Brussels, 19 March 2025
The EU Commission has issued today a positive preliminary assessment of Greece’s request for €3.13 billion under NextGenerationEU, the centrepiece of Europe’s recovery efforts to build a greener, more digital, and competitive Union.
This payment marks the fifth instalment in Greece’s recovery and resilience plan. The Commission’s preliminary assessment confirms that Greece has met the required milestones and targets for this payment, financed under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) of NextGenerationEU.
This request follows 14 reforms, such as speeding up justice, improving VAT refunds, enhancing the effectiveness of public procurement, expanding broadband connection, improving waste and water management, and increasing mental healthcare facilities. It also includes 17 investments in affordable and energy efficient housing, electricity networks, urban regeneration, green industry sites, reforestation and firefighting, and wastewater projects.
Flagship measures in this payment request include:
- Upgrading Greece’s electricity network: investments will strengthen the grid, boost substation capacity for more renewable energy, reduce congestion, and support clean energy investment, fostering a sustainable and resilient system.
- Simplifying and digitalising the public sector: key measures include expanding e-services for driver’s license renewal, court decisions, digital signatures, and document circulation, along with digitising public sector archives, and a unified IT platform for tax services. Additionally, judicial reforms will streamline the process by consolidating smaller-claim courts into existing first-instance courts.
Next steps
The Commission has sent its preliminary assessment to the Economic and Financial Committee, which has four weeks to provide its opinion. If positive, the Commission will adopt a payment decision for the €3.13 billion disbursement to Greece.
Background
The Greek recovery and resilience plan includes diverse investments and reforms (more information on the Greek plan, including a map of projects financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility in Greece are available here), financed by €18.2 billion in grants and €17.7 billion in loans. The payment request endorsed today follows Greece’s fourth payment request for grants approved on 4 September 2024 and paid out on 16 October 2024.
This payment request will bring the funds paid to Greece under the Recovery and Resilience Facility to €21.33 billion or 58.3% of the plan’s total, including €3.96 billion and €158 million from REPowerEU.
For more information
- You can explore an interactive map of RRF-financed reforms and investments to see how they are being deployed locally.
- Open data on the RRF can be accessed on the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard, which tracks its implementation and progress.
- The text of the Commission’s preliminary assessment offers details on the milestones and targets preliminarily assessed as satisfactorily fulfilled.
- The Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation sets out the framework and objectives of the RRF.
Source – EU Commission