“It was a reasonable and fair compromise. We have reached a historic agreement,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a press conference on Tuesday morning after the European Union leaders finally managed to reach an agreement on the COVID-19 Recovery Fund and seven-year EU budget at the European Council.
Europe has risen to the occasion, and we have succeeded today in launching a very ambitious response to the economic shock caused by the pandemic.
This is a historic day for Europe and a great opportunity for Greece. 🇬🇷🇪🇺#EUCO pic.twitter.com/elBXh3qCuA
— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) July 21, 2020
“We are returning to Athens with a package that exceeds 70 billion euros, which we will manage with responsibility and prudence for the productive reconstruction,” he added.
Of these 70 billion euros, 31.5 are grants and loans from the Covid-19 Recovery Fund and the rest are from the usual EU Cohesion Fund that runs over a period of seven years
Greece will receive 19 billion euros in grants and another 12.5 billion euros in loans, a total of €31.5 billion from the Recovery Fund aiming to help member states economically recover from the impact of the pandemic..
Of course, it will not be before 2021 until the first trance of the package can come.
“The grants from the additional programme that was approved essentially correspond to approximately one additional NSRF. Just over 19 billion, to which are added about 12.5 billion in loans, to reach the final amount of 32 billion euros. I must also say that this money will eventually be disbursed on terms that will be more flexible than the existing NSRF, we will have faster disbursements, but we will also have retroactive eligibility from the beginning of 2020,” Mitsotakis pointed out.
70% of the grants from the European Recovery Fund, ie 13.3 billion euros will be received in the years 2021 and 2022. The remaining 30% will be fully received by the end of 2023.
As a rule, the maximum volume of loans for each Member State will not exceed 6.8% of its Gross National Income, as as mentioned above for Greece it will be 12.5 billion euros.
In order to receive the grants and loans and grants, Member States must first draw up national recovery and resilience plans that set out their reform and investment agenda for the years 2021-2023. These plans will be reviewed and adjusted as needed in 2022 so that the final allocation of the funds for 2023 will happen.
According to cnngreece, Greece is already in the process of drawing up such a plan under the responsibility of the so-called “Pissaridis Committee.”
These rehabilitation and resilience plans will be evaluated by the European Commission within two months of their submission. This assessment will focus on whether the cohesion criteria are met – with country-specific recommendations -, whether growth capacity building, job creation and the economic and social resilience of the Member State are achieved.
An effective contribution to the green and digital transition, as well as adherence to the principles of the rule of law, will also be a prerequisite for a positive assessment.
The evaluation of the national plans will then be approved by the European Council, by a qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission, through an implementing act which the Council will seek to approve within 4 weeks of the submission of the European Commission proposal.
The money of the European Recovery Fund will be linked to conditions, which, however, will be more relaxed and flexible in relation to the prerequisites contained in the memoranda and loan agreements that Greece had previously signed.
State Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said that there will be no Memorandum for the funds from the Recovery Fund but just reforms, specific conditions and strict control.
“The deal agreed in Brussels gave Greece an important important additional financial tool with which investments and reforms will be financed, and these resourced will be disbursed over the next six years,” PM Mitsotakis said.
Referring to the European budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework, the Prime Minister said that – despite its reduction – two things have been achieved. “First of all, the increase of the resources that Greece will receive from the Cohesion Fund, while as regards farmers the resources from the CAP remain stable.”
The conclusions of the European Council July 17-20, 2020 are Europe has risen to the occasion, and we have succeeded today in launching a very ambitious response to the economic shock caused by the pandemic. This is a historic day for Europe and a great opportunity for Greece. 🇬🇷🇪🇺#EUCO pic.twitter.com/elBXh3qCuA — Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) July 21, 2020 Europe has risen to the occasion, and we have succeeded today in launching a very ambitious response to the economic shock caused by the pandemic. This is a historic day for Europe and a great opportunity for Greece. 🇬🇷🇪🇺#EUCO pic.twitter.com/elBXh3qCuA — Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) July 21, 2020 ” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>here
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Fair compromise? Is this guy as stupid as he sounds? Given the claimed identities 1+1=2 and 1+1+20, does he think that the compromise of 1+1=11 is a fair compromise?
This is the problem with all politicians: their heads are full of garbage and they cannot understand numbers, economics, or anything about reality. The only thing they know is political games, and most of them are incompetent at those. too.