would be achieved by three measures:

An increase of advance payments by a total of 7 percentage points in 2015 and 2016 for the funding of the 2014-2020 period. This concerns the European social fund, the European fund for regional development, the cohesion fund and the European maritime and fisheries fund. This measure would make an additional €1 billion available in 2015 and 2016. Advance payments are made by the Commission to the member states automatically after the adoption of each operational programme to accelerate the implementation of the planned measures.

An increase of the maximum EU co-financing rates to 100% for the 2007-2013 programmes financed by the cohesion fund, the European social fund and the European fund for regional development. This will allow Greece to make full use of the almost €2 billion that are still available under the 2007-2013 financing period and which would become lost if is not used by the end of 2015. Greece already benefits from a higher EU co-financing for this period: in many cases the EU covers 95% of the total investment costs, rather than the usual 85%.

An early release of the last 5% of the remaining EU payments normally retained until the closure of the programmes for the 2007-2013 period. Together with the increase of the co-financing rates this would make available an additional €1 billion in 2015 and 2016.

The total additional €2 billion would be frontloaded within the 2014-2020 period and be budgetary neutral over the same period.

Next steps

The position agreed by the Council serves as a mandate for the Luxembourg presidency to hold discussions with representatives of the European Parliament. Once an agreement between the Council and the Parliament is reached both institutions have to formally approve the outcome.

Background

The EU funds are the biggest source of foreign direct investment in Greece. Under the 2007-2013 programming period €41.8 billion are allocated from the EU's cohesion, agricultural, rural and fisheries policies to Greece. Until now, Greece has received €38.4 billion, corresponding to 17.5% of the average annual Greek GDP over that period.